“Cas! Ez!” I scream.
Through it all, I see Faustrius still walking, unhurried, toward Rosalina.
There’s no choice then.
I must get to Rosalina before him.
I freeze the ground to a glassy sheet of ice, gliding across it. Then, with a furious roar, I jump on a burst of wind, slamming down beside Rosalina.
Baring my teeth, I circle her, sword pointed outward. For still being in a man’s body, I’ve never felt more like an animal.Comefor her, my eyes challenge.Come for her and die on the edge of my sword.
I stop my circle and stab my blade toward Faustrius, halting his approach. “Get away from her.”
Faustrius steeples his fingers. “So much death. It brings me great sadness to see so many lives lost.”
“You did this.”
“For my people,” he says. “The Elderblood shall never know peace. But I can grant them justice.”
“This isn’t justice. This is slaughter,” I say.
Faustrius gives me a sad smile, as if I am but an insolent child. “What would the High Ruler of Winter know of justice? To your ancestor, our mere existence was a crime. Now, Keldarion, your soldiers are dead or fled into the skies. Put down your sword.”
Only one choice remains. It was what the Sword of the Protector was meant to do. Defend the Vale. Defend thequeen.“Never.”
I strike.
With a quick, unbothered movement, Faustrius draws his blade. He swings the giant black sword up to meet mine.
Our swords clash. There’s the sound of breaking glass, a delicate rain of metal as it hits ice, and a bright light blinding my vision.
I blink, and I’m only holding a hilt. The shards of the Sword of the Protector litter the ground before me.
39
Ezryn
Ahaze covers my vision, distorts my hearing, and fills my head.Coughing, I push a sheet of metal off my body and stagger to stand. My legs ache, and blood runs down my temple, but nothing seems broken. Though my ankle twinges, I’m able to put weight on it. There’s a sting in my left bicep, and I look down to see a piece of wood sticking from the muscle. With a grunt, I tear it out, the hot flash of pain clearing some of the fog from my mind.
A moment ago, we’d been in the air. I was in command of the aerial assault. The ship had endured a relentless assault. Arrows and spears clogged the propellers, and the sails were ripped with holes. It had taken everything I’d had to keep the wheel steady. Caspian had been running back and forth across the deck, shooting briars down to the bridge to rescue as many overwhelmed Deep Guard as he could. We were sinking with the weight. Flocks of snowy owls coalesced with the Kryodian Riders flying at our flanks. My crew was a blur of movement, both manning the rigs and volleying arrows down into the fray.
So many lives under my command. It was my job to protect them.
Once it became clear Voidseal was overrun, the ship was more than just an offensive vehicle. It was the only escape for my crew and those who had missed Rosalina’s magic.
With every soldier Caspian pulled up from the bridge, more lives fell under my responsibility. We’d been searching for Rose, Kel, Farron, and Dayton. This may have been Kel’s operation, but I was making a call. Retreat before it was too late.
I had to protect them.
We’d just caught sight of Rosalina and Kel when something hit the ship with the force of a battering ram. I’d tried to hold the wheel but?—
There’d been the rush of air. The scream of wood and metal. People yelling. Yells cut short. Pain and darkness and a fog in my head so thick I’m not sure I’ll ever get out.
I dig my palms into my eyes, then blink open, trying to find my bearings.
The ship is in ruins around me. Smoke drifts up into the sky. The wooden beams and sheets of metal remind me of discarded bones from a corpse long picked clean. I step forward, and something squishes beneath my boot.
I look down. My boot is stuck in the caved-in chest of one of my crew. It’s Darkirk, a former member of the Queen’s Army who joined us at Solonius’s Spine. He’d been the first to volunteer to manFlutterwingwhen we sailed out from Summer.
