Hasty goodbye aside, the coldness still lingered between us. Yet the mere idea of her gave me the strength I needed to lead this army and face the horrors that awaited us.
I wondered if that would make her happy or make her curse me.
I never knew how the storm blew with her.
With each step, the river’s roar grew louder, the air fresher and more damp, soothing some of that unbearable heat.
The line of trees ended on a grassy knoll, carved on one side by the river in gods-knew how many centuries. It wasn’t tall enough to tire out a Serpent soldier overtaken with battle lust, but with rain and mud, a few might at least stumble.
A small protection, but one nonetheless.
“We need to dig into the bank and embed stakes in it,” I said. “And we’ll hide some of Calyx’s traps here, too.”
“We need more stakes, then,” Kylian said. “The Serpent soldiers can weed through them.”
“It’s not the soldiers I’m worried about.”
If those beastly snakes could cross the river, the spikes would rip their bellies. Hopefully.
“Maybe we can raise the bank, too,” I yelled over the river’s racket.
I walked up the knoll, grimacing at the dark clouds gathering in the distance. At least the camp would be settled by the time they reached us. The rain would also soak the Serpent soldiers first, at least–
The stakes fell from my arms, clattering at my feet.
Kylian rushed beside me. “What’s…gods above.”
No gods should have allowed this to happen.
On the other side of the river, the plain had been burned to the ground.
A few tree stumps were still smoking.
No grass.
No animals.
Nothing but ash and dirt, a stark difference to the tall, thick grass swaying around my ankles.
Generations after us would still struggle to bring life back to it.
“Why?” Kylian asked. “Why incinerate everything?”
Senseless destruction had only one goal.
“To send a message,” I said.
One meant to frazzle our minds, just like dousing the village in blood.
The Battlefield Butcher would break the entire land to defeat us.
“They know where we are,” he said.
I fisted my palms at my sides. “They do.”
What surprised me was how fast they’d acted.
A traitor rested in our midsts, that much was certain, but how could they have alerted the Serpents so fast? We’d been marching all day.
