“They rappelled from the walls.” I righted myself and began pacing. Another remnant from Allie’s essence. I finally understood. She had so much energy coursing through her at any given time, she needed a release. “This is a coordinated attack. Here, on the battlefield, and there, against the city they think is defenseless.”
Not while Allie protected it.
But she was one soul, with no army.
My stomach tightened in knots.
“We need to send word to Phoenix Peak and Frostfall Reach,” Zandyr said, not moving. “They will come for the Capital as well.”
“Not unless we beat them first,” Elysia said and turned, as if waiting for Calyx to agree with her.
But Calyx had been sent away from the battlefield this morning, after he’d kicked and screamed that he wasn’t useless, and he’d fainted for the third time. Five warriors were taking him back to his home–I prayed for them once he woke up.
Her shoulders deflated as she kept staring at Calyx’s empty chair.
“Wearen’tbeating them,” Zandyr said. “They know all of our movements. Where we hid our traps. They know more than our own warriors.”
“Could they have used an Oracle from the Shuddering Isles?” she asked. “Those witches have foreseen your wife’s fate, why not the destiny of this war?”
Zandyr shook his head. “They can only see how a human’s soul can rearrange reality. None of them have entered my mind in years.”
“They never even bothered with me.”
“I don’t let their magic come close to me,” I said, half of my attention on the crater.
Breached.
Attacked.
Vulnerable.
Danger on the battle front and danger at home, and I couldn’t see a way to truly protect either of them. If I pulled my warriors from the war and rushed them back home, the Blood Brotherhood would lose. Then we’d spend the rest of our short lives futilely fending off attack after attack from the Serpentsandthe Northern Clans.
The roads were too dangerous now to evacuate the city–and Allie couldn’t leave.
But the crater needed to be protected.
The decision threatened to rip me apart.
“Then how are they one step ahead all the time?” Elysia growled in frustration. “We’ve taken every precaution.”
“Perhaps that is the problem,” Zandyr said, his voice turning dark and sharp. “We’ve been on the offensive. We need to strike where they least expect it.”
“How? We take one step on their bank, those reptiles will gulp us up. Small wonder they haven’t done it yet.”
“It’s not a wonder.” Zandyr tilted his head, calculating. “It’s a strategy. They’re keeping them safe. For now.”
“If they need protecting, it means they’re vulnerable,” she said stubbornly. “We just need to come up with a way to take them down.”
“Have you found any useful information in that journal?”
“None,” Elysia hissed. “The beasts from the Cold Blooded War weren’t magicked to this size.”
“Keep searching.” He clasped his hands behind his back. “We’re getting slaughtered.”
“What if there isn’t a way?” she asked. “What if they’re impervious to any magic we know?”
Neither of us replied.
