“You can leave the reunion for later,” Trulian said gruffly. “You lot have proven your merit against the opposition. I’m putting your contingent in my regiment on the front lines.”
“They’re new recruits!” Helly objected.
“I agreed with you when we got here. Now, they’re veterans as far as I’m concerned, and we’ll use them where they can be best utilized,” Trulian said, rejecting Helly’s worries. “They took down the princess. Let’s cut off the king’s head.”
Fordham didn’t even blink at the talk of killing his father. He hated the man for all he had put him through, but still… it was his father.
“To your stations. We fly with the sun.”
Trulian dismissed them, and Kerrigan hastened out of the tent before March could say anything else.
She grasped Fordham’s arm to slow him down. “How are you feeling?”
He glanced at her. “Fine. I’ll do what must be done.”
“Fordham, yesterday…”
He jerked her into a faster clip. “I have to appear completely unaffected, Kerrigan,” he said low into her ear. “They see me as the traitor in their midst. Trulian is only moving us to the front lines to keep an eye on me. So, no, I cannot discuss my feelings. My feelings don’t matter. All that matters is that they do not remember that I am the crowned prince of the enemy. That they do not turn on me.”
Then, he released her and stomped away. Her heart broke for him, but this was war. There would be time to fix this once they won.
Clouds rolled in, dark and ominous, as the army prepared for battle. It felt wrong to leave Alura behind, but they had no choice. So, Kerrigan called Tieran and climbed onto his back.
Are you ready for this?
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” She sent a pulse of adrenaline down the bond. It mingled with her feelings of unease and excitement. She was on the front lines. She was in the thick of it. She had to succeed.
Tieran sent back his own mixed feelings. The exhilaration of war and terror that she might get hurt and fear for the future. It was all the same feeling, and she felt comforted to know that he was in the same mindspace as her. That they could share this.
Kerrigan pulled into formation with her group. Fordham leading as the four of them drew into Trulian’s regiment. She couldn’t even believe that she was part of this.
She recognized Society members who were brilliant soldiers. Master Cannon, who she had fought during her training, looked eager to get started. Master Kress was in full armor, throwing a ball of flame aimlessly around, as if none of this concerned him at all. Others she only recognized by reputation. She was not even a full member, and she flew here with them. Whether or not it was because Fordham was seen as the enemy, they were making a name for themselves today.
And as the ground troops marched, angling for Lethbridge’s gate, the Society dragons fanned out to take the city. Kerrigan could just make out March at the head of his soldiers in a plumed helmet. She couldn’t hear the words of encouragement as his horse galloped before the lot of them, but she knew he could be inspirational. So long as he valued a person as more than an object of his ascension.
House of Shadows soldiers swelled before the doors that led into the city. Powerful Fae waiting with swords raised to take on their enemy. No sign of the king. He would be behind the gates. Their real prize.
Trulian held his own sword high and then bellowed, pointing the sword toward the city beyond. The dragons flew as one while the soldiers below moved into battle. The clash of swords against shields was deafening. The roar that came from the magical artifacts was almost worse. But it was the dragons that did the most damage.
Kerrigan dived into her magic as she faced the onslaught and then threw everything she had at the soldiers. Dragons picked Fae off the ground and dropped them from on high. Some barreled straight through the lot of them. Fire bloomed over and over on the field. Within the hour, it was a bloodbath. Disorienting and terrifying and thrilling.
She remembered the feel of riding on Tavry with Helly into battle. But nothing compared to this. She understood the year of training better than ever. The shielding and fighting and flying and formations were second nature once she was in the thick of it. If it hadn’t been, she would have been lost. The world was chaos, and all she had to follow were the commands ingrained in her head. Fordham was her lead; she was his wing.
A powerful boom tore through the normal buzz of war. They circled around and found March’s soldiers had a battering ram thunking against the doors of Lethbridge. It hit again and again against the seemingly impenetrable doors. Then, the wood cracked, the doors caved inward, and the war shifted.