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Within the hour, I had every soldier decked out in armor, chain mail, and weapons. Their steel helmets gleamed in the fading sunlight as they stood in perfectly formed lines just inside the main castle bailey.
Vienne had been furious when I’d reported everything the Far Shore soldier had told me about the reason for Anniston’s kidnapping.
“Clear rock?” she had shrieked, tucking her newly returned daughter protectively close to her. “My child was stolen because they were upset over the fucking price of clear rock? Those bastards.”
She rarely ever cursed. It was kind of hot when she did. Made me want to snatch her against my chest and kiss the fuck out of her.
But, yeah. A neighboring kingdom was about to invade, so… Maybe later. In only my dreams, of course.
Vienne and her baby were now inside the keep, safe and sound from all the activities that were about to take place out here. And I had an army to lead into fucking battle.
“Archers to the towers,” I shouted. “Swordsmen on the ground with me.” I pointed my sword forward and started to move, my army marching in tandem with me. But as I progressed forward, Brentley, Caulder, and Soren hurried from the keep to join the fray, striding to my side.
I paused to frown at them, causing the entire army to halt behind me, a couple stumbling into the backs of others.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I scowled at the idiot royals who didn’t have a single piece of chain mail or armor protecting their entire bodies. “You’re not coming with us,” I said, because it looked a hell of a lot like they were trying to come with us.
“This is my kingdom too,” Caulder argued.
“Then you should’ve trained with us every day we were out in the back bailey practicing for this very battle. You’ll only be in the way, and I don’t have the manpower to spare to protect you. Go back inside with the women.”
Hell, I’d rather they send the women out here in their places; I was sure Allera had at least seen a battle before.
Glowering, the king drew his sword from its scabbard and held it out toward my neck. “I don’t carry this around for looks, Prince. All three of us Donnelly men were trained together by the finest swordsman in the kingdom. We can take care of ourselves.”
I narrowed my eyes before pressing a finger against the flat of his blade and pushing it away from my throat. “Fine,” I muttered. “Just don’t question my orders. You put me in charge of your army for a reason. Because I know my way around a battlefield. So let me do my job without having to stop and explain why I’m doing everything I do. Explaining will only cost us time…and lives.”
Caulder glanced toward Soren and Brentley, who both nodded. Then he turned back to me. “We’ll follow your leadership without question. Everyone here wants what’s best for the kingdom.”
I bowed my head, relenting. “Then let’s go.”
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So, we marched.
Once we were outside the walls, and the gate was lifted behind us, sealing the castle closed, I could see our enemy marching determinedly our way from the sand. They had to be overheated and dehydrated after walking however many days it had taken them to get here, which should give us an advantage.
I put one arm in the air, the signal to the archers waiting on the wall to pay attention for my next command. Then I held the other arm holding my sword out away from my side to alert the ground troops to watch for their next move.
Then we waited.
When the Far Shore army moved within range, close enough for me to tell they looked like damn savages, I crinkled my eyebrows in disbelief. The soldiers who’d kidnapped Anniston had blended in to match us, but these men… They wore nothing but loose, skirt-like leather pants that fell to mid-thigh, sandals with bands crisscrossing up to their knees, no tunics whatsoever, and fur instead of metal protection. What was worse, their weapons consisted of wooden staffs and spears, a couple battle axes, and that was it. I blinked, faltering, because it almost seemed inhumane to kill such primitive idiots. But then they shouted out their battle cry in unison and charged, sprinting headlong in our direction.
Outdated warfare or not, they’d kill us all if we just stood here like dumbasses, so I balled my hand I was holding above my head into a fist.
Instantly, a volley of arrows spewed past my head, many of them striking the unprotected enemies rushing toward us. Their front line collapsed, some cut down with instant death blows, others diving forward and hunkering behind their fallen comrades to take cover.
I swung my sword forward from at my side, and my ground troops engaged. Just as the first wave was nearly upon them, the soldiers I had hiding in the woods came streaming out from the trees, converging on them from either side, some wrapping around from behind, until we had them fully surrounded.
By their stunned, unorganized, scrambling reaction, they must not have been expecting Donnelly to know how to fight. We had the upper hand from the beginning; it almost felt unfair how badly we commenced to trounce them. But what stunned me most was the swordsmanship of the three royal Donnelly men. Caulder slew three men while both Brentley and Soren took out one a piece as soon as the battle lines merged.
I was so busy lifting my eyebrows with an impressed nod that I almost missed the battle axe swinging at my own head. Cursing, I ducked just in time and gutted the idiot as his axe sliced across the air above me. Then I took out four more soldiers who’d been trying to box me in.
We were winning easily. At least five to ten Far Shore soldiers fell to every one of ours. This battle would be ours in no time. Many of theirs retreated, even as their commanders shouted for them to hold their positions. The Donnellean army took out half of Far Shore’s army—the ones who remained to fight and didn’t run off, anyway—in a matter of minutes.
Adrenaline pumped through my bloodstream. This was working. We were driving them back.
I’d just beheaded some poor unfortunate soul when my mark suddenly screamed out in terror.
