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A shudder rippled through Mavlyn, sending a spike of anxiety through her. “We should go to the battlefield.”
She tried to stand, but her legs buckled almost immediately. “You’re not going anywhere,” Quye said, placing a steadying hand on her shoulder. “You need to rest.”
“I’ve been ‘resting’ for at least a week in a jail cell,” Mavlyn protested, even as lethargy crept over her. “I can’t just sit here and do nothing while our friends are fighting for the future of our world!”
“You aren’t going to do nothing.” Quye said. “Yaggir will go, and you and I will stay here and discuss this.” She reached into her pack and pulled out a leather-bound notebook.
Mavlyn wanted to argue, but the scholar in her perked up when Quye opened the book to reveal yellowed pages and cramped, faded handwriting. “What is this?” she asked, peering closer to read the script.
“It’s a journal written by a fire fae scholar,” Quye said, her eyes twinkling. “And you are going to help me use it to end the longest conflict in fae history, once and for all.”
40
Lord Prentis
Prentis stood at the top of a knoll as he surveyed the twenty-thousand troops gathered below. All were outfitted with the shining, flexible armor of the water fae. About five thousand were calvary, mounted on kelpies and armed with spears, while the infantry had been given iron-tipped swords and knives.
“You did well to gather so many on such short notice,” Lady Axlya said. She stood next to him, clad in battle armor that was both practical and elegant, with swirling water designs etched onto the breastplate. Her cerulean hair was hidden beneath the golden helm she wore, the visor flipped up as she surveyed the battlefield. Prentis wasn’t sure if he was annoyed or relieved that, at the very last second, she’d chosen to take command herself. He flicked his gaze to the toxic purple storm clouds brewing above the battlefield and tried to ignore the queasy feeling they caused. He sincerely hoped they wouldn’t be forced to use them.
Prentis shook his head. “It would have been better if we’d had a few more weeks to prepare them.” Most of the soldiers were battle-tested, but about a third of them were new recruits, more familiar with pitchforks and quills than they were with swords and spears. And many of the ones who did have battle experience had not tested in quite some time, not since the dragon-fae war had ended all those years ago.
“I thought so too, but I could not convince Lord Oren of the same.” She tipped her chin to the western end of the battlefield, where Lord Oren and his army of air fae—who were far better trained from all their years patrolling the Gaoth Aire against shadow creatures—waited. The air fae lord surveyed the plains from atop his golden cloud familiar, his Lightning Guard spread out behind him in formation. Lightning crackled across the sky, betraying Oren’s emotions—though his expression was as stoic as ever, the fury within him was coming to a head, ready to be unleashed. “He wants vengeance against Slaugh for what happened to Tempest, and we stand far more of a chance against Slaugh if we ally with him than we do if we stand aside and wait for the earth fae to slaughter him.”
Prentis clenched his fists at his sides as he stared at the south end of the battlefield, where General Slaugh, Lady Mossi, and Gelsyne waited. He didn’t know what to think—Mossi had her griffin riders, and Slaugh had his Shadow Guard, but while General Slaugh’s army was mostly filled with fresh-faced recruits, they still outnumbered the water and air fae armies combined. And to make matters worse, Slaugh also controlled the air and water fae that were part of the late King Aolis’s Shadow Guard, all of whom were Greater Fae.
“We should have listened to Adara,” he muttered.
“What?” Lady Axlya snapped.
“We should have listened to Adara,” he repeated, his voice rising along with his temper. He jabbed his finger at Gelsyne. “I remember Gelsyne from her days as Olette’s Lady-In-Waiting. That female is not the same fae, and you know it. She’s clearly been corrupted by shadow influence, just like Cascada. If we’d taken her warnings about this Shadow seriously, we wouldn’t be in this predicament now.”
“That may be so, but Adara isn’t here.” Lady Axlya narrowed her eyes at him. “If she had done her duty and married you, instead of running off with her dragon lover, we wouldn’t be here either. Now enough of this,” she said, cutting off Prentis before he could argue further. “We’ve made our bed, and wewilldominate it.”
She dug her heels into the sides of her kelpie and charged down the hill. Pressing his lips together, Prentis spurred his own mount on, ten other cavalry soldiers falling in to flank their matriarch as she headed to the middle of the battlefield. The others came out to meet them, Lord Oren and his Lightning Guard on the backs of their clouds, Lady Mossi and General Slaugh on the backs of griffins and accompanied by a cadre of griffin riders.
“Your fiancée doesn’t care to join us?” Lady Axlya asked. She cast a scornful glance at Gelsyne, who had stayed back with the rest of the Shadow Guard. Prentis’s eyes narrowed as he took in the shadow she cast, which was far bigger than her willowy form warranted.
“Why should she?” General Slaugh sneered. A cruel smirk curved his mangled lips as he took in the size of their opposing armies. “What a pathetic showing. You two might as well surrender now.”
“I’ll surrender after I’ve cut your depraved heart from your chest and shoved it down your poisoned throat,” Lord Oren snarled. “Our armies are more than a match for yours, and my lightning riders are far superior in battle to your silly little Griffin Guard.”
“Perhaps,” General Slaugh said. “But we have an ace up our sleeves, don’t we, Lady Mossi?”
He turned to his aunt, who snapped her fingers. The earth rumbled beneath them, and Prentis’s jaw dropped as thirty or so massive creatures rose from the ground, forming a line in front of the earth fae army. They were fifty feet tall, with moss-green hair and granite skin, their fists the size of boulders and their legs thicker than the most massive of tree trunks. They bared their jagged, irregular teeth, and Prentis could physicallyseethe wave of terror that rippled through the water fae army at the sight of them.
“Giants,” he croaked. “You summoned the giants.”
“Of course I did.” Lady Mossi smiled at the dumbfounded look on his face. There was something vacant about her stare, something that reminded him of the look he would sometimes see in Cascada’s eyes when she’d first returned to Usciete. “They answer to me just as all creatures of the earth do. And they will crush you, Lord Prentis, unless you lay your arms down.”
“Oh please.” Lady Axlya threw back her head and laughed. “Do you think we’re going to be scared off just because you have a few lumbering oafs with pea-sized brains in your army?” She flashed a smile that was all teeth and no joy at Lady Mossi. “I’ve brought down giants in battle before, Mossi, and I will do it again if it means the choice between losing some of my soldiers or giving my lands up to you.”
“Very well,” General Slaugh rasped. His dark eyes gleamed with bloodlust as he eyed Lady Axlya, and Prentis had to resist the urge to rip him off the back of his griffin and kill him right there. “Prepare yourselves.”
Slaugh and Mossi turned their griffins about and flew back to their troops, and the others did the same. As they returned to the knoll, Prentis glanced back over his shoulder to where Gelsyne stood. A small smirk played across the curve of her lips, and Prentis’s stomach clenched. There was something wrong with all of this, some game she was playing that no one else seemed to be aware of.
If only he had time to figure out what it was, and how to stop it.
Lord Oren lifted his hands, and a tremendous thunderclap shook the sky—his equivalent of blowing a war horn. The air fae responded at once, and the other armies followed suit, charging into battle. Lightning and griffin riders clashed in the air, and both ground and sky shook as elemental magic was unleashed by all sides. Wind howling, earth rumbling, water hissing, all while the giants stomped on fae or crushed them between their fists.
