The Beauty of Darkness - Mary E. Pearson Page 0,190

my side. Thick dust filled the air. I’d lost sight of both Rafe and Kaden. Vendans swarmed in past the shattered pikes. I heard the burbling gasps of soldiers impaled with splintered wood. Darkness was creeping in, but the cliffs ignited with a line of fire, and stones were catapulted to scatter Vendan forces as Dalbreck’s battalions swarmed to the valley floor. Jeb made it to my side.

“This way,” he said, and with a Dalbretch platoon, we pounded our way through Vendan lines. The screams of battle filled the air, echoing mercilessly between the valley walls. I heard the wheeze, the coughs, the thud of death sounding over and over again. The Komizar had been quick to silence my voice before it reached even a small number of Vendans, but now, with the youngest Vendan soldiers safely out of his reach, I knew where I had to go, where more would hear me. Faces became a blur as we advanced, my shield raised, my sword swinging, Jeb watching my back, and I his. My shield took a powerful blow, and I was knocked to the ground. I rolled before an ax hit the ground where my head had been, then thrust my sword into a soft gut as the soldier came at me again.

I jumped to my feet, spinning, my shield lifting to deflect another attack and then, in the swirl of metal and shadow, my eye caught something, something baubled and blue.

KADEN

The Vendan troops scrambled under the assault of stones raining down on them. The attack launched from the cliffs was only a distraction until the battalions could reach the valley floor. My leg ran with blood, a piece of wood piercing my thigh like a bayonet. I couldn’t pull it out, so I broke it off, even as I stabbed my sword into a charging Vendan—one I had known. And then I killed another. And another. Griz fought his way toward me. Lia had been only feet from us, and now she was gone. We charged deeper into the Vendan ranks. Minutes seemed like hours, our progress slow, a stream of Dalbreck and Morrighese soldiers fighting at our sides, and then an explosion rocked the valley.

RAFE

A fiery plume shot into the sky, lighting the valley with sparks and flames. Fire rained down, thousands of glowing embers lighting on men and animals alike, horses rearing back in fear, soldiers screaming as they were lit on fire. I ran to one soldier, pushing him to the ground and rolling him to douse the flame, and then I saw Tavish. He beat at flames that streamed up his arm, lighting his hair. I tackled him, using my gloved hands to smother the flames. He screamed in agony even after the fire was out. I leaned close trying to calm him.

“You’ll be all right, brother,” I said. “I promise you’ll be all right.” He moaned with pain, and I ordered another soldier to take him back behind our lines, then helped lift him onto a horse.

The soldier left with Tavish, and that was when I felt my palms burning, already blistering from dousing the flames. I ripped off my gloves. They were saturated with the fiery substance that had rained down. I knelt, pressing my hands against the cool grass, and then I saw another soldier lying on the ground beside me. It was the Viceregent’s son—Andrés. Kaden’s brother was dead. I had time only to close his blank, staring eyes.

I rode toward Draeger’s battalion, watching Vendans fall by the tens and hundreds, but no matter how many we felled, there were always more to replace them.

When I got to our battalions, Draeger and Marques had successfully fragmented the fifth division, but were already losing ground.

I saw Kaden making his way to me. Lia wasn’t with him, and my heart stopped. Where was she? “I lost her,” he said when he reached me. “She’s not with you?”

A Vendan as big as Griz came at us, swinging a mace in one hand and an ax in the other. He pummeled our shields, pushing us farther and farther back, until Kaden and I sidestepped at the same time and came from behind, both of our swords piercing his ribs. He fell like a tree, shaking the ground, and then behind him in the distance, we both spotted the Viceregent.

LIA

The terror, the blood, it was a wave crashing over us again and again coming at us from all sides. Every time a battalion gained ground,