Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,86

said.

Zamek emerged from his exploration of the tunnel. “It’s solid, no runes, no explosives—not that I’m sure they’d work here. Basically it seems to be pretty safe. Safer than going out to fight Merlin and whatever those things are.”

“Tunnel it is,” I said as a blast of something hit the building, dislodging it and tipping it up onto its side, throwing me across the room through the window with a crash. “Run,” I shouted to everyone and used my air magic to fling myself back across the gap between the guard post and the top of the rampart. I had to use more air magic to lower myself safely to the rampart just as a second blast of bright-red power smashed into the cabin, destroying it in an explosion of power.

I was on my hands and knees when the doors on either side of the ramparts I’d landed on opened, and a total of six of the red-and-gold-armored soldiers appeared.

I got to my feet and cracked my knuckles. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

I created a sword of lightning and parried the first attack from the closest soldier, which used a sword with a black blade. I avoided a jab from the spear of a second soldier, using my shadows to wrap around the spear, drag it from its hand, and throw it into the soldier opposite. The sword of lightning ended its life a moment later, and a third soldier died after I used it to remove its head.

One of the soldiers smashed its fist into my face, and a second drove a steel boot into my ribs. I rolled away, but they started throwing magic at me, and it was all I could do to wrap myself in a shield of air and then detonate the magic outward to blast them all away.

They were all up on their feet almost instantly.

“Three down, three to go,” I said.

One of the three charged toward me, a blade of ice in its hand. I stepped back, grabbed its wrist, and twisted, breaking the bones, but the soldier refused to let go, and suddenly shadows burst out of the ground, wrapping around my legs, trying to trip me. I cut through them with a blade of fire, but it meant letting go of the soldier with the dagger.

The blade of ice passed over my rune-scribed leather armor, and there was a hiss of power as the runes succumbed to the damage inflicted on them.

I rolled across the floor, throwing a ball of fire at the ice-blade wielder while whipping up tendrils of air behind me to stop the two soldiers there from causing me any problems. I charged toward the soldier in front of me, avoided the blade of ice, stepped around the creature, and stabbed it in the head with a blade of fire that was hot enough to melt the armor. I detonated the fire inside the helmet, and the soldier fell forward as steam rose from its head.

“So, just you two,” I said. “How do you see properly with those helmets on?”

Both soldiers took a step toward me.

“Fair enough,” I said as the soldier closest to me darted forward, its sword striking out to try to get me to move toward its friend.

Shadows leaped from the ground, wrapping around the blade of the sword, dragging the soldier off balance. I stepped around the sword, smashed a sphere of lightning into the soldier’s ribs, and detonated it, sending both soldiers flying off the ramparts and into the forest.

I sighed. They had not been an easy fight, although I now had more questions about who they were than I’d had beforehand.

I looked over the ramparts at the remaining hundreds of soldiers, although I didn’t spot Merlin, and the soldiers themselves stood there without making any attempt to throw any power my way.

I heard the door open before I turned, and shadows sprang up from the ground, wrapping themselves around me as I dodged an eight-foot version of the soldiers I’d just fought. Its massive metal maul smashed into the stone, obliterating it. Its armor was identical to the other soldiers’ except much bigger and covered in spikes. The giant reached out with a barb-covered glove and tried to grab me, but I was already moving back, putting some distance between us, as I felt the change in the air behind me as the door opened.

A shield of air stopped the newly arrived masked soldier from stabbing me in the back with a