his family a second time, but the most he could do was pull his bleeding, bitten fingers into fists. He was spent, and even as Stormbreaker hauled him to his feet and shared some of his furious, storming graal with Aron, Aron couldn’t muster the force to hurl a single command at the person who had torn his life and heart asunder.
The banditlike men Stormbreaker had been battling had turned away from him, inexplicably raising their swords to drive back the Brailing Guard who managed to make it across the moat. Above them, freed and furious, seven Great Rocs winged back into the sky away from the human tumult below. They turned their great necks and beaks on those who had sought to use them for unnatural purpose, and for a time, it rained swords and arrows and screaming Altar soldiers.
Brailing and Altar forces flooded past the fallen men, filling all available space, overrunning the remnants of Ross and Cobb protectors and beginning to surround Dari, her grandfather, and Lord Cobb.
From within Triune came screaming and the shrieks of the Rocs who made it through the defenses.
A body struck the ground beside Aron, and his knees buckled all over again as he beheld the large, twisted form of Lord Baldric. With his neck at such a terrible angle, there was no way the man could be alive, but Stormbreaker cried out and threw himself on the ground. He worked his fingers over the Lord Provost’s chest as if he could force life back into his former mentor and guild master. Lightning struck in every direction, indiscriminate, felling bandits and Brailings alike, and barely missing Aron twice.
The sky darkened again, and Aron shouted a curse at the Brother in hopeless frustration. He couldn’t even lift his short sword yet, and his bloody fingers didn’t have the coordination to unsheathe his silver dagger.
This time, the threat poured in from the Eastern sky.
Winged creatures, so many they darkened the ground like clouds of doom.
It took Aron long moments to realize that the golden, winged beasts were gryphons, bearing soldiers clad in Ross’s greens and golds, and the obsidian and ruby uniforms of Dyn Cobb.
Almost at the same moment, a massive mounted force crested the farthest hill of the valley, the hill opposite the spot where Aron and the Stone Brothers had charged into the battle.
Aron picked out the banners, and saw Mab’s ruby colors, and the great red dragon’s head seeming to roar from their battle flags.
In the front rode a small figure, a woman on horseback, and he could see the wild stream of red graal floating behind her.
The graal wasn’t… normal.
It exploded in bursts and spouts, uneven and as uncontrolled as Stormbreaker’s weather.
Just behind her came an essence Aron recognized as Nic.
Riding into battle.
Riding into battle with his mother.
The shock of seeing Nic on horseback with the Mab army, looking so strong and brandishing a sword, nearly drove Aron back to the ground.
For a moment, Aron thought Nic was whipping the Mab forces to a frenzy, but then he realized Nic seemed to have some other purpose.
Brother save them.
Was Nic trying to reach his mother to cut her out of her saddle?
A snake the size of two Rocs arched from the woods to strike at Lady Mab, but it overshot its target and took down Nic and his mount as well.
Aron wasn’t certain he really saw that—a giant snake. A giant snake attacking Eyrie’s queen and heir. It was there, then gone.
And so were Nic and his mother.
Aron fell forward, desperate to send his energy to Nic, but unable to even maintain his own body weight. He dragged himself in the direction of where Nic fell, but that was so far away, and Aron couldn’t see anything but the moat and soldiers and swords and blood.
Sabor and Cobb and Ross Guard landed like saviors in every direction, but the Mab forces engaged them as fast as they took on Altar and Brailing soldiers. The gryphons screamed and roared, stamping and flinging soldiers out of their paths.
Aron rolled onto his back, gasping, fighting to control the faltering beat of his heart as gray, formless energy washed over him.
The children.
The children had caught him unaware.
Their leeching would kill him in moments.
He stared into the sky, watching the last of the pounding cloud of gryphons sailing in from the east. Maybe these would make the difference. Maybe these Sabor and soldiers could turn the tide and save Triune and Nic and Eyrie, maybe even