She didn’t expect the softening of his voice, the kindness. And didn’t expect his next words, either.
“Battle will be upon us before midday,” Darrow said to Evangeline. “I find that I will have need for someone of quick wit and quicker feet to assist me here. To run messages to our commanders in this castle, and fetch me supplies as needed.”
Evangeline angled her head. “You wish me to help?”
“You have trained with warriors during your travels with them, I take it.”
Evangeline glanced up at Lysandra in question, and she nodded to her ward. They had all overseen Evangeline learning the basics of swordplay and archery while on the road.
The girl nodded to the old lord. “I have some ability, but not like Aedion.”
“Few do,” Darrow said wryly. “But I shall need someone with a fearless heart and steady hand to help me. Are you that person?”
Evangeline didn’t look up to Lysandra again. “I am,” she said, chin lifting.
Darrow smiled slightly. “Then head down to the Great Hall. Eat your breakfast, and when you return here, there shall be armor waiting for you.”
Evangeline’s eyes widened at the mention of armor, no trace of fear dimming them at all.
Lysandra murmured to her, “Go. I’ll be down with you in a minute.”
Evangeline dashed out, braid flying behind her.
Only when Lysandra was certain she had gone downstairs did she say, “Why?”
“I assume that question means you are allowing me to commandeer your ward.”
“Why.”
Darrow picked up the kingsflame crystal. “Nox Owen is of no use to me now that his allegiance has been made clear, and apparently has vanished to the gods know where, likely at Aedion’s request.” He turned the crystal over in his thin fingers. “But beyond that, no child should have to watch as her friends are cut down. Keeping her busy, giving her a purpose and some small power will be better than locking her in the north tower, scared out of her wits at every horrible sound and death.”
Lysandra did not smile, did not bow her head. “You would do this for the ward of a whore?”
Darrow set down the crystal. “It’s the faces of the children that I remember the most from ten years ago. Even more than Orlon’s. And Evangeline’s face yesterday as she looked out at that army—it was the same despair I saw back then. So you may think me a champion bastard, as Aedion would say, but I am not so heartless as you might believe.” He nodded toward the open doorway. “I will keep an eye on her.”
She wasn’t entirely certain what to say. If she should spit in his face and tell him to hell with his offer.
Yet the brightness in Evangeline’s eyes, the way she’d run out of here … Purpose. Darrow had offered her purpose and guidance.
So she turned from the room, from the precious trove, the ancient books worth more than gold. Darrow’s silent, mournful companions. “Thank you.”
Darrow waved her off, and went back to studying whatever papers were on his desk—though his eyes did not move along the pages.
The battlement walls of the city were lined with soldiers. Each stone-faced at what marched closer.
The witch tower was still down, thank the gods. But even from the distance, Aedion could spy soldiers toiling to repair its damaged wheel. Yet without another wyvern to replace the one felled yesterday, it would not be moving soon.
It wouldn’t make today any easier, though. No, today would hurt.
“They’ll be within the archers’ range in about an hour,” Elgan reported. Darrow’s orders be damned. Kyllian was still general, yes, but every report his friend received, Aedion got as well.
“Remind them to make their shots count. Pick targets.”
The Bane knew that without being told. The others—they had proved their mettle in these battles, but a reminder never hurt.
Elgan aimed for the sections of the city walls that Ren and the Fae nobles had deemed the best advantage for their archers. Against a hundred thousand troops, they might only stand to thin the lines, but to let the enemy charge unchallenged at the walls would be utter folly. And break the spirit of these people before they met their end.
“What is that?” Ren murmured. Pointing to the horizon.
Sharp—Ren’s eyes had to be sharper than most humans, since it was still just a smudge on the horizon to Aedion.
A breath passed. The dark smudge began to take form, rising into the blue sky.
Flying toward them.
“Ilken?” Ren squinted as he shielded his eyes against the glare.
“Too big,” Aedion breathed.
Closer, the mass flying above the teeming army became clearer. Larger.
“Wyverns,” Aedion said, dread curdling in his stomach.
The Ironteeth aerial legion had been unleashed at last.
“Oh gods,” Ren whispered.
Against a terrestrial siege, Orynth might have held out—a few days or weeks, but they could have lasted.
But with the thousand or so Ironteeth witches who soared toward them on those wyverns … They would not need their infernal towers to destroy this city, the castle. To rip open the city gates and walls and let in Morath’s hordes.
The soldiers began to spot the wyverns. People cried out, along the battlements. Up in the castle looming behind them.
This siege would not even get the chance to be a siege.
It would end today. Within a few hours.
Racing feet skidded to a halt, and then Lysandra was there, panting. “Tell me what to do, where to go.” Her emerald eyes were wide with terror—helpless terror and despair. “I can change into a wyvern, try to keep them—”
“There are over a thousand Ironteeth,” Aedion said, his voice hollow in his ears. Her fear whetted something sharp and dangerous in him, but he refrained from reaching for her. “There is nothing you or we can do.”
A few dozen of the Ironteeth had sacked Rifthold in a matter of hours.
This host …
Aedion focused on his breathing, on keeping his head high as soldiers began to step away from their positions along the walls.
Unacceptable.
“STAY WHERE YOU ARE,” he bellowed. “HOLD THE LINE, AND DO NOT BALK.”
The roared command halted those who’d looked prone to bolt, at least. But it didn’t stop the shaking swords, the stench of their rising fear.
Aedion turned to Lysandra and Ren. “Get Rolfe’s firelances up on the higher towers and buildings. See if they can burn the Ironteeth from the sky.”
When Ren hesitated, Aedion snarled, “Do it now.”
Then Ren was racing toward where the Pirate Lord stood with his Mycenian soldiers.
“It won’t do anything, will it?” Lysandra said softly.
Aedion just said, “Take Evangeline and go. There is a small tunnel in the bottom level of the castle that leads into the mountains. Take her and go.”
She shook her head. “To what end? Morath will find us all anyway.”
His commanders were sprinting toward him, and for the first time since he’d known them, there was true dread shining in the eyes of the Bane. In Elgan’s eyes.
But Aedion kept his attention fixed on Lysandra. “Please. I am begging you. I am begging you, Lysandra, to go.”
Her chin lifted. “You are not asking our other allies to run.”
“Because I am not in love with our other allies.”
For a heartbeat, she blinked at him.
Then her face crumpled, and Aedion only stared at her, unafraid of the words he’d spoken. Only afraid of the dark mass that swept toward them, staying within formation above that endless army. Afraid of what that legion would do to her, to Evangeline.
“I should have told you,” Aedion said, voice breaking. “Every day after I realized it, all these months. I should have told you every day.”
Lysandra began to cry, and he brushed away her tears.
His commanders reached him, ashen and panting. “Orders, General?”
He didn’t bother to tell them that he wasn’t their general. It wouldn’t matter what the hell he was called in a few hours anyway.
Yet Lysandra remained at his side. Made no move to run.
“Please,” he said to her.
Lysandra only linked her fingers through his in silent answer. And challenge.
His heart cracked at that refusal. At the hand, shaking and cold, that clung to his.
He squeezed her fingers tightly, and did not let go as he faced his commanders. “We—”
“Wyverns from the north!”