“This is dark indeed,” she whispered, crouching down to get a better look at the seeping runes.
“Do you recognize the symbols on her skin?” Ruby asked.
“No,” the jinni replied slowly. “This is not magic I know. But it is dark. She will be grateful for death.”
The jinni gently pressed the apothecary’s eyes closed.
“Move the body,” I murmured to two guards behind me, “we’ll bury her later.”
They nodded, moving past Ash as he climbed back up onto his bull-horse. The witches retreated behind me.
“I’m sorry, Ash,” I stated. I was sorry that he felt her death so keenly, but the fact that she had been put out of her misery came as a relief. The jinni queen was right.
He nodded, not really hearing me.
We carried on our march. If the armies had been subdued before, it was even more the case now. I didn’t hear so much as a whisper as we rode on, the footsteps behind us heavy and dull.
This wasn’t good.
“Ash,” I said, breaking the silence, “I know you probably don’t want to, but we’re nearing the cove and morale is low. Abelle’s terrified them. I think you need to say something. Something that will remind them what they’re fighting for.”
“I think you are the better man to do it,” replied Ash.
“I realize you’re upset about Abelle—”
“That has nothing to do with it. They’re your armies, Tejus. They want to hear from you.”
I glanced over at him, not understanding his reluctance to make the speech himself—he was their emperor, and until recently I had been the most despised creature in Nevertide.
“Everything’s changed,” he murmured, smirking, as if he’d read my mind.
In the distance, I could see the curve of the road where the passage to the cove began. It was now or never, and if Ash wouldn’t do it, someone had to.
“Fine,” I snapped. I spun my bull-horse around to face the oncoming men and women who followed our lead. Most of the sentries and guards looked troubled—only GASP seemed to be focused, their experience no doubt lessening the horror of the appearance of Abelle.
“Armies of the six kingdoms,” I called out. They all stood to attention, and a thick, anticipatory silence settled over the crowd. I paused. As I’d said to Hazel, words were never my strong point, and years spent focused only on my own selfish needs left me feeling unequipped for rallying the brave men and women that would be fighting by our side. I looked at Hazel. She gazed back at me, not even a flicker of doubt in her eyes. She trusted me. She believed in me.
“I know you are frightened. I know that your homes and your families have been destroyed. I also know that before the entity brought his evil to this land, things were not much better. In a moment, we will march out to the cove, and face our enemy head-on. When we do, don’t think of the Nevertide you know now—think of one that could be, with a fair and just emperor”—my eyes lighted on Ash—“a queen who will love you, lands to be re-grown and to flourish. Think of that as you fight. Think of that as worth a life. Think of that as your promised victory.”
For a split second nothing happened, and then a roar went up. It was deafening, and my first reaction was to think that the entity had arrived, but I realized soon after that it was cheering—weapons held aloft in salute, steel clashing against iron.
The crowd died down. A moment later, the long, drawn-out blow of the battle horn reverberated through the air.
No sooner had the last notes of the horn drifted to silence than dread unfurled in the pit of my stomach. It had come. Like a thundercloud, the shadow moved swiftly over the land from the cove, blocking out the sun.
“A new Nevertide!” Ash bellowed, unsheathing his sword and holding it aloft as we charged toward the darkness.
Hazel
The mass of shadow was upon us so quickly I hardly had a moment to mentally prepare myself. I had been so moved by Tejus’s speech, a wave of love and admiration had felt like it was bursting inside of me—only to be doused a moment later by the onslaught of the shadow.
The bull-horses reared, the trees darkened as the black form divided and spread out on all sides of us, trapping us on the path.
“Hold your positions!” Tejus roared at the armies. “Ministers, barrier at the back!”
I turned just in time to see a barrier rise up into the air, only a few feet away from the final line of the army—the jinn and witches were there, as well as some of the fae and the more novice members of GASP. The shadow slid up the wall of the barrier, but it couldn’t pass. Now we only had to face an attack on three fronts—all of which were lined with guards and the deadliest members of GASP.