Page 42 of Children of Fallen Gods

One more Stratagram, then two. Eslyn struck with lethal precision, the two of us slipping through the air like a needle passing through fabric. With every hit, the cliffs grew weaker.

And I let myself go.

It was easy, in some ways, to just let Reshaye do it. Easy to cede responsibility. If I were to let myself slip a little further, I could fall away from my own body completely — let Reshaye do the dirty work of Zeryth’s command, let it win the war, let it bring me back to my people with good news.

Why not? I couldn’t fight it anyway. Reshaye was in my bones. Zeryth was at my throat. Magic was at my fingertips, magic that did nothing but kill. And the lives of a thousand slaves were at my shoulders.

These are your orders.

Until I looked down, and saw a face that made my heart lurch.

The young man was on the ground, there between me and my goal. He was wounded, his leg shattered by some strike I didn’t remember making, or perhaps by one of the Syrizen. Blond hair caked with mud fell over his forehead, framing a pair of large, watery-blue eyes.

A spark of recognition tore through me. Reshaye’s pull faltered.

He looked like Serel. So much like how he’d looked the day I first met him, years ago, the day I begged Esmaris for his life.

I froze.

These are your orders.

{Do not stop!}Reshaye roared.

Seeing the opening, a soldier opened a slice across my shoulder. Eslyn pushed me out of the way, buried her spear in my attacker, yanked me against the cliffs. We slipped through nothingness, reappearing near the top of the ridges.

“What are you doing?” she hissed. “We don’t have time to stand around. One more and this comes down.”

Reshaye’s magic was already throbbing at my fingertips.

These are your orders.

I closed my eyes, and remembered the exact words of Zeryth’s command.

Give me a victory, Tisaanah. Give me a victory that leaves Varnille and all of her noble-blooded friends quaking at my name. Make me someone to fear. And do whatever it takes.

“No,” I choked out.

“No?” Eslyn repeated.

{No?}Reshaye hissed.

“Take me to the front,” I said to Eslyn. “Quickly. Over there, beyond the forts.”

We had distracted most of the soldiers in the pass, but many more were still pouring through, making their way towards the outposts on the Korvius border.

“But the orders were—”

“I am following orders.Now, Eslyn.”

After a moment of hesitation, she obeyed.

We landed on the ground, looking out at the narrow path cutting through the rocks. The soldiers pouring through it were a tangle of flesh and steel, like a bloody, writhing serpent.

I knew that even without the cliffs, I could take them. I could take them all. With Reshaye, I was that kind of powerful.

{They could not defeat us,}Reshaye whispered.{Bring them down. Show them all what we are capable of.}

No.

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