Page 67 of The Princes of Stone and Steel

“Right.” I motioned like I was zipping my mouth closed and waited. Clearly, they didn’t do that here. “Proceed,” I said then and waited.

“We observed the Papyrus lining the border between the Forfex and Papyrus lands as the Forfex moved into battle positions.”

Okay, now my brain hurt. I rubbed my hands over my eyes, pressing them down hard in hopes of alleviating the pain formed behind them. It didn’t work. Our army consisted of twenty-five mud soldiers, two Slippies, an expatriate prince and the flesh. Korrigan was still too sick to fight, so we planned to leave her here in the care of the fae while she recovered. Hopefully, we’d see her again… which didn’t seem likely, considering.

Realistically, we didn’t stand a chance against the numbers the Forfex were sure to bring against us. But I couldn’t open with that. Off the cuff here, what did I tell them?

Something. Battle strategy. Think, Millie, think.Why me? I wasn’t a prince raised to lead armies or a soldier who’d learned how to fight. I was a girl from Lancashire who’d landed in Roshambo by way of Detroit. The second time at least. No one should even want to take orders from me. I started to get mad. What was wrong with these people…er,creatures…inhabitants?

I sucked in a large breath, ready to give them some direction, when Tertius stepped forward again. “You may wish to address all of us at once, Millicent Merchant.”

All… of us?

He stepped back in line and the mud soldiers did one of those cool military about-faces, falling in line two by two as they marched out the door. Steele and I followed, shoulder to shoulder we marched back through the barrier, only to be met by a scene I couldn’t have guessed if I had a million tries.

Aside from the mud soldiers, not two, but—one, two, three, four, five and five makesten times ten—at least a hundred massive eight-legged black stallions awaited our arrival. An entire company of Slippies ready to fight. The tree people numbered higher than I could see to count. Faefolk joined us. Every living being not under control of the big three clans joined us.

Steele grasped my hand to give it a squeeze and dropped it to step to the front of the line, looking up at me along with all the rest.

For Sparta, was the only thing going through my head. But Tertius was Roman and that line had already been taken. I closed my eyes, took in a deep breath, let it out slowly and went for it.

“Today we face a foe as great or greater than our numbers.” That was how I started my little pep talk. “I don’t know how or why I ended up here… but here I am, and in my time among you, the outliers have become a part of me.Youhave become a part of me. We are dying, but I refuse to go down without a fight. Today. For your homes. For your families. ForRoshambo.” I finished on a shout, throwing my fist in the air for effect, like in the movies I’d snuck out to see with Korrigan back home.

But in those movies the leader’s stirring words were met with chants and cheers to build the momentum. To frenzy the troops into action. I was met with silence. Complete and utter silence aside from Steele who mouthed, ‘I love you.’

Okay.

I nodded. “Listen, we go in. We watch. And we let them make the first move. Keep your eyes open. If they think we’re scared, they’ll become overconfident. That’s our in. That’s how we defeat them.”

Yeah, my tactical training could use some buffing. But I’d never been in the military. I’d never even gone to military school. There was a line from a book I once read, you pick a subpar genie, you get subpar wishes—or something to that effect.

The same could be said for fleshes. I clapped my hands together once. “Let’s do this,” I ordered.

Steele joined me at my side once again. The crowd parted a straight line down the middle for us to walk. We were met at the back, which with everyone turned on their heels became the front, by the two Slippies who’d brought us here yesterday.

They bowed for us to climb on. “Before we go, what’s your name?” I asked.

I turned on my magic flesh mojo for Steele to understand.

“I am Capall and this is my mate, Làir.” Capall motioned to the mare Steele sat upon. “We will follow you to the ends, Millicent Merchant.”

What did I say to that?I will not cry… I will not cry… I will not—shoot! The tears built in the backs of my eyes. I blinked several times to keep them from falling.

Of course Steele would notice. “Mils,” he said softly. And that was all he needed to say.

“Nope. I’m good. Let’s do this. Capall, we’ve got a war to wage.”

He whinnied and shook his head, and with Làir at his side, he set off for the Forfex lands.

We kept the pace steady but unhurried because I didn’t want to tire the troops before the action actually started. Once we passed from the outliers to Forfex controlled territory, the animals must have sent word to the king.

“Stop, please.” I ordered Capall, for I had led my soldiers to a triangle of land where the Papyrus, Forfex and outliers met.

I used the flesh mojo to move the trees. Instead of a path, they cleared a small prairie’s worth of land. To win, there could be no hindrances.

The king’s troops waited our arrival in lines a hundred long and hundreds deep maybe. There were too many to count. Cavalry to the front, the horses prancing from foot to foot ready to take us on. The machinery flanked the ends. Those same tanks and spring-loaded trebuchets to launch heavy cannonballs—well, I supposed they couldn’t be cannonballs, not launched from a cannon. But they looked exactly like them.

Behind the cavalry their soldiers stood with shields and swords, decked out in helmets, shin guards and breastplates. I turned to look back at my unprotected trees, horses and fae and felt suddenly sick to my stomach.

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