Page 150 of The Shadow Path
Chaos reigned, and the Éiren soldiers had not even joined the fight.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
She felt like her bones were going to fall from her joints as Cadell swooped over the battle for another pass.
“Lining up,” Carys said.
The bald Fomorian with the long arms,Cadell said.Position eight, one forty degrees.
“Got it.” Carys’s arrow struck the monster in the back of his bald head, and his great webbed hand covered the wound as blood spurted through its fingers.
As the monster reeled back, a black-coated wolf leaped on the creature, tearing it to pieces and dragging its body away from the battle.
Moments later, a dragon swooped down and blew a stream of fire at the monster’s remains, leaving it charred and smoking.
Duncan had hacked off two other harpies that had managed to attach themselves to the coracle, and the smoldering bodies of the aerial monsters lay scattered across the Saris Plain, their feathers falling across the ground like angled drops of blood spatter on waving green grass.
Every time a Fomorian fell, another seemed to rise from the broken earth, grasping and gripping the white chalk before Dru’s fae and the Anglian wolves and humans attacked it.
There was progress, but it was slow and creeping. But monsters fell and harpies bled in the sky, and the Anglian line moved ever closer to Orla and Cian’s armies.
Yet through all the bloodshed and tumult, the Éiren soldiers remained along the ridge that backed against the trees, watching frozen as the forces of Briton battled against the invaders.
The queen’s flag flew over the mounted crown princess and her guard while Cian watched from the front as Fomorians wreaked havoc on his brother’s fae allies.
Look at them.The strange voice that had been with Carys through the battle whispered again.Look closer.
Carys looked over the distant army and realized that while Cian and a few fae commanders in front of the armies were riding back and forth, the armies hadn’t moved. Not even a little bit. There was no sound coming from the ridge, not the stomping of horses or the trill of pipes or horns.
Look closer.
“Cadell,” she shouted, “can you fly over the Éiren army?”
The battle is on the plain, Nêrys.
“I know, but they can spare me for a minute.”
Duncan looked up from the arrowslit. “What is it?”
“I need to look at them.”
Cadell wheeled to the north, then turned so they flew over the Éiren troops.
“Lower,” she called out.
That will put us in archery range.
“I know.” She watched the air around the frozen army. “I have a theory.”
If your theory gets me a bolt in the wing, I’m going to ignore you next time.
“Yeah, that’s fair.”
They flew lower, but still nothing moved. Not a soldier. Not a fidget and not a foot out of place.
Cian’s face turned up to the dragon, but all he did was squint before he turned back to watching his brother fight the Fomorian monsters.
Green-and-gold flags flapped in the wind, and Carys saw horses’ manes blowing, but there was no rustle of restless feet, no horns blasting, and no drums, though their drummers lined up at the front of each stack of troops.
