Page 199 of Scorched Earth
Wrapping the head of an arrow with oil-soaked cloth, Killian lit it on a torch and then sent the arrow flying overhead. As it slowly descended, it illuminated the shadows of hundreds of running men and women.
“The Six have mercy,” Adra breathed, but then drew her weapon. As did everyone around them.
Killian sent four more arrows into the sky in rapid succession to give them light to fight, and then he lowered the visor of his helmet.
“We are the last bastion between the Seventh and all the souls in Serlania,” he roared. “In the name of the queen and the Six, do your duty!”
And then he charged.
The blighters did not run together like soldiers, but rather spreadout haphazardly across the field. Their clothes were tattered, if they wore them at all. The people who’d risen were civilians. Farmers and fishermen. Innkeepers and barmaids. All people Killian was supposed to protect.
Which made them all people he’d failed.
Yet even as guilt pooled in his stomach, Killian looked over his shoulder one last time in the direction of Revat.
Then the blighters were upon them.
His sword sheared a man’s head from his shoulders, sending it flying even as his warhorse thundered over a woman, crumpling her body beneath his hooves.
What happened next was a blur of butchery that Killian wished could be wiped from his mind. The destruction of those he was sworn to protect. As the blighters fell, Killian felt his faith in his mark fading. His faith in the Six, for it did not feel right that they stood by and watched this happen.
And it was not just his faith that faltered.
Those who fought at his side destroyed a part of their souls with each blighter they brought down. Tears slicked faces as the ground was soaked in blood, and though it was a moonless night, the world seemed to darken.
Driving his blade through an injured blighter’s skull, Killian paused to suck in several breaths of air, every gasp tasting like the blight on the wind. It had been too easy. Far too gods-damned easy to win this fight, and from the way Dareena’s horse was frisking beneath her, she felt the same way.
“Killian!”
Adra’s voice cut the air, and he turned to see a blighter driving a pitchfork toward his chest.
He sliced the man’s arm from his body with a hard blow, but the blighter kept coming. Reaching for Killian with torn and ragged nails.
Only for Adra’s arrow to explode through the man’s throat.
Spine severed, he dropped, but voids stared out of his eyes as he laughed. All the blighters still alive on the blood-soaked field laughed in chorus, the effect horrifying.
Then they fell silent, and the only laugh came from the darkness far above, carried on the wings of a deimos.
“Well fought, Lord Calorian,” Rufina called from the sky. “Even from here, I can smell the stink of Mudamorian blood soaking into the soil, the opened bowels, the first sweet scents of rot. Tell me, does this smell like victory to you?”
Killian didn’t answer, only nocked an arrow and listened to the sound of beating wings.
Before he could shoot, a jolt struck his core. A violent flood of impending doom that tore his eyes from the sky and drew them south. “Lydia.”
Rufina’s chuckle was soft and cruel as she soared overhead. “Well fought, well fought, indeed. How unfortunate that you won the wrong battle.”
74LYDIA
While Malahi had the information she needed to destroy the blight, Lydia had still not found the answers she sought.
Taking little time to sleep and eat, she carefully moved through the pages of the book, her eyes stinging with tears of frustration whenever one crumbled beneath her touch. Many were little more than fragments, no amount of staring at the pieces with a jeweler’s lens revealing the words that had been written upon them, and she cursed the knowledge lost. Cursed those who’d had this book in their keeping for millennia and never bothered to transcribe it, because the information had value beyond measure.
“Lydia!” Sonia’s boots made heavy thuds as she strode into the room. “We cannot afford to linger any longer. The Sultan has refused the terms offered by the Cel commander, refused to surrender the city. With the river dammed, it’s only a matter of time until Revat runs out of fresh water. The Gamdeshians have stores to feed themselves for a long time, but no one anticipated they’d divert an entire river.”
“I need another day,” Lydia muttered, flinching as stone flung by one of the many Cel catapults struck a building nearby. “The answers are in here, I just need to get through all the pages.”
“You have the information we need.” There was a frantic edge to Sonia’s voice. “Malahi knows how to destroy the blight, but she needsyouto keep her alive. What more do you need to know that is worth this risk?”
