Something With a Prince

Chapter Fifty-Six: By Her Name

Tallethea

"Move! Get down!"

Rai saw it, and tackled Arlyn to the ground, shielding his body with hers as the arrow split a wooden brace instead of the King's skull. The ringing of thousands of swords leaving their sheaths echoed in my head as my heart began to pound. Arrows mocked rainfall, catching on tents, sticking into braces, and splintering wagons. I tucked behind some barrels for cover hearing the wood crack open and the thwump of impact. Men and women began to form their lines while archers knelt in the mud, taking aim. My eyes went searching for Arlyn, but he was gone into the scramble of soldiers, along with Rai. Good. She will keep him safe. She'll keep him smart.

Moving out from behind the barrel, I pulled the sword from my waist and took a deep breath. Go. Go now. I rolled out from behind the barrels and flew into formation, running hard with the rest of the soldiers into the vat of chaos ahead. Deafening sound filled the air as shields and weapons collided. Screams and groans, and violent profanity. Twisted faces surfaced from underneath their helmets. Any of them could be Dominic. All of them were Rughwen. None of us deserved to die.

Soaked by the rain, their blue armor made them blend into the background, coming out of the mist like ghosts surfacing from the grave. Each one ready to slice out your throat in a second. Those who weren't fighting beat on their shields to disorient and intimidate. Like thunder cracking in the sky, it rattled my teeth. Black boots, silver armor, matte grey helmets, even the visible slivers of their faces were painted grey ---Dominic had planned this from the beginning. He was simply waiting for the rain.

We expected them to have the numbers, but everyone knew we had the better training, so those who were sloppy fell under Tuisedor's feet. But, even if we were the best force in the world, it would not stop us from being unprepared. Even now we were being pushed back into the heart of camp by the sheer force of bodies. Swallowed up and macerated by Dominic's jaws.

Blood mixed with the humidity and floated into my throat as I slashed, blocked, and kicked with all I had. Maybe I could not beat a mindreading witch, maybe I'll never beat my own thoughts, but I've fought for my life against mankind before and I could win. I could let out all that I held down. The familiar feeling of being unleashed, of watching that mental cage swing open, had my body rushing, howling in anticipation for a fight.

Get ready. I was born to fight. Get ready. I'm trained to conquer. I am ready. I'll die for what's right and kill for honor.

I could hear a few of the soldiers next to me singing the song from camp, and mentally followed as I pressed further into the carnage. The best fighters were carving out the way. My captains and commanders looked like the angels painted on the ceiling of the castle in Tuisedor, sweeping across the battlefield like they were carved from iron and forged for war. Only a few of us were like that, once I might have been like that, but that bloodthirst was slicked by experience. Dampened by the weight of Selma, as her disjointed features projected onto all the blue bodies that crashed into my path. The width of my vision began to shrink as the noise began to mold into the screams from the cathedral, the lumbering sounds became Selma when she was that creature. Bodies meshed into black wolves.

Focus. Sober up. How it happened, not how it felt. How did it happen? I had kept running and fighting, slowly waning out of that horrible drowning feeling. Don't give it control. I could hear my own voice in my ears. The voice of my first teacher on induction day. You are the leader here. Do not follow fear, wield it. Look at your blade. Tell it what you want. Call her by her name.

Fear. My eyes dropped to the blood-soaked weapon in my hand, heart pounding savagely in my chest, rushing in my ears as I began to mentally count. One. Block. Two. Deflect. Three. Find the opening Four. Attain the upper hand. Five. Strike to kill. Over and over, I sounded this in my head like a battle chant. With the crush of the mud and the heat of the rain sliding down my skin, there was no way of telling whether I was sweating, crying, or merely drenched. But I was on fire, nonetheless. Carving out what I could and setting it loose.

One of Rughwen's finest slid into my vision, coming at me with his arm raised and screaming wildly. He was untrained, possibly a civilian turned soldier by the looks of his form and method of attack. There was frenzy in his eyes, the kind that comes with wielding life at your fingertips. With an, admittedly sloppy, counterattack he was disarmed. I then ran him through, his chest collapsing over mine with a grunt.

"Coward." He uttered next to my ear, "He'll devour all of you."

I twisted my hand and he passed, falling limp into the mud.

My sword had barley left his ribs before I was being taken by the shoulder and flipped around, Arlyn's eyes meeting mine.

"Are you insane! What the hell are you doing out here?" I screamed over the noise. Without thinking I ripped the helmet from the dead soldier at my feet and slammed it over Arlyn's head. "You're supposed to be safe!"

"We fight together!" He didn't bother to remove the helmet, just gestured to my sword with his. "Though, the dragons look admittedly different."

A soldier recognized him, and took her shot at the glory moment, but was met swiftly with my steel. Unfortunately, I was channeling my anger at Arlyn in that moment, and she felt the force of it. Arlyn stared at me wide eyed.

"Get out of here, now!" Shouting over the chaos, I took him by the arm, blocking his body the best I could with mine. "We need you alive. I need you alive."

"It's one wave! He has no reserves!" Arlyn stopped talking to take down a woman with a hatchet, and was surprisingly good with a sword, so we were taken away from our arguing. Back-to-back, we fought for the next half hour before I could get him to focus.

Unfortunately, after a short verbal firing, he just breathlessly shouted, "You can't tell me what to do. I'm the oldest!" A pause, "And the King!"

Rai joined us shortly after bursting through a wall of Rughwen soldiers like it was a pillow fort. Her face growing furious once she spotted Arlyn, "If it weren't treason, you sneaky little bastard!"

He just laughed. Laughed. And Rai joined us in the fight for our lives.

We needed to outlast, but the further we were pushed back the closer we were to getting pinned in our own trenches. Rai was gritting her teeth, more protecting Arlyn than fighting, but ultimately had to peel off to cover more ground. My own body was fading fast, with the loss of routine these past weeks, expenditure of energy on top of old injuries, and little food, my every swing was a thousand pounds.

But that all changed the minute I heard the gravelly words bellowed from across the way, "Come on out, boy!"

I felt Arlyn freeze. He tensed up like a dog raising its hackles, looking in the sea of blue and green bodies as if he knew exactly where that voice came from. The rain had eased from a downpour to a tolerable fall, but visibility was still low. I couldn't see anything past 10 feet without squinting through the rain. Clanking armor, squelching boots, moans of the dying. And a single, clear voice.

"I know you're out here Rikkar! Come and fight me like a man!"

My eyes sought Arlyn's, but he was looking fixedly into the crowd. The armor he wore rose on his chest as he pulled in a deep breath. Eyebrows drawn to center, I watched him zone into some other place, where the noise and the rain could not touch him. Water poured down his face, running over the fine planes of his cheeks, hiding in the corners of his mouth, and dripping off his beard. Arlyn raised his chin, pulled off the helmet, and straightened his entire body into a proud line. I tracked his gaze to Dominic's grinning figure.

King of Ghosts, I thought, as he stood there with silver hair and command of the sea raging around us. A flick of his wrist and this could be over. My eyes went to Arlyn, and I realized that, with a flick of Dominic's wrist...You could be dead. Everything in me raged at the thought. A world without Arlyn was like a mental landslide. Loud and crushing.

Thunder cracked overhead for the first time, drawing my eyes to the sky for a split second. When I looked back, Arlyn was gone.