Crown of Blood

17.1.|| Drums of War

The rocky ground was covered in a thin sheet of ice. Cage knelt and pressed his hand gently on it. The hum of magical energy was obvious. A chill overtook his body and he stood.

The pass was a narrow thing, barely wide enough for three horses to pass through side by side. He was aware that there were places along the path through the mountains where there was only room for one.

In theory, this was the perfect place for an ambush. In reality, any real military advantage would be gained only if a regiment of archers could wait above the pass. The jagged rock edges allowed for no such thing.

The way the pass gave into a small platform and then a steep forested vale also did not encourage organizing a defensive right as the pass ended. Cage knew that, and yet his mind went over all possibilities.

Armies needed large space to unpack and organize. A few skirmish troops did not. Except seeing as Kat had magic, such troops would be dispatched before they could do too much damage.

"What do you think?" Trix joined Cage at the opening of the pass.

"I think they're not too far off."

His friend hummed as he drummed his gloved fingers over his chin. "We can't hear them yet. I don't think they would be silent."

"If Kat made snow fall in their path, it would absorb much of the sounds."

"That would be very intelligent of her." Jazz joined them, his expression stuck in a frown.

"What about of Jinx?" Because even if Kat was not battle savvy, Cage suspected that their former crew mate was.

"Allow me to keep hoping that Jinx wouldn't outright help her like that."

Cage hoped so, too. One magic wielder was dangerous enough, but Kat still didn't have much practice with her magic. Or at least didn't use to have it while they'd been together. But Jinx was another story. She was the only one out of them who had fully embraced her magic, and her control over it was impressive. She was a seasoned fighter as well and would be much more dangerous to face across the battlefield. He didn't even want to imagine what that would be like. But then again, he'd never thought he'd be waging war against Kat either.

"Should we go back?" Trix asked. "I think Rip will have a fit if we linger any longer."

Cage glanced once more in the shadow of the pass and nodded. He couldn't blame the captain of his guard for being so uptight. After all, his charge was a crazy man who left alone and headed for the most dangerous places.

"I wish we knew how to teleport," Jazz mumbled as the three of them climbed back on their horses and headed towards the woods. "Then we could linger longer and see when they actually enter Iride."

"Well, we'll need to make do with what we do have," Cage said.

He too wished he could be here to face the army, but then who would let the rest of his forces know? He'd tried so hard to force his magic to do other things. After all, though useful, lightning wasn't exactly efficient against ice. Fire was. But their fire wielder had left them and now all they had among them was the possibility to lift and throw things around which still exhausted Cage.

He guessed he still had the beast, but there was no way he was unleashing it against Endir. Not after what happened on Wolfbane's ship when he'd killed so many people. When he'd failed to rescue Ferdinand. The memory still sent a shudder through it and he fought to push it away.

His soldiers already feared him. He didn't want them to hate him or be outright terrified of him, too. If he were completely honest, he didn't want to ever subject Kat to anything like that either, no matter their current position.