Soulbonder

Chapter 47 - Ezil

Ezil leaned between the stone teeth of the battlements and watched as the fight unfolded below.

The majority of the army was stationed here, along the Starstone walls, but they were so quiet compared to the smaller force on the ground. Even through the loud eruptions of wind and thunder, their screams could be heard all the way here.

How must it feel to be one of those men, swarmed by a foe that they'd considered just a bedtime tale mere hours ago? At least for the Soulbonders, it'd been building toward this. For these men, there'd been so little warning.

The final fragments of their resistance tried to reform into some semblance of an organised army, but they were torn asunder as the larger Shaedri, those built like giant trolls of wood, stone, and metal, entered the fray.

An outside observer could criticise the approach of the Kersaja as naive, but it wasn't their fault. Such tactics were fundamental and successful for thousands of years of human warfare. But this was a different foe, one that Yim had forgotten how to fight and now, they were suffering the consequences.

The swarm broke through the first battalion, then converged into a stream and charged toward the second battalion.

It was difficult to follow along with the finer nuances of the battle. All this blasted snow had grown so thick and heavy that they could only make out the groups.

Ezil's breath was becoming faster as a budding panic threatened to expand within her chest. Before this had all begun, she'd carried a small hope that the ground forces would be enough to handle their enemy, but that was a foolish notion. Once those demons broke past that second battalion, as they inevitably would, they'd have a free charge at the walls.

Every single one of them would have to be on their best form to see this night out.

It was terrifying. With both feet planted on the ground, knowing that tonight may well be your last, that you might never see another sunrise, might never eat another chocolate roll, or kiss another boy, well, that made this all quite different from playing a game of Mystic Chips.

That last thought caused her to glance over to Otter. When he noticed her watching and gazed back with those dark eyes, a heat rose in her cheeks and she averted her attention.

The Kersaja and soldiers around them were silent, completely engrossed by what was happening below. Their faces were filled with horror.

At first, they'd responded negatively to the presence of Magizyra being placed among them, but those protests had gone quiet since the flares were set off.

It was funny. The Kersaja were known across all of Yim. Stories about them evoked images of barrel-chested men with thick arms and chiselled jaws, men who wore assurance the way others wore shoes.

But even those with grey in their hairs and beards had innocence in their eyes now, like they were just boys, pretending to be men.

Ezil supposed that was the awful secret of adulthood. It was a pretence, just a flimsy illusion.

Atop the walls, everyone had grown as silent as Bandor, which was an ironic thought, considering her brother had broken his long vow of silence tonight.

Back in the Heart of the Areathellum, Ezil had an inkling that Shale might wander off to catch up with the other lightboys and her former friends, so she'd tasked Bandor to use his abilities to keep a discrete eye on her. What he'd witnessed in a courtyard disturbed them all to their cores.

He'd described how Tershar ambushed Shale and knocked her out with a cudgel. Then she'd sprouted a pair of large wings and talons, which she used to enfold the Keykeeper and fly her off to the east, somewhere over Shimmer Bay.