Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
That fucking, fucking priest.
“Daemon, what do you intend to do?” she asked, still backing away.
“Free them,” he answered.
That surprised her, so much, it nearly caused her to stop.
But only nearly.
“Free who?”
He smiled.
It was horrible.
And thus, no other thought entered her head.
Instead, she turned to race away.
Frey Drakkar
Back Balcony, Sky Citadel, Sky Bay
AIREN
The cry of the captain at the front who raised his sword carried all the way up to him where he stood on the balcony.
“Seriously?” he heard his wife ask behind him.
She’d heard it too.
“I’d rather you be inside,” he said, again.
“Compromise, husband,” she reminded him. “I’m back here, so no stray arrows or whatever, come near me, you’re there, like you’re immune to stray arrows, but we won’t get into that. And you tell me what’s happening.”
“Loud enough we can hear too!” Cora called from her place at an opened window where all the women had gathered.
Gods save him from parallel-world women.
Or any of them, for that matter, since the queens of this realm were back there too.
“Fuck,” he bit, as he watched and saw the first lines break into a charge at the lane.
“It’s beginning,” Finnie said.
“They’re charging,” he announced.
“Balls,” he heard Silence say.
And then they came as whirling zing noises.
The strike of them against rock came as loud cracks.
The company of mermales formed from their tridents imbedded at random intervals all over the sides of the cliffs.
They took their tridents up.
And on a call from Jorie, who had formed amongst them, they let fly.
The tridents soared through the air, puncturing all the soldiers charging at the front of the line, bringing it down.
Those long staffs with their wide, cruel, triple prongs did not cause a wound from which a soldier could arise.
The weapons winged their bloodied journey back to their owners just as wolves raced, barking loud, from the forest, to stop at the edges of the plain, surrounding the troops.
The lines became wavy as surprise at being confronted by mermales and wolves rippled through the standing.
“Is it done?” Finnie called.
Frey watched.
Another call from another captain and another line broke off to press forward.
“What are they thinking?” Finnie asked.
He did not know, for they’d have to climb over the dying bodies of their own only to face a zigzag phalanx of soldiers at better vantages than they.
“They’re making a point,” he said.
“A stupid one,” she replied.
He could not argue that.
More disarray was occurring through the rest as the Nadirii battle cry could be heard and all around them, Nadirii warriors came charging out of the forest, except to their left flank. That was fortified by Zees, gnomes and female Airenzian.
They simply came out, surrounding them, lining up behind the wolves, cutting off any means of escape.
The charging squad at the front was easily picked off one by one by archers higher up the road to the Bay.
Gods, he hoped this didn’t last much longer.
Frey looked down to where Cass sat astride his horse, watching, just as another AG captain set two squads to charging the road.
He watched Cass turn his head and look up.
The Regent nodded.
Frey looked to the beast at his right.
“Go, boy,” he murmured, jumped from the railing to the balcony and stood at it, the wind from the dragon’s wings whipping his hair about his head and his mantle about his body.
The male went straight up from where he had rested.
And up.
The female, down the cliff, rose with him.
He felt his ice princess come up on one side.
He then felt someone else come to his other side.
And they lined up at the railing, not only Finnie and Cora, but Circe, Maddie, Silence, Ha-Lah and Farah.
Frey did not protest.
It was now done.
One way or another.
He just hoped he didn’t have to give the order to affect one of those ways.
A great noise came from behind them and they all twisted to look.
The sun in the sky was weak.
Still, it was blotted out when the entirety of his dragons soared overhead.
They created a stiff breeze that floated down on them, mussing his hair, as Frey turned around.
The dragons halted above the standing in the plain, pulling back their heads and chests, their wings flapping, clawed legs stretched out, but long necks arched up with heads down, hovering over the enemy, ready to strike.
No, it was now, one way or another, it would be done.
He just hoped it would be the right way.
Frey held, and they held.
Everyone held.
It started at the right flank.
Soldiers setting their weapons to the snow and taking their knees.
The long moments it took from the first squad to ripple to the next felt like an hour.
But then the next laid down their arms.
And the next.
The one before it.
The one behind it.
Right to left.
Back to front.
The wolves slunk back.
The mermales launched their tridents and disappeared in a whirl.
The warriors surrounding them and the ones that lined the lane rode in to process the surrender.