Page 14 of Scourged

“How sentimental of you.”A voice rang through Andrian’s subconsciousness. “Funny how you once thought you could use that word as an insult … but even you knew that never would have worked. So interesting to see how much the little queen means to you.

“How much she has always meant to you.”

Chapter 6

The stone battlement rattled, splintered shards of ice raining from above. Sebastian cursed under his breath, diving for cover under the parapet overhang.

Drystan slammed into the wall beside him, blond hair that had escaped from the low knot at the base of his neck plastered to his face. “Feran!”

The third warrior stood at the edge of the battlement, a longbow in his hands, arrow drawn. Feran’s arms were steady despite the tremors echoing through the tower. He loosed the arrow, even as sharp pieces of ice fell over his skin.

A distant cry, heard over even the cacophony of battle, told Sebastian the arrow found its mark.

“Feran!” Sebastian called, echoing Drystan.

Feran whirled, dark braids swinging with him.

Sebastian pushed off the wall, muscles barking. “We have to get the trebuchets reloaded. You take the east towers.” Sebastian turned. “Drystan, take the west.”

Both men didn’t even spare Sebastian a nod before sprinting down the battlements. Sebastian watched them leave before turning back to the edge of the wall, stepping up to the stone rail.

The fleet from the Kizar Islands squatting in the Bay of Nria filled him with as much dread as it had when it first appeared, six weeks ago.

They arrived the day after Mariah’s disappearance, black sails filling the horizon as the sun crested in the sky. Frantic with his missing queen, his oldest friend’s betrayal, and his failure, Sebastian had ignored the approaching problem, trusting in the wards to hold as they formed parties to search for Mariah.

And at first, the wards had protected them. The fleet had halted just beyond the Bay, a contingent of City Guards and Royal Infantry watching them from the same battlements on which Sebastian now stood. Sebastian had led the Armature and other select officers from both the Guard and the Infantry as they scoured the city and surrounding area for any sign of where Mariah might have been taken.

They were just about to venture further from Verith, to start expeditions to the other keeps and strongholds of Onita, when the lights began to flicker.

In all his thirty-one years of life, Sebastian had never seen the lights flicker.Allumewas always present, always powerful, never weakened. Even when thelunestairpillars beside the throne were dull, still theallumewas there, spreading heat and warmth and energy across the kingdom.

And those pillars still blazed bright with magic, but … the lights had flickered.

The same day the lights sputtered, the wards began to fail.

Sebastian stared down at the nearest ship. “Shit.”

A group of men—pirates—had gathered on the prow, hands weaving and working as one. A great ball of water rose from the Bay, spinning and swirling until it hung over the ship. The men slowed their hands, holding the globe suspended, and slowly, it hardened into ice.

Apparently, the pirates of the Kizar Islands didn’t just have a vast armada at their disposal.

They possessed water magic.

Sebastian hadn’t believed the reports that arrived the day the wards slipped. Still wrought in his desperation, his failure, he’d dismissed them as a distraction to pull them away from their task.

Until Quentin and Matheo had visited the contingent on the battlements along the Bay. They dragged Sebastian with them that next day.

Sebastian still didn’t quite believe it—and he certainly didn’t understand it. But this was his reality now. A failure of an Armature, forced to abandon his search for his missing queen to protect her city. Facing an enemy that wielded water like a fifth limb as the wards weakened and the lights guttered.

The ball of ice on the ship below was nearly solid now. The pirates set it gently on the deck of the ship, rolling it to the giant siege machines mounted there. Like Verith’s own trebuchets, but smaller and more nimble, perfect for attacks by sea.

Sebastian whirled, glancing at the cliff above him. A boulder was loaded into the west trebuchet, Drystan barking orders at the Guardsmen as they heaved the leavers. Their trebuchets were powerful but ancient. Decrepit, outdated contraptions that took precious minutes to reload, requiring a full squad of men to load and fire.

“Incoming!” The Guardsman’s roar over the chaos of battle pulled Sebastian back to the Bay below.

Just in time to see the giant sphere of ice launched from the nearest ship careening toward Sebastian.

He was rooted to the ground as it spun through the air. He’d seen this happen enough that he knew what came next.

---