Page 245 of The War and Deceit Series omnibus

“Sorry, I was just overwhelmed when I saw you. I’m so glad you’re okay.” He scans my face before taking a step back and examining me for any wounds. “I’ve never been closer to walking away from my duty before.” My eyes widen in shock, not quitebelieving what I’m hearing. Grayson would never walk away from the guild, but before I can say anything, the others reach us.

“Clarissa!” Revna calls out, a grim smile on her face as she comes to greet me. I understand the look—she’s pleased my plan worked, even though it was grizzly and caused much death. She knows this place meant a lot to me and that destroying it was sure to cause me much emotional pain. The other leaders follow, greeting me with nods of varying warmth. I notice many of them are viewing me more kindly now that I’ve proven myself.

I’m pleased to see Jacob is with them and looking uninjured. In fact, he greets me with a smile and a one-armed hug. “That was pretty impressive, riding in on the back of one of those creatures.” His grin stretches into a grimace as he tries to suppress a shudder. “I don’t know how you did it, they give me the creeps.”

Revna steps up to me and draws me towards the other leaders. My mates stiffen behind me, uncomfortable at being separated, and I agree with them, my body still on high alert.

“You were right,” she praises, and I realise she’s trying to prove a point to the chiefs who doubted the both of us. Usually, I would smile and try to grit my teeth through the posturing, she is family after all, but I don’t have time for this.

Shrugging her arm from my shoulders, I look around the quiet, empty square. I can hear our warriors deeper in the city searching the streets and the sound of the river, but other than that, silence. Not even birds sing overhead. “It’s too quiet, this was too easy.” My tone is agitated, and my body is alive and buzzing, but the chiefs are watching me with sympathetic smiles. “Something isn’t right.”

“That’s just the adrenaline talking, child,” Chief Erik speaks up from the back of the group, and several of them nod in agreement, but I notice a few worried glances. The wholejourney here, they were discussing how difficult this battle was going to be, and it was over before it even began, yet they are patting themselves on the back.

“I agree with the beloved,” Speaker Hawthorn interjects, rubbing his arms as he glances around, looking towards the edge of the city where the forest starts. “The trees are restless, something is wrong.” His announcement makes the others nervous, and they share looks, but it just confirms what I was feeling all along. Following the speaker’s gaze, I look into the forest, extending my awareness and feeling…something dark. Confused, I turn to my mates, but Speaker Beck steps forward.

“The sea is not happy, and not just because of the additional water from the river.” He frowns, turning to look towards the crumbling palace. “Something big is coming.”

I’m torn, feeling pulled in two directions. Do we investigate the darkness of the forest, or follow the sea elf’s prediction and head towards the sea? The army travelled through the forest and didn’t notice anything. Could the darkness have been cloaked in some way? The queen has to be somewhere, there’s no way she would have abandoned Galandell.

Feeling sick with indecision, I touch my goddess mark, opening my mouth to ask her advice when a shout fills the air. It’s from deep in the city, close to the palace. The sound is full of terror, and it cuts off abruptly. Eyes wide, I spin to look at my mates. Another scream sounds, closer this time.

“Forsaken!”

The cry echoes through the city, and for a few seconds, we’re all frozen in place, staring at each other as the messenger comes running into the square. He bends over at the waist, panting as he tries to catch his breath.

“They’re climbing up the cliffs!”

“Mother above,” I curse, realising what happened. In washing the forsaken away, I’ve simply delayed the inevitable.The only way to kill them is to behead and burn the bodies.How could we have been so stupid?I chide. We let our guard down, and now we will pay for it. I can only imagine the horror of the forsaken silently climbing up the cliff face and dragging our warriors over the edge. We may have given ourselves some time, and now we have the high ground, but I should have foreseen this.

Several curses ring out as they realise the same thing I do.

“Everyone into position!” Revna shouts, but many are already moving, hurrying through the square and down roads towards their warriors, shouting orders as they go. I notice Speaker Beck reaches for a seashell that hangs around his neck. Raising it to his lips, he tips his head back and blows with all his strength. A sound louder than I would have expected reverberates all around us. Dropping the shell, he bows his head to me in farewell before running through the city to join his people.

With a sudden bolt of horror, I realise we’re missing someone. “Where’s Naril?” How could I have not noticed before? Guilt and fear tears through me, my mind imagining situation after situation where he’s alone and in trouble.

Turning to Eldrin, I see he’s tense, his face set in a grimace, but he’s not freaking out like I thought he would be. “He took a group of elves to check the other side of the city.”

Swearing, I stare into the city as if I can see through the buildings and discover where my friend is. I want to go and find him, but I know we can’t, we need to find the queen. My heart breaks at the thought of abandoning my friend, but I know he would understand and tell me not to waste time looking for him.

Vaeril closes the gap between us, placing his hand on my shoulder. “He’ll be fine, he’s a fierce warrior.”

I know people are waiting on my decision, but I have to give Eldrin this choice. People are shouting and running aroundus, and I can hear the clash of weapons and screams of battle getting closer. Turning to my mate, I grip his arm. “Go find your brother.”

He surprises me by firmly shaking his head. “No, he can defend himself. He has centuries’ worth of training, while you’ve had less than a year. You need me.” I don’t feel any guilt from him through our connection, but what I do feel are the words he doesn’t say. While I may need him, he needs me just as badly.

A loud booming noise begins to shake the ground, and everything seems to move in slow motion as forsaken come streaming out from the buildings around us. My mates gather around me in a protective circle, my staff passed to me by unseen hands. Jacob and his human guards run over to battle a group of them, but before long, I lose track of them because the forsaken are on us. Their dead eyes and unrelenting attacks just keep coming. I don’t know if Grayson was expected elsewhere, but he stays with us, his hands glowing with magic as he blasts our foes away. My skin buzzes with the amount of magic in the air, both from him and the other mages, all my movements feeling sluggish. Tor is like a whirlwind, his axe swinging wildly as he roars his battle cry, and I’m sure a part of him is enjoying being able to fight to protect me.

At one point, I hear a cheer go up through the city. “The sea elves are coming!” That must have been what Speaker Beck had been signalling with the shell around his neck.

I don’t know how long we fight for, it seems like hours, but we don’t leave the square, dismembering the forsaken and throwing their corpses on the ever-growing fire. Eldrin’s training pays off, my movements almost coming naturally. My staff feels like an extension of my arms as I spin and whirl, working together with my mates to take down our foes. Like this, it doesn’t matter who is an elf, mage, or tribesman. In thissquare, our differences don’t matter because we all fight for the same thing.

“Clarissa.”

The voice makes me stumble. It sounded like a child. Why would a child be here, and how would they know my name? Spinning in a circle, my breath coming in exhausted pants, I look for the source of the voice. More forsaken are filling the square, blocking the exits, but they make no move to come any closer.

That’s when I spot her.

My stomach drops. “Oh, no,” I whisper brokenly as I stare at the little girl who’s clearly a forsaken. She’s dressed in the shift the slaves wear, and even from here, I can see the angry red welt of a healing slave brand on her wrist. She can’t be any older than eight, the same age I was when I was turned into a slave, and I realise this was all part of the plan. We’ve been separated from the army, and they knew they wouldn’t be able to get me away from my mates easily, so they’ve found the one thing they knew would be sure to hurt me.

---