Page 79 of The Sundered Blade

“There are no Blades here,” one of them scoffed. “Only traitors. Kill her.”

The first one impaled himself on her sword, and the second received a dagger to the eye.

Meanwhile, Vaniell crouched next to the terrified shop owner and murmured instructions. She shot him a wide-eyed look, but soon scurried off into the darkness towards the palace.

“How many?” Vaniell muttered, more to himself than to Karreya. “How many will we not reach in time?”

“You cannot torment yourself with those thoughts,” Karreya insisted. “We will save all that we can. But we must find our way outside of the city walls. That is where Urquadi is most likely to be—directing the battle from a safe distance.”

Karreya wished that everyone who had ever derided Niell as the Wastrel Prince could have seen him as they made their way through the dark, smoke-filled streets of Hanselm. Climbing over rubble, dodging attacks, directing shocked and injured townspeople towards the relative safety of the palace, or even improvising enchantments against the attacks of imperial mages. He was angry, frightened, determined, fierce… And yet utterly in command of himself. Thinking first of his people, and never hesitating to put himself in danger for their sakes.

But as the violence spread, his face grew more and more grim, his trademark grin long since vanished as soot and blood covered his skin. The city did not have long. Bodies lay in the street, amid shattered glass, broken fountains, and ruined goods, while trees, stores, and homes burned.

Strange as it seemed, they had yet to even catch a glimpse of the imperial dragons. This destruction was the work of a single battalion—along with a handful of battle mages—and it represented the inevitable outcome of any encounter with the Zulleri Empire. And while Karreya did not hesitate to throw herself into this battle, she knew well that Abreia’s survival was now in grave doubt. Garimore had experienced but the smallest taste of her grandmother’s wrath, and the people of this land were ill prepared to face it.

Should the imperial troops come in force? Abreia would be no more. Garimore—and Niell—would cease to exist, and that alone was enough to convince her that she must not falter in her determination.

They were nearly to the city gates when the night and the smoke vomited up the grim, blond-haired Lord Kellan, along with a mismatched crew of his supporters.

“You’re alive, then.” He and Vaniell clasped arms and shared a heartfelt look of commiseration. “Does the palace still stand?”

Vaniell nodded once. “There’s a mage or two holding the gates, with instructions to send all refugees inside the palace itself. Any survivors you find will be safest there.”

“Understood.” Kellan raked Karreya and her blades with an assessing gaze before turning his attention back to Vaniell. “We’ve been setting up barricades where we can, but I doubt they’ll hold for long. We don’t have enough mages to counter their magical attacks, and it’s only a matter of time before that dragon returns.”

“The golden dragon is now an ally,” Karreya informed him coolly. “Though there will be others, so you must continue to be wary of danger from above.”

“Do what you can, but don’t throw your lives away,” Vaniell added wearily. “If all your defenses collapse, make for the palace and defend the walls. And if the other dragons attack, hide your people in the dungeons.”

“Where are you headed?”

Vaniell shared a glance with Karreya, as if to ask what was safe to tell.

“To confront the imperial commander,” she said briskly. “With the army marching north, we are pitifully outmatched, so our only hope is to destroy their chain of command. If I can locate their general, he will be bound by honor to accept my challenge. Should fate smile on me, I may be able to defeat him and take his troops for my own.”

Kellan’s gaze grew sharp and assessing. “You are imperial. And yet you would seek the defeat of your own people?”

Whether he was guessing or whether he knew, Karreya discovered she did not care.

“I care for the people of this land as well as my own,” she told him flatly. “Today I fight for the lives of the innocent people of Abreia, but my intentions are not limited to these lands alone. The citizens of the Empire have suffered for generations under this dynasty of conquerors. Therefore, I do not seek the defeat of my people, but their liberation, and should Abreia fall, it is unlikely that any will be able to stand against the might and cruelty of the Empress.”

After a long pause, Kellan looked at Vaniell, who, rather than distancing himself, moved a step closer to Karreya’s side and took her hand. “She’s telling the truth, Kel. Yes, she’s imperial, but it’s only because of her that we’ve made it this far. Only because of her that I’m still alive and standing here today.”

“And perhaps only because of her that these invaders are here at all?” Lord Kellan asked ruthlessly. “Unless she’s claiming that this has nothing to do with her. But after so many years of ignoring us, why would they attack now?”

Karreya could have hissed in frustration, but she held herself back. “If you choose to place this at my door, I cannot stop you,” she said. “Yes, their primary goal was to retrieve me and return me to my family. But I did not ask for this. I did not give the order to kill and destroy. I left my family precisely because this is how they choose to live. Believe me or not, had I never come to these shores, this scene would yet have happened. Perhaps ten or more years into the future, but you would not have avoided it. The Empire has become a vast, ravening beast that will not stop until it has swallowed up everything it touches. And eventually, it would have come for you.”

She did not expect him to believe her, but it was true. Had she never come here, had she taken her grandmother’s place before she had seen and learned what Abreia had to teach her, her time as Empress would have been short and bloody. One of the jackals of the court would have cut her down, triggering a violent war of succession that would end only when another of the corrupt power-hungry nobles took the throne.

And then? More war. More conquest. More violence, in a never-ending cycle.

She had not been strong enough then, and she might not be strong enough now. But here, she had others to protect. A reason to fight for peace. And she knew herself, as she never had before.

“All right.”

Startled, she blinked at Lord Kellan and regarded him quizzically. She had not expected him to surrender his suspicion so easily.

“If His Highness trusts you, then so do I,” he said. “Unless you prove us both wrong. Go and fight this general of yours, and we’ll do our best to hold back the tide.”

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