Page 86 of Angel in Absentia
Another blast echoed. Massive figures stirred against the shells of the city walls that looked like crumbling mountains in the distance.
“Ryson is out there already?” she asked, her voice elevated above the burning city and the swirl of icy winds. “Fighting without an army?”
Clea could see nothing but blackness with flashes of lightning above her. She glanced down and saw bustling and movement. She thought for a moment it was a flood of Ashanas soldiers but then realized that they were corpses, corpses from Ruedom, repurposed from the battle and fighting under Prince’s will.
She swallowed.
Precious bodies, Prince said,so many precious bodies. You see, Princess, my army is the fiercest of them all. As long as Alkerrai defeats Javelin de Gal before succumbing to his own madness, we will prevail.You should return to safety.
The battle had begun. She turned to Prince, her voice steady despite the terror clawing through her.
“Prince,” she said, “be my mask again. You can protect me. I know you can.”
She knew it was against a direct order. She knew what she asked was insanity of every kind, but Prince, seemingly unable to resist the request, drifted toward her, and then the mask collapsed like an object into her hand. The result was so instant, she nearly dropped it. Apparently, he was eager for them to borrow each other again.
“Thank you,” she said and put it on, her skin soon covered by the coolness of his power before the portal dissolved.
Let me have your eyes, and you will see what I see.
“Borrow,” she corrected.
Of course.Prince replied, and suddenly her vision cleared and she could see through the vast night. The truth of it all sent terror through her spine. The entire world beyond the walls toiled and churned like piles of ants. A numberless army, vast beyond all prediction, had swallowed the world.
“These are the Ashanas?” she breathed, but something was wrong in what she witnessed. The numberless army, swarming in the darkness, was a boiling tide of mixed banners and beasts.
The largest of them congregated in a massive torrent, some flying in a twister that bent and bowed, wrestling with an unseen force within.
The Ashanas did not come alone. No. They have few allies, but the Insednians have many enemies. Beyond are the armies that remained beyond the Wraithlands, eager to destroy the Insednians and claim Shambelin. I, too, will soon join the fray.
“This was an ambush,” Clea breathed. “Why do they all hate the Insednians much?”
Let me have your body, and I will show you.
“Borrow,” Clea corrected.
Of course.
She looked over the wall, a question in her mind.
Prince answered it, and her body moved on its own accord. She screamed as she leapt, falling several stories in height but landing lightly on her feet before racing off toward the battle, shrouded by his abilities in a slew of Ashanas soldiers and possessed corpses.
“Give it back! Give it back!” she urged. “We can work together!”
Of course.Prince replied, and she resumed control of her limbs again, feeling his subtle urging which gave her direction.
His mist wrapped around her body like breath and armor, and she felt herself slip once more into something not wholly her own. The wind tore at her. Dark snow lashed her skin. The landscape around them transformed around her eyes as they raced forward, fires flashing into an icy, black tundra, the snow falling heavier and clashing sounds echoing like lightning and thunder across the dark and loathsome world.
The cien felt thick and dangerous. Clea knew Prince was protecting her from the worst of it when she saw corpses iced and frozen, cien eating away at them in such high saturations it swelled in the air and eroded the world like acid.
As she moved deeper toward the core of it all, she felt herself shielded under the crushing weight of an ocean, approaching something ancient and dangerous.
Inside it was the beacon of a traded heart.
Chapter 26
Heroes of Old
LEA STUMBLED UPON a pause in the battle and a clearing amongst the churning twister of a monstrous hoard. A conversation. She could not understand the language. It was a distorted version of deep Kaletik speech. The very words ushered darkness through the air.
