Page 71 of Oath of War
‘We need to go,’ she said simply.
I stood, nodding as I began to pack up. ‘Of course. As you wish, my sweetheart.’
We had one last flight to go, and I dreaded what would welcome us when we arrived. Annika sat stiffly on Vahin’s back, lost in her thoughts, until, with a sharp curse, she pushed closer. I wrapped my arms around her trembling body and saw what had startled her.
Zalesie was a smoking ruin.
The cosy mountain town, with its picturesque houses and patchwork fields, was pockmarked with olgoi worm tunnels and jagged, smoking rubble. Bodies littered the streets, just like they had at Roan Fortress, and as much as I was prepared for the view, Annika was not.
‘Land,’ she ordered, and I winced as her magic bit at my skin. Her power danced over Vahin’s scales, and I felt his concern about her loss of control.
Annika leapt off the dragon’s back even before he fully touched down and stalked slowly towards the town centre. I drew my sword and followed her, vigilant to danger, eyeing the carrion birds that looked on as we neared the town square. There, we encountered the town’s last stand. Peasant carts and tavern tables had been overturned to create a barricade. Around it, the ground was soaked with blood and covered in arrows, but it was the smoking ruin inside of the barricade that turned my stomach.
The stench of burned flesh still lingered in the air, even if the funeral pyre was already a pile of ash.
Annika wordlessly sank to her knees, picking up a small rag doll from the dirt. She looked at it for a long while, brushing the bloody mud from its painted face before she dropped it back on the ground.
I was ready to deal with her rage or her sorrow, but the woman who’d cried herself to sleep last night stood up without a word and silently walked away from the people who’d been her neighbours for years.
‘We need to search the ruins,’ she said detachedly. ‘Someone may be trapped beneath the debris.’
Annika was open with her emotions, but the cold mage ordering this search wasn’t the Ani I knew, and this quiet before the storm worried me to no end.
‘Vahin?’ I asked, hoping to gain insight into what was going on in her mind, but my dragon flooded me with his own worry.
‘She’s cut me off, too,’ he said, his gliding shadow sweeping the ground.‘But the aether currents around her are too strong.’
We searched one house after another, Annika using her power to remove fallen roofs and debris as if they were nothing, sending them flying with a simple sigil and a flicker of her wrist. Vahin was right. The aether built up around her until even I could feel it.
No one had survived. We only found more and more bodies as the debris from Ani’s digging rained down on us. I ground my teeth as her elemental spells got worse, evidence that her power was becoming increasingly volatile.
‘My love,’ I said, grasping Annika’s shoulder. ‘Stop. Please stop. If anyone has survived, my men will have taken them to the fortress. There is nothing here but death and destruction.’ The shuddering breath that escaped her was the first sign I’d seen that my Nivale was still there.
‘No one buried them,’ she whispered. ‘All that remains of my friends are corpses left to rot.’ She pulled away from me, kneeling on the ground. ‘How is this right? How the fuck is this right!’ she screamed as she drew her dagger, drawing a sigil in the dirt and muttering a cantrip until blood trickled from her nose.
‘Zareta erm, te erm o’ praxis.’1
I nearly fell as the ground shook violently. Instinct took over, and I covered Annika with my body as dirt and dross erupted from the earth. The soft caress of her power turned vicious, biting the skin the moment I touched her.
I loved when she cast her spells—the wave of warmth, like a summer breeze, that came with them filling me with energy. But today ... Today, it felt like I had placed my hand on a sizzling skillet, and all I felt was pain. Worse, I wasn’t sure if Ani even realised her spell was burning through too much power.
I pulled her closer, blood humming in my ears as my soul strained against the onslaught of aether she was channelling through the bond, Vahin’s agonised roar mirroring my own struggle. I didn’t dare move, however, as each body we’d found was carried on rolling waves of earth into the town centre to join those on the funeral pyre. Eventually, the debris hanging above us was slowly, reverently lowered, gently covering the bodies of Annika’s friends and fellow townsfolk.
When it was all over, Ani dispersed her residual power, and I was overwhelmed by the backlash, suddenly filled with the energy of a thousand warriors. Meanwhile, the woman in my arms could barely stand, her nose bleeding and her breath coming in a rapid, broken rasp.
She’d just performed three separate spells with a single incantation. And with that level of control? Even though Ani thought herself powerless, Iknewshe could change the tide of this war.
‘Come, Nivale. There’s nothing left to do here,’ I said, silently asking Vahin to land. We climbed on the dragon’s back and Annika swayed, shaking her head as she tried to keep her eyes open.
‘Don’t let me fall, Ursus.’
Her words were so quiet that I only just heard them as she placed her head on my breastplate. A few moments later, her tiredness caused her to sag into my arms and fall asleep. I needed this, her trust that I’d never let her fall and reassurance that she still welcomed my touch. The pet name she had for me had never sounded better, and the tight knot in my chest eased a notch.
‘I’ll always protect you,’ I whispered, kissing her temple before bundling her up in my riding cloak. I knew I had to prepare myself for what was to come. Before Reynard’s army arrived and we could push the battlefront to the Barren Lands, I would have to ensure every town and village was either guarded or evacuated.
That was a daunting task, even for me.
‘My lord, you’ve returned,’ exclaimed a young rider as Vahin landed. Several others saluted but kept their distance. I simply nodded an acknowledgement, noting the state of their gear and injuries, a silent testament to the efforts my men were making to hold off the Lich King’s forces. I couldn’t help feeling proud of each and every one of them.
