Page 82 of Blood Bearon
None of the guards moved, though several did dart their eyes toward Khove.
“Khove?” The Queen was looking between him and the others. “The Western front is under attack. They could use our help.”
“No,” he said quietly. “We can’t do that, my Queen.”
“Why not?” she fumed. “My family is out there. They are fighting, and they will be dying.”
“I know,” he said. “But we must wait. Trust in your men. They are well trained. Your Captain is a fine warlord, and your Champion is out there as well. Our lines will not soon falter. But I would bet my guess that this is but one of several feints.”
“You think he will split his forces?” she asked incredulously. “That’s the worst thing he could do.”
Khove nodded. “I know. But he’s too smart for his own good. Korred will think it necessary to try and draw forces away from one side or another. He is not a tactician, for which we must be utterly grateful, or this fight would quite possibly be lost before it started.”
“We must dosomething,” Kaelyn growled, pacing back and forth inside her tiny circle of bodyguards.
Blue lightning flashed across the sky to impact upon the ground near the western wall.
“My Queen,” Kasperi said hurriedly, green energy swirling around his feet. “That is my signal.”
He and his mate rose into the air holding hands. Khove watched as the Magi thrust his sword forward, while his mate Amber pointed her staff into the sky. Twin beams of green energy shot forward, combining into one before reaching skyward and impacting upon Korred’s purple shield.
A moment later, a thunderous explosion reached out from the heavens, battering at his eardrums. Khove watched the magical duel get underway, sending his well wishes to Kasperi and his mate. They were new to their position, but they struck hard and fast, proving to all who could witness that they would not back down when their home was threatened.
Red flares went up to the south and the north as well as more of Kasperi’s forces assaulted the walls. The east was oddly silent. Khove wondered if that was because no attack was coming, or if their enemies were waiting for the Queen to strip forces from there to send to other locations.
“Take me to the command post,” Kaelyn snapped, obviously tired of standing around.
“My Queen,” Khove protested. “You—”
“Do not presume to tell me what I need to do,” the Queen of High House Ursa growled at her head bodyguard, eyes blazing with jade fire. “This is my House. These men fight to protect all that it contains, including me. I will not micromanage the fight, but Iwill not cower inside. Is that understood?”
Khove knew better than to argue, and he nodded sharply. “Of course. To the command post.”
The nine shifters jogged out onto the driveway and then followed it around the Manor into the underground parking garage. The entire time, Khove kept his eyes out, scanning not only the property to their right, but the windows of the Manor on his right. He hoped that maybe he would get lucky, and at one of them he would see a certain heart-shaped faced, blonde hair, and a pair of unnaturally blue eyes.
He saw no sign of Rachel however, and all too soon they were entering the underground garage, which had been transformed into a fortified command post. Two manned heavy machine gun posts were set up outside, and a dozen more shifters knelt behind sandbagged walls.
“Send reinforcements to the north wall! Tell all positions to retreat to their secondary defensive lines. Activate plan Charlie-Able!”
Khove skidded to a halt as he heard Kirell, the Captain of House Ursa and the man in charge of her defense barking orders. If they were retreating to the secondary defensive lines already, then things were not going well at all.
Screams and explosions sounded in the distance. Khove turned and ran back up to the lip of the driveway to face north. Far away, at the edge of the tree line, he saw the fortified positions of the north side’s secondary positions.
They were already under attack.
“North side isn’t going to be able to fall back!” he shouted. “They’ve already broken through!”
A moment later, Kaelyn was at his side, the Queen looking as well. “They’re not going to hold,” she said quietly.
The battlefield was a nightmare. Fae streamed out of the forest. Here and there, trees shuddered aside as some magical construct shouldered its way out onto the battlefield, towering two or three times the height of a shifter.
Khove watched with horror as the wave of attackers slammed into the line of stalwart shifters. Here and there it was thrown back, but there simply were too many of them.
A dozen shifters went flying past as the Captain’s reinforcements were deployed, racing to the north side, but Khove knew it wouldn’t be enough. Apparently, so did his Queen. Without warning, she started after them.
“Well, are you coming or not?” she shouted. “This is our House!”
“Dammit,” Khove growled, then waved at his men. “You heard your Queen. Let’s get some!”
