Page 103 of Path of the Dark
Head throbbing, he grabbed the hilt of the blade embedded in the man’s chest and yanked it out. Around him the battle for the walls was still raging.
If Elias wanted to live, he needed to get down from here. He shook his head, in an attempt to clear the ringing in his ears, and made for the stairs.
It wasn’t easy to reach them.
Rithmar soldiers barreled at him from every angle. Some he shoved out of the way, others he punched and mauled, while some—the persistent ones—he killed. By the time he reached the stone steps that led down to the Great Square, Elias’s breathing was coming in ragged gasps.
The fight atop the walls had been so intense that Elias hadn’t had a moment to even glance down at the square. However, he’d heard the battle: the roar of enchantment, and the yells and the screams. He’d also felt the heat of the tongues of flame that licked skyward and coughed on the oily smoke that drifted up from the fighting.
Elias started down the stairs before abruptly halting.
He’d fought in many battles over the years, but never in one like this. Never one this savage.
There were too many soldiers and enchanters packed into the square. More Rithmar troops surged in through the gates, while men of Anthor still flooded in from the two streets leading off the Great Square. The soldiers hacked at each other as the crowd surged. Men fell and were trampled underfoot.
From above he could see the truth of things: Anthor was winning. Those enchanters in the center of the square held nothing back. Light and Dark ripped through the throng. Fire devoured while shadow turned into a rampaging beast that tore off limbs and decapitated indiscriminately.
Elias’s gaze scanned the melee, looking for Ryana, but the crowd was so dense—obscured in parts by smoke—that he couldn’t find her.
Glancing back over his shoulder, Elias checked to make sure he still was alone on the stairs. There was a brawl going on above him. The last of the men of Anthor defending the wall were trying to keep the Rithmar soldiers from reaching the stairs. They’d hold them at bay for a few moments yet.
Elias shifted his attention back to the square. He wanted to move, to join the fray. However, he had to know where Ryana was first. Once he entered the crowd it would be much harder to locate her.
But as he searched, instead of Ryana, Elias saw his father.
He’d fought alongside Reoul on many campaigns and had seen him kill numerous times. Yet he’d never seen his father fight with such savagery. He wielded two blades, slashing and stabbing, his face a rictus of concentration.
And when Elias’s attention shifted to his father’s opponent, he realized why.
He faced Nathan of Rithmar.
Elias’s fingers tightened around the hilt of his fighting knife. He’d abandoned his sword not long after the attack had started. It wasn’t a good blade anyway, and he preferred to use a knife at close quarters. Despite everything that had happened—even after his father had disowned him and put him on the front line to die—his first instinct was to rush to his aid.
Elias heaved in a shuddering breath, fighting the instinct.Ryana … I have to find her.
Reoul could deal with this battle on his own.
Shadows, Nathan could fight. One glance at the way the king of Rithmar wielded his two-handed broadsword, and Elias knew his father had met his match. Nathan was nearly twenty years his junior too. Strong and fit, Nathan’s thick mink cloak swung behind him as he twisted, hacked, and parried.
And as Elias watched, Nathan ran Reoul through with his blade.
His father threw his head back and bellowed, but the sound was drowned out by the thunder of battle.
Elias did lurch forward then, his boots skidding on the stone steps. Under him, the crowd heaved as an explosion rocked the Great Square.
Both kings disappeared under a sea of black armor and silver chainmail.
And then, around ten yards back from where Nathan and Reoul had clashed, Elias caught a glimpse of golden hair.
His gaze swiveled to it, his father forgotten.
There—hemmed in amongst Anthor soldiers and enchanters—stood Ryana.
