Page 162 of A Crown of Lies

Ieduin spat a curse and looked to his right. “Tofi!”

Tofi nodded and cracked his fingers. “Ready when you are.”

“Do it!” Ieduin ordered.

Tofi closed his eyes and extended his hands. At first, nothing happened. Then the dead began to twitch, limbs jerking, bones creaking. The fighting nearly drew to a stop as terrified soldiers and Crows alike looked around at the bodies making noise. When the first of the dead stood, a Trintan soldier near the edge of the wood threw down his sword and ran. More followed, deserting at the sight of the undead.

Pulses of power quickly swept through pockets of the dead, the Brotherhood knights breaking Tofi’s spell while it was still getting started. The knights became high-priority targets, and Ieduin started trying to hit them with his arrows.

Almost as soon as Tofi’s dead were on their feet, a growl sounded at the edge of the Wytchwood, like the sound of a hundred hungry wildcats prowling. The dead under Divina’s control clambered into the forest, paying no mind to the pits and tripwires. Even when they sprang the traps, they kept going, kept crawling. Divina’s dead fell upon them with merciless force, swinging their weapons, clawing, biting, or just tackling anyone they found. They didn’t seem to care whether they came upon Crows or Trintans. They attacked anything living.

Some scuttled up the trees, yanking down archers and mages from their perches.

“Keep them off me!” Ieduin shifted to his secondary quiver.Twenty arrows. Better make them count.He nocked a bone dust arrow and scanned the movement on the ground, searching for her. He heard the crack of a whip echoing through the trees and tried to follow the sound, but it was almost impossible to pinpoint.

It’d become dark enough that the only thing he could reliably pick out from the soldiers below were the Brotherhood knights in their silver armor. It gleamed in the low light, and spells broke under their hands with flashes of blue and red light.

Where the fuck is Divina? How am I supposed to see anything in the dark?

The only thing he could tell was that his forces were being overrun. If the killing continued at the rate it was going, he wouldn’t have any Crows left to defend Greymark with.

We must pull back, he realized. They just hadn’t had enough mages, or the Brotherhood knights they’d been counting on. They had tried their best, but it wasn’t good enough. They’dlost.

And then he heard it, the deep bellow of a horn.

Ieduin twisted on the branch, sitting higher. “What the fuck is that?”

“Sounds like thunder and lightning,” Gregory muttered. “Great. We’re going to die in a thunderstorm.”

“No, I think it’s something else.” Ieduin stowed his bow and climbed higher, above the mists to peer out at the bloody fields. His eyes widened at what he saw.

Horses, hundreds of horses, and armored men flying unfamiliar banners. No, wait… He knew that one. He’d seen that symbol in some artwork at Katyr and Isaac’s house.

Lord O’Dea’s knights had come at last! And scattered among them, Ieduin spied the familiar silver gleaming armor of more Brotherhood knights.

He pumped a fist, grinning widely, and shouted, “Reinforcements! Friendlies entering the fray!”

A cold hand wrapped around Ieduin’s ankle and yanked. He yelped as he fell, flailing in the air. He hit the ground, landing on his right arm with an audiblesnapof bone. A shockwave of pain radiated up from his forearm and he rolled, cradling his broken arm. “Fuck! Fucking fuckfuck!”

There was no time to wallow in his misery. The undead were on him. Ieduin kicked one away and staggered to his feet, dizzy and panting. He looked around as the combined forces of the O’Dea knights and the Reformed Brotherhood smashed into Trinta’s remaining men. Friendly Brotherhood knights sent out pulses of power from their gauntlets and the dead fell back to the ground, inert. The O’Dea knights rode through the forest, holding formation, spears piercing and swords slicing. They were a screaming fog of vengeance, cutting down Trinta’s army with prejudice.

Ieduin turned, scanning the ground. His quiver of bone dust arrows lay on the ground nearby between two twisted wych elms. He stumbled toward it. Maybe he couldn’t shoot his bow with a broken arm, but arrowheads were still sharp, and he could shove them up Divina’s ass just fine.

He reached for the fallen arrows with his left hand, pain thrumming through his right arm.

A heavy boot came down on the arrow shafts protruding from the spilled quiver, snapping three at once. Ieduin followed the boot up to Divina’s sneering face.

“I remember you, fuckboy,” she snarled and snapped her whip. “Want to play with a real alpha bitch?”

Fuck, Rowan said that thing was spelled. If it touches me, I’ll be as good as dead. Ieduin barreled headfirst into her, knocking her onto her back. The impact sent another nearly unbearable shockwave of pain radiating through his broken arm. His vision blurred with it, and he had to fight the urge to vomit.

Divina landed a good punch to the side of his head, and a kick between his legs, which left him gasping and rolling onto his back while she got away. She tried to stomp on his head, but he dodged.

Need to get off the ground. Get up. It was his only thought. He clawed at the ground with his one good hand, fingers closing on the broken shaft of an arrow.

She unfurled her whip and cracked it once before trying to snap it against his face. Ieduin fought the dizzying pain and got to his feet just in time to avoid being hit. He swung the broken arrow at Divina, staggering forward to stay inside her reach. As long as he stayed close to her, she couldn’t hit him with the whip. He jammed it at her face, her arms, her hands. Any exposed flesh or where her light armor was thin enough he thought he could drive it through. She just laughed and backed away.

We’re getting further from the rest of the fighting, Ieduin realized numbly,and further from help.There was no choice. He had to keep close to her, had to keep backing her up. They were trapped in this deadly dance, and if either of them missed a step, it would be over.

---