Mherlk leapt from his horse, seizing the creature with his bare hands as it lunged for me. The White Plains had barely opened beneath us when chaos erupted. People fled toward the forest, leaving all they owned in desperate bids to survive. Ahead, what I’d thought a skirmish unraveled into something far crueler, soldiers were scattered among women and elders, fighting side by side for their lives.

  Two bhors burst from the grass at my right. I hit the ground and drew in one motion. Steel flashed—the first split in two. The second hurled a knife. I caught its gleam and twisted aside. My blade reached him first. Dust drank his blood.

  Beyond us, a pack crept through the grass toward the right of the struggling line.

  “Mherlk.” He nodded and leaped forward, closing the distance to the ambushers.

  “Frehei’Larn!” The spell leapt from my hand, a ripple only the trained one could sense as weakness flooded my limbs. It reached him as he struck down his first victim. His shield rose, crushing the second bhor with bone-shattering force.

  From here I could see the whole battlefield. Except for the struggling group ahead and the three remaining bhors facing Mherlk, no other threat stood.

  A faint creak sounded behind me. Once again, I twisted just in time—the knife whistling past my throat. My blade sank into my attacker’s heart. I tore it free as another lunged. At the last moment, I pivoted, letting his momentum carry him straight onto the hidden steel.

  Both fell. I spared them a glance–no longer bhors but not yet malds.

  For a breath, I had lost Mherlk between the high grass. I found him as he snatched a dagger out of the air and driving it straight between its owner’s eyes. The fourth creature used the opening to slip behind him. A heartbeat later, its mace arced toward Mherlk’s neck, then froze mid-air, suspended in a single, stunned moment. My strength drained at once, leaving me leaning on my blade, head spinning. As I struggled to stay upright, movement caught my eye. A bhor charged, one I hadn’t seen approach. Powerless to defend myself or dodge, I collapsed under him. Its blade sliced past my head by a hair. For one suspended moment, I wanted to stay down. Then strength returned in a slow crawl. I caught its arms, holding the creature just long enough to keep the blade away from my throat.

  Suddenly, Mherlk yanked it and slashed its throat before extending his hand, a mocking smile tugging at his lips. “A much better fighter?”

  “And protector.”

  “I know,” he replied, thankful.

  We charged toward the group under attack. Before another soldier fell, we had cut down enough bhors to turn the tide. The surprise left them no chance to counterattack; they snapped at anything within reach. I slid between a bhor and a small silhouette. The moment it took me to strike left me exposed to another one. A wooden spear intercepted it just in time giving me the opening to make his head roll.

  “Stay behind me,” I barked, scanning the chaos. The girl darted away. No enemy stood, the fighting had vanished as quickly as it had begun. A few steps away, Mherlk drew his blade from a wounded creature, eyes sweeping the field in surprise at how swiftly the battle ended. Soldiers moved among the bodies, ensuring no threat remained.

  “Mherlk?” I asked, checking for wounds. He turned in place—clean, untouched.

  “Mherlk? a soldier echoed. Are you from Melkna?”

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  Mherlk nodded.

  “We are saved,” the man breathed, almost praying. Then with a hard look at me: “You should still keep your distance, Felas.”

  I was used to this, yet it never stung any less, especially from those you’d just saved.

  “It’s not the proper way to thank our rescuers,” a high-ranking officer said, laying a calm hand on his soldier’s shoulder. “Lady commander,” he greeted me with a respectful tilt of the head.

  “Captain?” I asked.

  “Caimis,” he answered. It was Lord’s Casmi’s only son.

  “Who is she?” another soldier asked, approaching us, carefully walking across the dead bodies. No one had time to answer him. He stuttered the moment his eyes lifted to my unmistakable hair, “Lady Zenalyan.”

  “Where are you heading?” I asked, surprised to find the captain here when he should have been guarding his inheritance.

  “We left before sunrise to find my father, Lord Casmi. He departed a dozen nights ago. But each attack has driven us off course.”

  “It has. Mherlk, give me the map.” I held out my hand.

  “Where are we?” I asked Captain Caimis, unfolding the map.

  “Around here,” he said, tapping the road with a gloved finger.

  “So, the forest behind us would be…that.”

  “It would.”

  “One of ours fought these creatures in this cave two dawns past,” I said, tapping the mark just beyond the treeline. A soldier studying the map gave a strangled scream.

  “Gather everyone,” Captain Caimis barked. “Whatever roams in that forest is no place for us.” Soldiers scattered, shouting for anyone within earshot to fall in. We needed a safe place before nightfall. In the dark, we would stand no chance against whatever might come for us. The city could not have already fallen, not so soon. Shielded by Ral’s influence and spared from major wars, its walls were strong, its defenses sound, built to guard the heart of the goods road. I motioned the captain to walk beside me, “we must return to the city,” I said, quietly. He hesitated, the protest forming in his eyes before his mouth. He did not yet grasp the danger pressing in around us.

  “A hundred Melknit are marching,” I went on. “They should reach the city by tomorrow.” The easing of tension in his face was answer enough.

  Daylight was slipping away. We quickened our pace, boots scuffing stone and dirt. None of us wanted the city in darkness. Night had fallen when we took cover in a wide grove just short of the gate. The men leaned on spears, chest heaving. One muttered a curse, another a prayer. I left them behind and moved ahead with Mherlk and the captain.

  Shouts, metal ringing on metal, the harsh sound of men dying came from the city. The main gate stood open. A few ladders leaned against the walls; the battlements were empty. Beyond the gate, soldiers pressed forward in a restless mass, jostling and shouting eager to fight. The siege had dragged on all day. The attackers had finally broken through.

  Far to our right, a figure stood half-hidden, watching the city. Her lips moved as if speaking to someone—unseen. Glimpses of red flashed beneath her cloak. I forced my gaze back to our enemies. A simple plan would do.

  “We are greatly outnumbered,” Caimis worried.

  “They are only men.” The words left my lips before I realized how they might strike him. I forced a wry smile, “Just follow Mherlk.”

  The faint mist from before had thickened, masking our approach for a little longer. I ran forward, my makeshift spear ready. Two shadows fell ahead, silent and lethal. Mherlk and the Captain mirrored my movement.

  I sped up. A lone woman charging at them would shake their lines; twenty-seven bloodthirsty soldiers pouring in behind would break it. As I closed in, the strangers were already pulling the fight apart. I hurled my spear at the only man looking my way. Before his body hit the ground, my blade had already cut down the man beside him. The surprise had to last long enough to split the main group from the rearguard. I leapt over several soldiers and came down on one. His neck snapped before he even saw me. I landed in the heart of the enemy formation, but the main gate still loomed above. I spun with my blade outstretched, slashing through armor and flesh alike. Steel rang; bodies fell at my feet.

  I advanced, cutting down anything that dared come too close, my breath sharp and steady amid the frenzy. Cries of pain and rage echoed around me, a deafening symphony of battle. Smaller than most, I moved like a whirlwind through the chaos. Behind me, Mherlk and the soldiers thinned the enemy ranks, forcing their way into the city. Ahead of me, the main group was pinned, pressure tightening from all sides. Above the melee, crimson blades moved like water, like—.

  “Now!” I shouted, raising both my voice and my blade above the chaos. Steel clashed and the wounded screamed, nearly swallowing my word, but Caimis saw my signal.

  His soldiers split—some pressing the attack, others heaving the great doors shut, sealing our enemies inside along with their fate.