Page 88 of The Broken Elf King
Giant rocks and boulders tumbled down the hillside and slammed into her army. They knocked men off mounts, they crushed machines, they spooked horses, which ran off wildly without any direction, bucking their riders.
“Reload!” I yelled but it wasn’t necessary, the people were already transferring the second stack of backup boulders behind them into the nets and then releasing them. There weren’t as many but it was enough to cause so much chaos that the queen had lost control of her army. They scattered like a pile of frightened ants.
The queen.
I scanned the ground but could no longer see her. An explosion suddenly rocked the hillside and then I was thrown backwards, my head cracking the hard ground and my teeth snapping together.
Fire. Screaming.
Stay calm.I breathed.
She’d bombed us. One of their trebuchets must have been set up in advance as if she expected an attack. I rose to my feet and a shadow blanketed me from overhead. I looked up just as the queen aimed her bolt shooter at me.
Everything happened so fast then I could barely comprehend it. She flicked her wrist right at me and a bolt left its thrower. Then a blur moved in front of me as Haig threw himself in the path of the shot.
“No!” I screamed. The bolt was fired with such force it went halfway through his chest, knocking him backwards into me before he hit the ground at my feet.
Something wild snapped within my chest and I burst from the ground, leaping over him and into the air. I grasped the ankle of the Nightfall queen and dangled from her leg for a second before she lost balance. She flapped her metal wings wildly as she tried to stay aloft, but they weren’t made to carry the weight of two people.
With a grunt she fell from the sky like a downed bird, hitting butt first and then her back. I wasted no time crawling on top of her, unbridled rage roiling through me.
I didn’t know what I was doing. Driven by pure instinct, I grabbed her cheeks and then hovered my mouth inches from hers. Her eyes went wide and she froze for a second, no doubt thinking I was going to kiss her.
Then I inhaled. My magic ignited, and instead of breathing life into the dying, Itookfrom the living. I sucked her life force right from her mouth. Shocked to see the white mist flowing from her open lips and into my lungs, I was simultaneously freaked out and fascinated by the discovery of this new gift. I watched in awe as a chunk of her hair turned white in the front.
I’m killing her, I thought for a wild second, then something pierced my shoulder blade and agony ripped through my arm, causing me to lose my hold on the queen. She used the distraction to ram a knee into my crotch and shove me off of her.
I lay on my back, arrows flying every which way, and watched in wonder as she took to the skies again. Her wings glinted in the dying sunlight as I grappled with what I’d just done. What I could do.
Maybe I wasn’tblessed, maybe I was alsocursed. This gift seemed to be able to go both ways.
“Retreat!” the Nightfall queen bellowed into the sky, and Nightfall’s deep horns blew throughout the valley.
Relief crashed through me at that sound, and I wondered if I’d weakened her. She was flying wobbly, her voice hoarse. Had I taken some of her vitality? Weakened her life?
I pulled my ponytail in front of me and inspected the darker brown chunk. Was there more of it than before? Had the queen just given me more life?
The pain in my shoulder brought me back into the moment and I looked down at my wound, and the arrow sticking out of it, and it was in that moment that I remembered Haig.
Scrambling to get up, I crawled over to the old man. He was lying on his back, bleeding heavily from the stomach as healers tried in vain to save him. This was beyond a simple healer. Maybe if Raife was here, but…
“Step back,” I commanded. I didn’t know how many breaths I had left. Definitely one. Maybe two. Maybe three if taking from the queen added to my life force—I didn’t know how it worked. When I hovered over Haig, opening my lips, his hand clamped over them, gripping my face forcefully and keeping me from breathing over him.
“I’m an old man. I’ve had a good life,” he said weakly. “And dying while watching the Nightfall queen retreat is a death well earned. Don’t take that from me and don’t waste your precious gift on me, child.”
My tears spilled out of my eyes and over his fingers. I wanted to thank him for saving my life, but his fingers were still positioned hard over my mouth like a steel trap. As if reading my mind, he stared at me. “Trading my life for yours was an honor… my queen.”
The tears flowed faster now. He sucked in one large final breath before his eyes went glassy and his chest moved no more. His hand fell away from my mouth and flopped to the ground. It took every ounce of self-control I had not to try to save him. I wanted to honor his wish. A man should be able to choose how he dies.
“My queen!” Cahal screamed and I stood, wiping my eyes. I’d fall to pieces later; my people still needed me.
My shoulder stung like Hades, but I followed his voice and found Cahal climbing to the top of the hillside.
“We have many wounded, and the valley is still on fire, but the troops have retreated,” he said, slightly out of breath.
I nodded, turning to the royal guard that stood behind him. “Heal the wounded! Put out the fires! Send scouts to make sure the entire army leaves,” I yelled and they scrambled. Then I turned to the civilians. “Gather our dead for burial. Burn the Nightfall soldiers.” They too scurried off to do my bidding.
Cahal hadn’t moved. He was staring at my shoulder. “My queen, you need a healer.”
