The Destroyer Book 4 (51 page)

Then I saw the flank.

Shlara’s forces pulled away and seemed to retreat. I guessed it was a feint and I raised my command flag for my brother’s troops to hold position. If we fell out of place now or gave chase to Shlara’s dragon-armored warriors, we would risk her moving to outmaneuver that shoulder and piercing our ranks.

“She is pushing down the middle,” Relyara stated the obvious. For a few precious seconds I shook my head at the foolishness of the woman. Gorbanni’s troops were already there and the melee was extremely tight. Suddenly, Gorbanni’s cavalry disengaged and pulled back from the front line of pikes. The horses sprinted to the side and Shlara’s dragon-armored warriors pulled out their long bows.

“Fuck.” I wanted to scream as thousands of arrows ripped into my shieldless pike rows. Gorbanni’s cavalry never meant to penetrate the main force. They had just been a distraction so that I would set up my lines incorrectly.

I debated my options for troop rotation and came up with no answer. It would take too long for Grednil’s warriors to pivot around and face Shlara. I could pull Fusik’s cavalry in to plow over Shlara’s troops, but I guessed the human bitch had considered that play; Gorbanni’s remaining horses had fallen back and shifted toward the side there. If Fusik left Nyarathe’s army unprotected, they could be destroyed by the humans.

I did a quick count of Ilttaia’s troops. Despite the destruction that Kaiyer had personally wrought, only a fourth of the ground forces were dead. The skull-armored man continued to murder my kin from behind the ranks. How soon would he be captured? Two more minutes? Five more? Every second he was standing drained strength from the morale of my ground forces and gave Shlara a chance to penetrate the ranks and guard him.

“Sound the retreat!” The words tasted horrible in my mouth. I raised the flag and the couriers quickly mirrored it with their own. Horns blared from each segment of my army and my soldiers began their careful move backward.

Shlara’s forces pushed harder once they heard our signal and I saw the bitch push forward to join Kaiyer’s side. For a brief second I toyed with the idea of using magic to attack her from my position on top of the command platform. My magic would be easy to see coming and I had no doubt that she would evade the attack. It would accomplish nothing but revealing my position to Kaiyer and his general.

“Let us fly.” I jumped off of the platform and landed on my horse. My guards were ready, and as soon as Relyara joined me on her own steed we kicked them into a sprint.

Neither of us spoke for the next fifteen minutes. My mind mulled over what I had done wrong and what I could improve upon in the next battle. Unfortunately, I doubted that I would ever have an opportunity like this again. We had Kaiyer alone, in the thick of my army, and we still could not capture him.

A dark idea poured into my head. It was surely an act of desperation and I was not even sure if it was possible. But things were desperate. I could not beat Kaiyer. He was too powerful and his forces too capable. My people were on the verge of extinction and we probably only had a handful of battles left in us before the end.

I was to blame for all of this.

I had sparked Kaiyer’s hatred and quest for revenge when I killed his family. I stayed behind when search parties looked for him and the other escaped slaves. I ran and hid for years while he built up his people and destroyed mine. I could have remained with my tribe, leading their army and crushing the humans when they were still small in number and inexperienced in battle. If I had done what the tribes requested and mated when they wanted me to, I could have produced powerful offspring by now who would be helping me win this war. I could have been the hope for our race I was born to be.

“What are you going to do, Iolarathe?” Relyara finally voiced the question. The battlefield was many miles behind us now and the guards led me to the army’s fallback location.

“I am going to speak with the dragons,” I said.

“I don’t know how it works. My sister studied these devices, but I never cared to. Now I wish I had paid attention when she wanted to explain them to me.” Her fingers formed beautiful lines on the parchment with the quill pen.

“It only allowed her to go through?” I wrote back. Footsteps sounded down the hall past the room Iolarathe and I shared. We paused our movements and then resumed when the steps continued down the hallway and into another room.

“The Ovule only had enough power for one use. I convinced her to go without me,” she wrote. We had been planning the infiltration of Malek’s estate for the entirety of the night, and while I had asked the beautiful Elven woman for more details about my daughter, she declined to explain until we had completed our plans.

“These Radicles lead to other worlds? Are they just like this one?” I hated that she refused to speak, but I understood her caution. I didn’t know if any of my generals were hunting for us, but if they were, there would be searches at all the inns of the city.

“They all have land, forests, oceans, and can support life. The Gods made them for us,” she wrote.

“If our daughter is on one of these other worlds, will she be able to survive?” My hands shook when I wrote the words. I wanted to know everything about the girl, but I knew that too many focused questions about our child would just make Iolarathe frustrated and switch the topic back to getting the Ovule from Malek’s home.

“She is more than capable of taking care of herself,” she wrote, but frowned slightly. “That isn’t the issue. She isn’t on the world yet. She is stuck in between.”

“How?”

“She went into the Radicle alone with the guardian. The old fucker heard us arguing and she managed to convince him that this was the safest way.” She ran her nails down the edge of the table and it made a painful screech. She stopped as soon as the wood cried out and sighed softly.

“How is this safer?”

“The guardian told me how to pull her into the other world, but I need this Ovule. She didn’t want to go on without me and I couldn’t keep her on this world.”

“Because of me?” Ice formed in my stomach. Was Iolarathe worried that I would kill our own child like I had her kin?

She shook her head and a small shadow of a smile spread across her lips. “I thought you were dead all these years, Kaiyer.” Iolarathe’s smile grew from the shadow and my chest filled with warmth. “She told me you weren’t dead, but I never believed her.”

“Why did she have to leave this world? What is her name?” I had asked the last question before, but she would not answer.

“There are creatures on this world far more dangerous than your people. I will explain once we have the Ovule.” She finished writing and I shook my head with a soft sigh. I needed to sleep, but the electrifying closeness of Iolarathe had every part of my body dancing with joy.

“You are tired,” she wrote on the parchment.

“Now is not the time to rest. Once we are on the
Sea Dog
and a few hundred miles out on the ocean, I will relax,” I scribbled.

“I am confident in our plan. As long as your people aren’t expecting us to risk stealing the globe from Malek’s estate, we should be safe.” I nodded in agreement.

My joints creaked when I stood and I realized we had been sitting at the table for far too long. It was a half an hour after I normally took my meal. If I waited any longer, we risked the innkeeper Tuirp coming up here to check on me. I gestured to my mouth and raised an eyebrow. She nodded, and I quietly opened the door to the room and slid into the hallway. I hated to leave her. I felt it like a physical ache.

“Late to bed means late to rise eh, Neas?” Tuirp greeted me when I entered the common room of the inn. A few other patrons were finishing up their meal, but most of the tables were empty.

“Wise words, friend. I did have that late night, if you recall.” I smiled at the man, while in my head I wondered if I would need to kill him now that he had remembered the alias I had given him earlier.

I was probably just being paranoid.

“Most have gone to work. You heading to the smithy? Which one did you say you worked at?” He pointed to a giant pot of eggs and I nodded. His questions confirmed my paranoia and I began to think through the most discrete ways to end his life.

“Two servings please. I am feeling under the weather and want to spend the day in my room.”

“No problem, son. Should I send a runner to your master to let him know?”

“No need, Tuirp. He gave me the next few days off to explore the city before I begin my full-time apprenticeship.” I had prepared the lies many weeks beforehand so they came easily to my lips.

“I thought you were one of the O’Baarni,” the gray-haired man said when he handed me a tray. There was a giant serving of eggs, several biscuits, today’s stew, and even two small oranges. “But I hear those folk don’t get sick.”

“Why did you think I was one of them?” I took the food and forced a smile to my lips.

“I’ve seen enough of them in here to tell them apart. It is in the eyes.” He winked at me and stroked his neatly trimmed gray beard. “You look young, but your eyes made me think you were older.” He shrugged and went back to cleaning some of the dishes in a barrel. “No matter though. I try to treat all my customers the same, even if they can’t destroy the place with a flex of their arms!” He laughed and I forced myself to chuckle with him.

“Sorry to disappoint you, friend. If I was one of them it would make the smithy work a lot easier. Have a good morning. I might not come down for lunch or dinner. Please don’t worry about cleaning my room.”

“Feel better, lad.” He nodded, and I walked back up the stairs to my door with the tray of food.

“Thank you,” Iolarathe wrote after I set the food on the table in front of her.

“Eat it all. You need your strength and I can always get more.” She nodded and devoured the rest while I listened at the door. My room was on the fourth floor near the stairs and there were only two other guests staying on the same level. I heard snores coming from one room, and no sound from the other.

“I don’t know how you can stand the smell of me. I can’t recall the last time I bathed and the dungeon was unkind.” I read her note after she finished clearing the plate.

“I am just happy you are here with me.” I wrote back and was rewarded when her red lips smiled.

“Does this place have a bathroom?”

“There is a bathing room down at the end of the hall. Next door are the toilets.” I wrote the sentences out and then came up with an idea that I thought would work. “I think I can get us there without raising suspicion. Wait here.” She nodded, and I took the empty plate and walked down the three flights of stairs and back to the common room.

“Looks like you enjoyed the breakfast.” The gray-haired innkeeper grinned and took my empty dishes.

“I have to be honest with you about something, Tuirp,” I said slowly. I bit my lip nervously.

“Oh?” His brow furrowed and he sighed.

“Yeah. As I said earlier, the master gave me these next two days off to see the town. I’m not really sick. I came back with a woman last night.”

“Ahh!” His face split into a grin. “That is nothing to worry about, lad.” He nodded his head and smirked. “Although I am surprised I didn’t see her last night.” He tilted his head slightly.

“She is well beyond what I ever thought I could court. If you can recall our earlier conversation about who you thought I was.” I winked at him and his eyes grew wide.

“I told her I was staying here and had just gotten the job.” I brought my voice to an almost silent whisper. Tuirp looked shocked. “She served under Alexia, so I am not surprised you didn’t see or hear her last night.”

“Can she hear us down here?” His eyes were as wide as the dish in his hands.

“I don’t think so, but maybe.” I shrugged.

“My place does have a good reputation,” he stuttered and his face almost matched his hair.

“I wanted to see if I could arrange a private bath with her.” I reached into my pouch and pulled out a small silver disk about the size of the nail on my thumb.

“No need for that, son.” He shook his head nervously when I tried to hand him my money. “You are celebrating quite an accomplishment. I’ll have Selinta and Geya prepare a hot bath in the room and let you know when it is ready. Consider it a gift because you’ve been such a nice guest. You also remind me of myself at your age.” He winked at me when he finished talking and the color returned to his face.