by Rosie Scott
I frowned at that revelation. Given the god's insanity when I'd first met him, I shouldn't have been surprised. Even though I was sure I already knew the answer, I asked the man one last question. “Reinforcements are coming. How many?”
“We started with one hundred thousand battle-ready men, but more are preparing. Our fleet of warships can only carry twenty thousand at a time. We are the third group out of five.” The man nodded toward the north. “At least two more groups are coming.”
“One hundred thousand,” I breathed, the words said like a curse.
“All of our people are warriors,” the elf replied nonchalantly. “We don't have armies like the rest of the world. We are the army.”
My eyes moved slowly to the north, where the darkening skies led ominously to the seas beyond Esen. Our army had fared well in this battle, but we could not afford another wave of reinforcements. The war had already set back our goals of Hammerton and Chairel, possibly by years.
I caught the eyes of the Sentinels. “We need to heal and prepare our men to depart as quickly as we can,” I breathed. “We must leave by the morning.”
Forty-three
19th of Red Moon, 423
The skies were lightening from pure black to dark lavender with the dawn of a new day. Millions of stars still twinkled through new color, desperate to maintain their hold on the night. The air was so cold it was biting, numbing the tip of my nose and causing me to curl the toes in my boots to ensure they were still there. Cerin and I stood on the bow of our ship against the railing, keeping our bodies in a sideways embrace for warmth. We both shivered despite the extra gear and coats we'd had prepared for this battle. Cerin usually handled the frigid temperatures much better than the rest of us, but it was colder near Glacia than it'd ever been.
The combined navies of Eteri were a frightening sight fanning across the Servis moving north. The biting winds kept the approach of our ships mostly silent, taking the creaks of the wood and the voices of the sailors and whisking them off to never be found again. A frozen fog the likes I'd never seen kept our visibility to a minimum, clouds of tiny ice crystals hanging over the seas like a heavy curtain. Our ships traveled slowly, ensuring that we had the time to avoid blocks of ice which floated through the waters like crumbs of the land just on the other side of the fog. The closer to Glacia we got, the more ice we had to maneuver around. The country was hemorrhaging its own land from the outside in.
“Are you excited?” I asked Cerin, my teeth chattering between and throughout my words.
“Sure,” he replied in monotone, a puff of smoke expelling from the depths of his hood. “You know how much I love family reunions.”
I laughed despite my discomfort. “I was asking if you were excited to see it.”
“A little curious,” Cerin replied, before hesitating just to shiver. “Nothing more.”
“Your mother loved Glacia,” I pointed out.
“Yes,” he agreed, “and it killed her. It could be the most beautiful place in the world, and I'd still be happy to see it melt. After all,” Cerin tugged me closer to him, “I have all the beauty I need right here.”
I chuckled at the flirtation just before Azazel's voice spoke up behind us. “That was your cue to groan, Kai.”
I turned to find the archer smiling at me with jest. “You don't have to get that close to listen to us, Azazel.”
“No, but I'm trying to steal your body heat,” he admitted.
I huffed with humor and reached out to him with my free arm, tugging him close. Azazel shivered to the left of me as Cerin shook to the right.
“If ya let me block the view, love, I'll also block the wind.” Maggie came to a stand beside Azazel, leaning her war hammer up against the railing.
“You don't look nearly as cold as the rest of us,” Cerin commented. “And I'm half Icilic.”
Maggie chuckled. “I'm chilly, but I got a lotta bulk.” She flexed one long, muscular arm as she wiggled her eyebrows.
“Show-off,” Cerin huffed.
“Aye,” Maggie teased.
“You all are joking together like we're not going into battle with a bunch of pale lunatics,” Bhaskar's voice sounded from behind us.
“Would ya rather us be sitting around sobbin' about our circumstances, love?” Maggie retorted, before a chuckle. “That ain't no proper way to enter a battle.”
“Actually,” Cerin said, glancing over to the rest of us, “that would be pretty hilarious. Bhaskar, if we all went into battle with you while bawling our eyes out, maybe Vertun would simply admit defeat out of pity.”
Bhaskar allowed himself to laugh at that. “That's what we'll do, then.”
I finally turned to face the other god. I'd stopped trying to assure him that I would help him out of this alive. Even though I would certainly try, he'd convinced himself that this would be his last battle. Thus, I assumed it would be when I spoke to him.
“Vertun is powerful,” I started, “and he's certainly got to be commanding since he's weaseled his way into two mortal governments over the years.”
“Are you insulting me?” Bhaskar questioned, one golden eyebrow raised with a hesitant playfulness.
“No, and if you'd let me talk for a minute you'd see where I was going with this,” I retorted, to which he grinned. “I'm worried that we'll get there, and as soon as you see him you'll want to use the sun and go through with everything. But we'll need time to get back to the ship, Bhaskar, and every second we take to retreat is another second Vertun has to gain the advantage and ruin us all. Or, at the very least, he could bring legions of Icilic to you.”
“What is your suggestion?” Bhaskar questioned, crossing his arms over his chest. I only now realized that the god of the sun wasn't shivering in this freezing weather at all. I remembered shaking his hand all of the way back in Tal and how warm it had been.
“Let us help you fight Vertun,” I replied. When the god looked as if he would protest, I quickly added, “I promise not to kill him. I will leave that to you. But your brother will have too many advantages here. The risk of failure is high. He will be surrounded by healers who can continually shield him, who will all be throwing weapons and magic your way.”
“No matter how long you stay with me, we will be outnumbered,” Bhaskar pointed out. “There are enough Icilic mages here to kill every person in this entire navy, and only one or two ships are going to be moving down that inlet.”
“Yes, but at least we'll have a chance. I can summon golems to fight with you and raise the dead. It will give you enough support to last until you use the sun. If you become overwhelmed before we can retreat, all will be lost. With or without the sun.”
The golden eyes that matched my own peered at me carefully. “And you give your word that you will not kill Vertun?”
“On my life, I will only disable him,” I promised. “I seek to aid you, Ciro, because you are doing so much for us.”
There was a look of appreciation which exuded from the god's face. “You used my given name,” he murmured.
“Yes, because that's who you are,” I replied. “We are far away from Hades, after all, and if there are any men left on this ship who don't know who you truly are, they will learn of it after your sacrifice. If you can only hold onto one thing in this battle, let it be your identity.”
Ciro was silent a moment. Finally, he reached out with a hand, grabbing my own and pulling me to him in a friendly embrace. Despite the freezing cold, heat still exuded from his armor, temporarily warming me. “Thank you, friend. If anyone knows how important one's own identity is, it is you.” He pulled back from me. “The gods are cursed, Kai. We are doomed to live by the rules our powers set for us, and yet the gods all agreed to live by even more that did nothing but cage us. I'm glad I told them to fuck off and joined up with you.” He smiled. “I only wish we could have more time together.”
“Quality over quantity, Ciro.”
The god shrugged teasingly as if to say he couldn't argue with that.
&n
bsp; “Just to be sure,” Cerin said from next to the railing, “you're okay with us aiding you?”
“Yes, as long as I get to kill my brother,” Ciro answered. “Why?”
“Because time runs short,” Cerin replied. “We are here.”
I turned back to the north. The freezing fog which had hung over the waters like a blanket was slowly disappearing, tiny ice crystals melting in the rising sun. Past the receding obstruction, Glacia slowly revealed itself to us.
Our navy traveled just to the left of its western coast, on our way to its inlet. With our ship closest to the glacier, we had the closest view of the land. The earlier fog had hidden a southern harbor from us, small fishing boats rocking in mild waters as they were secured to the icy coast with ropes attached to metal stakes. Even though it was early, the harbor was bustling. The Icilic appeared to live by their love of fishing, and many of them were in the midst of boarding the boats or delivering their catches to shore. Our presence here stopped all of that. Shouts of alarm rang out into the freezing early morning air.
I gave our ship both necessary shields in preparation of being attacked. My foresight saved a few men on board from getting hit by a barrage of arrows that flew our way from the coast. Our navy sailed ever forward, leaving many of the attackers behind as they ran after us along the shore until their arrows would no longer reach us. We could be sure that warnings were being passed along to help the elves prepare for battle. Our arrival had been a surprise, but we still would need to battle hard to prevent the Icilic's seemingly infinite reinforcements from overwhelming us.
Glacia stretched out beside us in fields of white and blue. The country was simply one giant glacier which had been chiseled to serve the needs of the people here. Mountains of ice had been carved into castles of clearish-blue. The Icilic had etched magnificent designs into these buildings as if they were made of stone. Many of them towered toward the sky in apexes, but I noticed that the pointed nature of the roofs were curved from natural erosion. Even without our help, it seemed the atmosphere of Arrayis was determined to stamp out the Icilic's reign by taking their land.
Because the buildings were limited to the locations of vertical land, settlements of Glacia appeared to revolve around the palaces of ice and were supported by a variety of huge tents made of animal skins. Some of the shelters were long, magnificent structures large enough to dwarf some of the buildings back in Eteri. The tents here were the buildings, and many of them must have existed in the same spot for decades if not centuries.
I saw no sources of unnatural light throughout the land. The Icilic didn't deal in the lesser magics, after all, and they were not predisposed to the element of fire. The lack of light didn't appear to bother them in the slightest. After all, as the morning sun shone across the entire land, it gave off a natural glow as the light sparkled off of ice and snow alike. Both the buildings made of ice and the tents prevented total indoor darkness as the sun's light filtered through the thinnest walls and the tiniest of cracks. The skies above Glacia were so open and expansive that the nights here must have been well-lit and beautiful.
There was a natural pond of sorts farther inland where a couple of fishers sat around with static fishing rods. Even when the Icilic weren't fishing in the ocean, they were trying to find fish beneath the glacier itself. The men and women waiting for bites sat around eating what looked like raw fish. Puffs of smoke came out of thick hoods lined in fur.
The people here matched their land. Pale. Shimmering. Exotic. Cold. I found myself wishing that things could be different. The Icilic were the oldest lineage of elves on Arrayis, and yet somehow they were the most ignorant, keeping themselves isolated like the rest of the world could offer them nothing. Perhaps I was biased given my overwhelming attraction for Cerin, but the people here were beautiful. Glacia itself was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. In my travels of the world, I had seen every land but Hammerton, and it was Glacia that I found most wondrous. The country was magnificent, and in an impossibly acute juxtaposition, the culture it supported was appalling.
HUUURRRNNNNN!
I turned to look west, following the noise to find Altan's navy. His ship's red offensive flag was rising. The Icilic warships appeared ahead, swaying slightly along an outreach of icy coast. They had only arrived in Glacia shortly before us. We had left Esen as soon as we could to follow them here, after all. The warships were cleared of most their men and supplies. Workers along the coast were dragging crates of supplies through bunches of white snow in preparation for the next voyage, but they slowed their work when Altan's horn blow reached their ears with harsh echoes. Another war horn sounded from farther west as Uriel prepared his own navy. The Sentinels were determined to sink the warships before the Icilic had a chance to board them.
In the next navy over, Zephyr directed her ships to follow the other two Sentinels. The galleons diverted their course, falling into line behind Altan and Uriel. Because Zephyr had access to life magic and was a fantastic defensive general, we'd planned for her ship to come with ours. In what few memories I had of the inlet Cicero had shown me, it was extremely narrow. We were only going to risk moving two ships up it, and only a handful of us would risk disembarking. Zephyr and Cyrus and the rest of our men were to stay behind to turn the ships in preparation of leaving as quickly as we could, and both would be required to keep the warships defended from the attacks which were likely to come. Our two ships had the most dangerous job out of the entire navy, and there were so many things that could go wrong.
But I entertained none of them. My mind was on Jakan and Anto. It had been almost a year since their deaths, but it didn't hurt any less. If we made it out of this battle alive, perhaps enacting vengeance would allow me some closure. It always had in the past. If I had merely watched Bjorn's execution all those years ago and hadn't retaliated, how could I have lived with myself? I would forever mourn Bjorn's untimely death, but the resulting acts of vengeance had allowed most of my sadness to mold into a more productive motivation. It made the loss easier to accept. I hoped the same would be true here.
“Kai.” Cyrus's voice pulled me from my thoughts. The Sentinel's two blue eyes searched mine for guidance. “How far is the inlet from here?”
My eyes traveled down the icy coast. Already, many Icilic warships were on fire. Altan had been first to attack, as usual. His audaciousness would hopefully attract most of the Icilic reinforcements. Many of the snow elves were rushing to the coast even now, summoning water from the skies to try to put out the fires. The intense cold worked against them, turning the water into snow before melting pathetically in the heat in tiny droplets at a time.
“Just around that outreach,” I replied, nodding toward the raging shore battle.
Cyrus yelled orders back to the men to divert our ship around the others. Zephyr's galleon also changed its course, following our lead. When Cyrus turned back to me, he said, “I think your idea to stick by Bhaskar in his battle is a good one. I'll be coming with you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Will you? You are supposed to stay and defend the ship.”
“Zephyr can handle the defense of two ships,” Cyrus replied. “Besides, I am a water mage, and we are attacking a country made of ice. There is much I can do to help. Bhaskar and I spent a lot of time in Mistral together before your arrival in Eteri.” The Sentinel buried both hands in the pockets of his extra coat and watched as an Icilic warship slowly sunk beside the icy coast, the flames rising from its boards sizzling out as it was taken by water. “If he is to die here today, I'd like to make sure he feels as supported as possible until it is necessary for him to be alone.”
I nodded. “I respect that decision, Cy.”
“I knew you would.” Cyrus patted me once on the back in a friendly gesture. “Don't worry about the ships, Kai. Zephyr has her life and death dual caster on board. They'll hold them off.”
Our two warships went mostly unnoticed as we quietly maneuvered around the coastal battle. The inlet finally appeared in view, b
reaking the glacier open like the cut of a fatal wound. Cicero's memories of the channel were somewhat incorrect; the split wasn't nearly as thin as the images I'd been studying in my mind for seasons. It started off almost as large as Scirocco's inlet, though it surely thinned the farther into the continent it went.
The waters of the split were light blue and crystal clear, and as our ship slowly sailed through it, I could have sworn I saw ice in the depths below. It was as if the glacier was breaking apart from the surface only, and as the split widened over the years, it was carving out more ice from beneath the waters. Cyrus noticed this as well, standing at the bow and looking through his binoculars to ensure the keel of our ships wouldn't run up on solid ice.
Crr-pssh! A barrage of ice spikes shattered over our ship's alteration shield before melting and being absorbed. The air over the deck started to vibrate with excess energy. Our two warships were now attracting the attention of mages and warriors alike, and arrows and magic began to rain over us. Cerin threw death magic over the railing and into the crowds, and I soon joined him. Only the necromancers on board our two ships were fighting for now. I'd taught enervat to the other death dealers of Eteri's army over the seasons, and it was useful now. The dual caster from Zephyr's ship was utilizing it to regenerate the vessel's shields with life and alteration magic. Until the guards were broken, none of their attacks could reach us.
As our ship slowly made its way inland, I did my best to build up an army on the shores. As death magic felled the Icilic, I raised their corpses from the dead with excess energy. Snow elves came to battle with their undead brethren in a welcome distraction until the icy coast was in the midst of civil war. With a combination spell of death and water magic, I summoned a golem from the thick ice of the shoreline. It pulled itself out of the land with a crystallized groan. It was the first time I'd summoned one of the creatures out of anything but earth. Ice wasn't nearly as strong as metal, but it was all I had to work with, and I could not imbue the monsters with other elements from this distance. The ice golem lumbered into battle, its thick frozen feet scraping over the glacier and leaving piles of ice shavings in its wake. Its two arms were little more than icicles sharper than blades and longer than most weapons. It came to fight with an Icilic woman who managed to chip her great ax into the side of its neck, but the elf was unprotected. She was impaled through the gut a moment later, the icy end of the golem's arm melting with the heat of her blood. The golem managed to add a few more kills to its count before a water mage turned its body back to liquid. It fell to the ground in a splash, staining the glacier with the blood of its victims.
