Siege (The Warrior Chronicles, 5)

by K. F. Breene

  She took the gate at a sprint and gouged the minds waiting in the entryway. Their screaming greeted her as she barged through. Their bodies crumpled to the ground.

  The city opened up into a dirty courtyard with grime covering the cracked and broken cobblestone. A haphazard gathering of men hastened to form a line, some only half dressed. Shanti sprinted into their number, stabbing one through the gut before any of them had even raised a blade. Rohnan’s staff slashed a chest and Kallon’s sword took out another.

  Shanti flicked away a weak thrust before running the man through with her sword. She grabbed the front of his shirt and ripped him away as he died. Charging forward, she unlocked their Gifts from hers, still connected for communication, but now with everyone acting independently. Like arrows firing, the Warring Gifts unleashed, striking and cutting minds as they fought through. When the line was dead, they caught up to her, jogging through the city.

  Dirt and grime covered walls. Weeds grew between the cracks. Garbage littered the ground. Shanti felt a group of men coming her way. She ignored the female in the house to the left, and kept her eyes moving.

  A man in a wrinkled black uniform with a single slash at the breast turned the corner up ahead. Two more joined him of the same rank. Shanti hefted a knife and threw, sticking it in his chest. Another appeared in the man beside him, dropping the Graygual to his knees. Rohnan reached the third with his staff and cut through the vulnerable neck. The man had barely struck out with his sword before he was sinking into a puddle of death.

  “I see no signs of a large host,” Kallon said above the din. A man ran at him from a side alley. He turned and thrust his sword through the Graygual’s gut with quick economy. The man issued a high-pitched scream and fell away.

  “No. They must be here to keep the city occupied.” Shanti struck someone running to meet them. A shrill scream echoed against the walls.

  More screams erupted behind them, a group of Graygual trying to run at their backs, but the Shumas didn’t even turn to take them out.

  Shanti felt Cayan’s frustration and Sanders’ boredom. They worked toward the northwest, the largest populated area.

  Shanti turned a corner. A black back was running away from them, his sword nowhere to be seen. His back arched as he screamed before tumbling to the ground.

  “Their minds are weak,” Kallon said.

  “They don’t have the Gift. How would they block you?” Shanti turned left, confused by the strange layout of streets within the city. She felt minds running toward them, and some running in Cayan’s direction, all originating from the same area. Shanti and Cayan’s target area.

  She turned left again then slowed to a stop, scowling at a house that closed off the street. “Were they drunk when they laid out this town?” She went back in the other direction and attempted to work her way around.

  “Where townspeople?” Sayas asked from behind them.

  “Those that survived the attack on Cayan’s city obviously didn’t survive the Graygual attack. Or they left.” Shanti tried a left turn again, sighing in relief when the street was mostly straight, leading to a large, square building. In front of double doors stood a line of Graygual with straight backs and sloppy poses.

  She shook her head. “These aren’t army. What’s the point of them?”

  Kallon sheathed his sword and unslung his bow from his back. “They are a good thing to toss at the enemy in order to see what he does.” He yanked an arrow from his back and nocked it in a smooth movement. A moment later the arrow struck a Graygual in the chest. Another arrow flew, Sayas following suit. Mela was right after. Bodies fell, leaving gaping holes in front of the building.

  “Stop!” Cayan’s horse clattered through the grimy street, followed closely by Sonson.

  The line in front of the building started to wobble. Graygual huddled close together, and then drifted apart again, the desire to run so strong a few had dropped their swords in anticipation. But there was nowhere for them to go.

  “Where do you hail from?” Cayan asked, holding his palm up to the archers.

  The lead Graygual stared up at Cayan with wide, terrified eyes. “Further north, sir.”

  “What happened to the Mugdock that occupied this land?”

  The Graygual shook his head a fraction and glanced to the side. The next man shrugged while the others continued to stare with blank looks. Their minds were equally as empty. Xandre wasn’t risking any sharp army men in this endeavor.

  “How long have you been here?” Shanti tried, stepped closer.

  The lead man’s fearful gaze swung her way. “J-just a couple months. Oh—you’re the violet-eyed girl!”

  A flash of opportunity flared from the man on the end. His sword swung upward as he lunged forward. Shanti threw up her weapon to block. The blow never landed. A blast of power so ferocious that Shanti staggered backward crashed into the man. He barely had time to shriek before his limp body tumbled to the ground. Next to him, caught in the line of fire, the others screamed and clutched at their chests before sinking to their knees.

  “Cayan! You have to choose who you affect with the power—you can’t just blast everyone in the way!” Shanti shook herself out, and then smiled as Kallon bent to rest his hands on his knees. She pounded him on the back. “And just think, you have yet to carry out the challenge.”

  “He would benefit from some training,” Sayas said with a white face.

  Shanti started forward as Cayan jumped down from his horse. She stepped around the fallen bodies. “Usually I am his control, but…well, he reacts faster than he thinks, sometimes.”

  “Remind me to stay behind him in a fight.” Sayas rubbed his chest. “His power feels strange.”

  “I am interested to see what he can do when let off the leash,” Mela said.

  “Has this city always been so dirty?” Shanti asked Cayan as she pushed her Gift behind the thick double doors. She ran her hand along the peeling paint and watched white flakes flutter to the ground.

  “I have always heard it was, yes.” Cayan turned back to those still on their horses. “Dismount. There are about a dozen in here that we know of.”

  “Were the Mugdock evacuated before this lot was moved in, or did they leave of their own accord after the battle…” Shanti sheathed her sword and took out two throwing knives. Fear and apprehension rolled and spiraled inside the room. Unease drifted from those behind her.

  “Or did they join the army and forsake the women?” Cayan bristled. “They weren’t an honorable people.”

  “Some of them might have been, but the loudest voices are the ones people hear most often.” Shanti took a deep breath. “There is no way Xandre is in this room. Nor his prized inner circle. There is zero chance, but…” She licked her lips and squeezed the handles of her throwing knives. “If he is, he is protected from the Gift and will have half a dozen excellent fighters surrounding him. Maybe we should wait for Sanders.”

  Cayan surveyed the Shumas waiting patiently behind them, their limbs loose and shoulders relaxed. Shanti knew he could feel their turmoil through the merge, even if he couldn’t see the fire burning brightly in their eyes.

  “Sanders would pale in comparison to what we’ll be taking in there with us,” Cayan said with absolute conviction.

  Kallon straightened a little. The movement was small, but spoke volumes. He approved of Cayan’s validation.

  “Enough stalling,” Shanti said to herself. She stepped back, giving Cayan room. With a show of might, his foot smashed the door by the handle at the same time as his Gift surged out, flooding the room beyond. The door broke with a series of splintered cracks. The top hinge ripped from the wood.

  Cayan shouldered through, with Shanti following close behind. The room opened up around her. Shapes hunkered to the ground at the other end, cringing from the pain Cayan was still pumping into them. A quick sweep of her gaze told her what she’d hoped and feared at the same time—no one else occupied this room.

  She let a bre
ath tumble out of her mouth as Rohnan and Mela ran in a moment later, bows in hand. Sayas and Kallon were right behind them with throwing knives.

  Cayan’s Gift withered away as his battle zeal quieted. He walked toward the enemy with sure steps, alert in case anyone should jump out of a cupboard or from behind the sagging couches. The men on the ground unfurled like flowers in spring and staggered upward. The first to recover looked around with dazed eyes. Then he burst into action. He jumped forward with sword outstretched, hacking toward Cayan with barely trained gusto. Cayan knocked the blade to the side and struck, piercing the man in the gut. Another man jumped up and charged. An arrow stabbed him like a pincushion. He faltered and lost the strength in his legs before tumbling to the ground.

  One by one the enemy recovered and advanced. Wild-eyed and hopeless, they swung their swords or tried to throw their knives, defiant to the last in a land they had stolen.

  She slapped her Gift onto their minds even as one of the enemy reached her with a battle cry. Sucking in, she drank in all his energy and life force, sapping him of strength and power. Confusion stole over his expression, and then a flash of fear, before he sank to the ground.

  “There’s your officer,” she said as she jumped back, avoiding his thrust. The others behind him fell as well, some clawing toward her with determination not common in enlisted men. They must’ve been the Graygual flunkies, only useful for occupation and dying.

  “What were these men promised in order to fight through their fear?” Cayan asked.

  Rohnan backed away toward the door, as far away from those on the ground as possible. “They were manic. Their emotions weren’t right. Corroded, almost.”

  “One wonders how long they have been kept in this place.” Kallon checked the pulse of the Graygual at Shanti’s feet. “He lives. That is a useful trick.”

  “It’s a dirty trick when used how I was taught it. It came from the Inkna.” Shanti put away her throwing knives and spread her Gift out. She felt her people, a few females that were probably prostitutes, and a couple of hiding enemy that the Shadow were making their way toward. No cunning intellect of a higher officer or inner-circle member. It didn’t mean they weren’t there. If last night had taught her anything, it was that Xandre wasn’t showing his entire arsenal, and he wasn’t going after her. He was waiting, and watching. Learning. When he did move, it would be with intelligence and purpose.

  “How many cities like this does he have?” Shanti asked with a flash of rage. She faced her people. “How many in this land are his puppets, hoping for handouts and willing to lay down their lives for a cause they barely know? He can hide forever, sending disposable troops at us until he organizes a well-trained horde to take us down. It disgusts me how callous he is with human life.”

  “Which is why we are going to kill him.” Kallon’s stormy eyes flashed. “It is why we will avenge our people, and those who suffer by his hand. This is our destiny.”

  “It’s why we are going to hit him where it hurts the most.” Cayan dragged a piece of fabric over his blood-smeared blade. “In his pocket.” He gestured Shanti toward the door with a last look at those on the ground. “Let’s clear out the rest of the city. I want to make sure there’s no one hiding in here with us, waiting for the cover of darkness.”

  10

  “Sir, I am pretty sure there is someone in there…” Gracas looked at the door to the dilapidated house with wide eyes.

  Sanders gritted his teeth in an effort to maintain calm. The grinding sound gave him away. “Private, speak only when you can add to the situation.”

  “Yes, sir.” Gracas shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then back again. “But do you want me to go in there, sir?”

  Sanders stepped forward and grabbed the idiot by the back of his collar. He gave a mighty heave, smashing Gracas into the door. The door burst open, spilling Gracas into the dark space beyond. Sanders stepped in a moment later, and saw the woman Denessa had said was in there. Just as Denessa said, the woman wasn’t armed, nor hostile. She sat at the edge of the bed with a patient air and a dead man lying beside her.

  “Did he forget to tip?” Sanders peered behind a dresser into the shadowed corner, making sure there was no one intending to pop out unannounced.

  “He scum, like them all.” The prostitute heaved her girth up off the bed and adjusted her bodice. Her large chest wiggled, drawing more than one set of eyes.

  “What happened to the people who used to live here?” Sanders asked, checking the closet. “They try to pay you, too?”

  The woman sauntered forward with confidence. “Graygual move in, the others move out. Into graves. All dead.”

  Sanders motioned for the others to evacuate the small room. “You saw this?”

  “No. I hear. I came after.”

  “You came of your own volition?”

  The woman’s brow scrunched up for a moment. “Your big words don’t make your dick grow.”

  Sanders huffed out a laugh. “Too bad, ay? You come here on your own, or did the Graygual move you in?”

  “Graygual come, we come. We work. We wait.”

  “For what?”

  “For Wanderer. We help.” The woman gestured down at the dead man. She didn’t seem to notice the droplets of blood puddled on the floor and reaching toward her heeled shoe.

  “We need all the help we can get.” Sanders turned toward the door. To those waiting for him, he said, “Check in with all the women in the houses. Make sure they know the skirmish is over and they are free to go.”

  “We always been free to go.” The woman, who had followed Sanders out, put her hands to her ample hips.

  Sanders gritted his teeth again. What was it about him that invited women to speak their minds? Would nothing in his life be easy? “Tell the men that these women have a habit of killing their clients.” He stalked toward his horse.

  “You think anyone in here has that mind mask like last night?” Tomous asked as Sanders neared the horses.

  “That’s what we’re trying to figure out, aren’t we?” Sanders said. “Let’s get this wrapped up and get gone. If we don’t find them in here, we’ll find them on the journey.”

  “You think they’ll follow us?” Tomous climbed onto his horse.

  Sanders waited for everyone to saddle up. They needed to spread their eyes around the city. If any with the mind mask were in there, Denessa wouldn’t be any help to find them. It was time to do things the right way—with hard work and army know-how. “Whoever found us last night didn’t do so by chance. The enemy wants eyes on us, and he found someone that Shanti couldn’t see with her head. Just so happens I got eyes. They won’t hide from me for long.”

  “An invisible enemy is hard to take down. Even for someone with eyes,” Denessa said in a level tone.

  “I’m no greenie, let’s get that right. Butt out.” Sanders clicked his tongue to get his horse walking.

  “But…out…” Denessa gave him a confused frown. “I do not know that term.”

  “It means fuck off.” Sanders spurred his animal. “C’mon. We got shadows to find.”

  Alena waited with Leilius in barely suppressed nervousness at the front gate of the city. The other warriors were supposed to be flushing people out the back gate, into the waiting jaws of Lucius and the archers, but that didn’t mean someone wouldn’t accidentally run this way. With a sword.

  The warm wood felt sturdy in her grip.

  She’d just have to take them down before they got too close. It was doable. She had time.

  An image of the Graygual from the previous night drifted through her mind. Specifically of him flicking his sword and batting away Maggie’s fire-crusted arrow.

  Alena’s horse stomped, probably feeling her worry.

  She really hoped those men had all been killed. And if not, that they hadn’t followed the army into the city walls.

  “I hope no one comes this way,” Leilius said softly, as if hearing her thoughts. “I’m not used to t
his kind of thing. I still want to vomit when I stab someone. I don’t like the sight of blood.”

  “Then why are you still in the army?” Alena took a deep breath and shifted, trying to loosen herself up. If she was too stiff, it would affect her aim. That might lead to the death of one of them.

  “Because S’am needs me. She has to kill that Supreme man, and she needs help.”

  “But if you don’t like killing people, how are you much help? I mean…” She swatted at a fly. “They put us out here, out of the way. Everyone else is helping tie everything up in there.”

  “I can get information. That’s what I’m good at.” A sickly expression crossed his face. “I can protect the city if need be, and sneak up on an enemy and stick a knife in him if I have to, but S’am is training me to be the eyes and ears in enemy territory. I’m good at that.”

  Alena rolled her shoulders as a strange feeling itched between her shoulder blades. Her body erupted in goosebumps. It almost felt like someone was lightly poking her.

  She glanced at the broken gate. The scant trees beyond twisted and reached like dead things clawing at life, giving the city a haunted feel. “This is an ugly land.”

  “It’s not so different from ours, it’s just the Mugdock cut down a bunch of trees close to the city. They should’ve spread out the cutting if they needed wood, like we do. That way it wouldn’t look so dead.”

  “Regardless of the reason, it’s ugly.” Alena shook her shoulders. “I don’t like the open area at my back.”

  Leilius glanced behind him. A frown crossed his face. “Something up?”

  She shivered, feeling the press of eyes.

  She guided her horse to the right, partially shielded from the land outside. “I just don’t like putting my back to the unknown.”