by Todd, E. L.
The ride in the wagon was growing with more tension the longer they sat together. Accacia hated Roxian more than she thought possible. She hated her almost as much as she hated Drake. Laura wanted to speak to her niece about the situation but she was never able to. Zyle always pulled Accacia away when they stopped and Laura didn’t want to intrude on their private time, doing what they always did, she assumed.
On the third day, they camped outside the forest near Paso Robles, wanting to wait for the descent of evening before they approached the gateway. The darkness would make the siege of the city easier. They could hide their faces better and no one would approach the realm until morning.
Aleco went over the plans in detail with the men and the Asquithians hours before they moved to the city. It was essential that everything went according to the plan and they left the city has soon as possible. The success of the war depended on it.
Accacia was sitting against Zyle as he leaned his back against the tree. They were sharing a pack of seeds and water when Aleco approached them across the grass. He kneeled before the pair of them and locked his eyes with Accacia. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I thought you were no longer concerned with my affairs.”
“I never said I wasn’t—I said you shouldn’t be concerned with mine. Now answer my question.”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“No one would judge you if you stayed behind.”
“Yes, I know that. But I’m coming. This is my fight—let me do it. I need to be prepared for Letumian Province and this will give me some practice.”
Aleco knew she wouldn’t be traveling to Letumian but he wasn’t going to tell her that. “This isn’t the time for practice, Accacia—you could be killed.”
“I am confident in my abilities.”
“Then why do you need practice,” he hissed.
Accacia sighed and turned her attention to her bag of seeds. “Go away, Aleco.” Zyle watched their interaction without comment. They were the oddest people he had ever met. They claimed to love each other but they could be vicious to one another—especially Aleco. Zyle wondered how Accacia had ever fallen for him. He was sarcastic, bad-tempered, damaged, and controlling. And he was the twin brother of the man who had imprisoned her for years. He was most surprised by that part. He wanted to question her about it but he didn’t want to upset her. She would tell him when she was ready. He was certain she knew he wanted to know.
They returned back into the wagons and headed towards the city. All the Asquithians had their hoods pulled up just in case someone recognized their racial differences and escaped the province alive. Zyle checked Accacia’s armor and made sure it was secure. He knew how nervous she was by the sweat dripping from her palms. He reminded her that she could stay behind but she refused him again. Zyle wasn’t concerned that she wouldn’t survive the attack. He would protect her with his life.
They were silent as their wagon pulled closer to the gates. Laura, Roxian, Zyle and Accacia wore the legendary armor of the Asquithians and Aleco wore his guild armor. He was no longer a Brother of the guild, but since he had taken over the society, he was entitled to wear their war gear.
Accacia felt her blood pump in her ears and her heart slam into her ribs. She was so nervous she felt like she could vomit. Anxiety took over and then panic. She tried to hide her fear but she was failing miserably. Zyle saw her distress and held her hand then kissed her head. “I’ll protect you,” he whispered.
Laura stared at Accacia and recognized her unease. She locked her gaze with her niece and shook her head in disapproval. “A true warrior does not display his fear before battle, Accacia. They relish it with every fiber of their being. Stop acting like this now. I will not tolerate a coward in my group. ”Zyle turned to Laura with a look of anger. He adored Laura but he could kill her for speaking to Accacia that way. “Do not speak, Zyle.” She turned back to Accacia, and Zyle held Accacia closer to him. “Are you the Queen of the Asquithians and a warrior? Or are you just a coward? If you choose the latter, I will behead you myself. Buck up now!” The anger in her voice was palpable and the disappointed in her eyes was searing. The fear and cowardice her niece was displaying was unacceptable and Laura would not tolerate it. “Do you understand what is at stake here, Your Highness? This is the fight for the afterlife, not just the one we exist in currently. Your life is irrelevant in this battle—start behaving as such. I never want to see you act like this again, and I would rather not kill my queen, my own family, if I can avoid it. Don’t give me a reason to.” Laura looked at the rest of the inhabitants in the cart, all of which were her kin other than Aleco, and met the gaze of each of them. There was no fear in their eyes, just a desire for retribution. “Don’t disgrace your people, Accacia.”
Zyle turned toward Laura again, ready to give her an ear full, when Accacia silenced him with her finger. She met Laura’s gaze. “You’re right, Lady Laura. I—I lost my strength for a moment there. I gave into the fear—you’re right—I was being a coward. But I will no longer. I will never be a coward again.” She remembered how she left the shores of the Continent, leaving Aleco behind to face his impending death alone. She had been a coward then but she wouldn’t repeat those mistakes. “Thank you, Laura. I needed that.”
Laura nodded to her. “Of course, Your Majesty.”
Zyle continued to squeeze her hand, silently assuring her of his protection. She released his hand. “I’m okay, Zyle,” she said. The concern in his eyes didn’t disappear and they still shined bright with worry. Her lips upturned in a smile, trying to assuage the fear he felt for his life partner, and his eyes dimmed somewhat. He was disturbed by her panic attack and his heart still pounded in his chest with heavy thuds. Accacia truly felt better. Tough love from her aunt was all she needed. She shouldn’t doubt her abilities because she knew how powerful she was. Accacia was nervous to enter battle her first time but she knew the fear was unfounded. She wouldn’t have become a warrior if she wasn’t prepared. The training she received at the Battle Academy had prepared her for this day, this fight. In addition to Aleco’s training, she was unstoppable.
The cart came to a stop and she felt her heart quicken. She knew they were stopped before the gate, ready to enter the city. She looked at Aleco, whose face was hidden in the depth of the shadows. He saw her staring at him and he removed his hood, revealing his smiling face to her. He stared at her for a moment and she took courage in his blue eyes. The bright lights of his crystal eyes went straight to her heart and it squeezed in recognition. The man that protected her against everything, and even though their relationship was over, she knew he still deemed himself her protector. Her marriage to someone else would never change that. The look in his eyes had an immense depth, and Accacia wanted to fall into the abyss of his gaze, reaching his soul, and reconnect to the place she felt safe from everything. Then she remembered fighting him at the grounds of the Lorunien Tree and knew her abilities even surpassed Aleco’s. Even with his capabilities as a Nature Priest, she still defeated him, even without a sword. Accacia heard the wooden gates creak open and they moved forward again. Aleco pulled his hood up, covering his face in shadow once again. He whispered into the dark. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
Accacia heard the shouts of the guards erupting all around her. They were directing the believed empty carts farther into city, allowing for room for the following carts to enter past the gate. Their wagon came to a halt and they waited in anticipated silence for a moment, listening for the signal. They heard the sound of a ringing bell in the near distance, and Aleco shoved the wagon door open, jumping from the cart and into the street. His guild sword hung at his side as he looked around them. Asquithians and guildsmen were in the street, swinging their swords at the guards who had approached the wagons. Heads of guards fell into the street like drops of rain. Accacia followed behind him and looked around in the square of the city. The wall that surrounded the province was twenty feet high and was craw
ling with guards. They were running down the walkway, calling to each other and arming their bows with deadly arrows. They pointed at the intruders in the street. Accacia saw the guards run to the tower to the far left and pull the heavy string that reached into the building above. The sounds of crashing bells echoed in the square and reached to the other parts of the city, alerting the rest of the realm of the attack.
All the anxiety left Accacia’s body as she concentrated on the battle. She had to annihilate as many guards as possible to ensure the survival of her own people. At least the guards would travel to the afterlife. Her kin may never get that luxury. She grabbed her bow from behind her shoulder and aimed at the guards along the wall, intending to execute as many of them as she could. Her aim was true and her arrows penetrated every neck she trained her eye on. They fell from the wall and broke their necks against the stone street. Accacia kept her senses locked on the movements around her as she continued to slaughter the men on top of the walkway. One of the guards in the street saw the destruction she was causing and advanced to her with his sword pointed for her heart. Accacia saw him in her peripheral vision, and when he raised his sword to strike, she turned around and stabbed him through the neck with a fresh arrow. She wiped the bloody tip on his clean uniform and placed it back into her quiver. Aleco was engaged in a sword battle with one of the guards but his eyes were locked to hers, watching her every move. He nodded his approval and beheaded the man he was engaged with. Accacia looked down the street that reached deeper into the city and she spotted a group of guards turn the corner of the pavement, coming to the aid of the alarms of the tower bells. The Asquithian Queen returned her bow to her back and withdrew her green warrior sword, identical to her father’s blade, and dashed toward the approaching army. Her emerald blade reflected the light of the torches along the houses in the street, making it dance even when it remained stationary. When the guards spotted her in the street they flinched momentarily, alarmed by the magnificent blade she carried, but then engaged her with their swords raised. She swung her blade with ease and decapitated two of them in row, causing the other men to step back in alarm. They assumed the single attacker didn’t oppose a threat to them all. But they had been mistaken. She tripped the man adjacent to her then stabbed the next man through the stomach. He fell over with a cry. Accacia swung her sword in a variety of movements and caught the remaining men off guard, killing them all quicker than they could register their impending deaths. She stared at the pile of bodies before her and silently thanked her trainers for giving her this adept ability. She was truly a warrior. An immediate high was replaced by a sudden flash of remorse. She had finally killed another. Accacia had never even killed an animal, now she was taking the lives of the men of the realm, possibly men who were forced into servitude against their will. The moment of sympathy passed as she realized it was irrelevant. There was nothing she could do; there was no other way.
Accacia turned around and surveyed the battle and saw the gleam of dancing swords as they clanged together in their throes. She heard the audible sounds of metal being scraped against metal as the attack waged on through the street. Accacia realized this fight was taking longer than they planned. They hadn’t anticipated so many guards to be awake and prepared for battle. Accacia saw Zyle stare at her while he swung his sword with this opponent, checking her surroundings for her safety. He decapitated the guard then kicked the corpse aside. He stepped toward Accacia and looked at her in horror. A man had risen from behind her, bleeding from the chest, and he had a sword held in his hand, ready to stab Accacia through the back. Zyle reached for his dagger and was about to throw it when the man was impaled with an Asquithian sword through the stomach. He fell to the floor, lifeless. Accacia saw the ancient blade fly past her face and vanish behind her. She turned around to see the target and saw the dead guard on the floor. Accacia hadn’t noticed he was there. She thought she killed him. She looked up and Roxian nodded to her. Roxian withdrew another blade from her belt and pursued the man next man who came at her. Accacia watched her for a moment then turned away, hearing the sound of progressing soldiers down the cobbled street. Accacia gripped her sword as she saw them approach. It was never going to end. Zyle ran to her and held his blade at the ready. “Do you need some help, m’lady?”
Accacia smiled at him. “No. But it would speed things along.”
Accacia ran to the first man and parried the blade aimed at her heart. She returned his attack with her own vicious strike and killed the man within seconds. Two men advanced on Accacia. One man engaged her from the front while another approached her from the left, hoping to attack her while she was engaged with the first soldier. Accacia was completely aware of him and she moved away from the swing of his blade with grace while she struck at the soldier, wanting to kill him first before she destroyed the nuisance to her side. She beheaded the soldier then turned to the man aiming for her side, but he dropped his sword suddenly and his body became rigid. He fell over with a three-bladed throwing dagger carved into his neck and he choked on his own blood as he tried to breathe. He stopped shaking and died with his eyes open, lying on top of the already sizable mound of bloody corpses. Accacia pulled the dagger from his neck and appraised it. She recognized the blade. Aleco ran up from behind her and took the blade from her hand, wiping the dagger on the clothing of a dead guard. “You need to be quicker,” he said as he dashed off. Accacia ignored him and returned to the fight.
More soldiers flooded into the streets and Accacia didn’t understand where they were coming from. She looked at the walls of the fortress and watched the men fire arrows into the crowd, killing Asquithians and distracted guildsmen, and an idea came to her. She grabbed all the fallen arrows she could gather from fallen bodies and stuffed them into her already full quiver and climbed the wall, using the ledges and indents in the stone to hoist her body up. Zyle and Aleco spotted her movements and watched her closely as they engaged their opponents. They couldn’t reach her in time to stop her. She pulled herself over the ledge and was standing on the walkway. She could see everything from this position. The guards noticed her approach and stopped unleashing their arrows, turning their aim on the Asquithian Queen. Accacia withdrew her blade and blocked the arrows as they rained on her. She didn’t have a shield. She stepped closer to them and kept stopping their arrows with her glowing green blade, slashing at them before they reached her. She inched her way to the guards and they fired more arrows at her, attempting to kill her before she reached them. Their arrows bounced from the emerald blade and fell at her feet, severed in the middle of the shaft. Accacia decapitated the men when she reached them then sheathed her blade. She withdrew her bow and fired her arrows into the crowd, executing the guards in the street below. Accacia killed every man she impaled, aiming her arrows to kill with a single shot. She had a limited inventory and every arrow need to inflict the most damage. She picked the guards off one by one and killed the approaching soldiers before they could even make it to the street, protecting the warriors under her command. Zyle was engaged with a soldier when a guard approached him from behind, preparing to stab the King in the back. Accacia shot him down before he could thrust his sword into her life partner. The guard fell to the floor. Zyle didn’t notice. Accacia sighed in relief at the death of the soldier. Zyle could have died if she hadn’t looked at him just then. Aleco was executing the men he fought with ease, making a pile of bodies around him, and Accacia stared at him for a moment. Aleco killed seven guards in the few seconds Accacia watched him.
All the bells of the realm were ringing frantically, alerting the entire province of the attack on the city. Every gated entryway had a set of alarm bells, and the sound of the unified music was a cacophony of noise in Accacia’s ears. Paso Robles was a huge realm. The streets were full of merchant shops and homes, and the palace in the corner of the city was large enough to rival the size of Aleutian Keep. Accacia prayed the entire city wasn’t saturated with Drake’s men. They would be easily outnumbered. The
Queen felt the wind blow through her hair within the hood of her cloak as she fired into the crowd below her feet. The wind picked up and she felt her body stiffen in alarm. She looked up and saw the catapults launch from the inner district of the city.
Accacia ran to the left of the wall, trying to dash away from the falling boulders aimed directly for the landing she was standing on. Accacia assumed the guards were frightened by the attack on their realm if they were willing to destroy the city to keep the intruders away.
She slung her bow over her shoulder and sprinted down the walkway. She felt the floor tremble under her feet as she dashed across the landing and further to the left of the walkway. The foundations of the ground were loosening and the stones were crumbling before her feet, turning into pieces of boulder and stone that caved in. Accacia looked down at the roof of the house ten feet away. She felt the wall swing forward after the collision, falling toward the street of the city, directly into the war zone within the realm. Accacia jumped from the broken wall and landed on the roof of the house, rolling across the tile top of the structure. The momentum of her body hurled her forward and she couldn’t stop herself. She slid down the roof until she came to the edge of the second story building. She was holding on by both hands.
