Chapter 506: The human bait

Roland concentrated on the conflict below as Judah leapt from the cliff. The king held a spear in one hand, and clutched Judah's mane with the other. His wife's arms were around him; a short sword was in a sheath at her side.

He didn't like bringing her into battle, but the Sorcerer's commands were not to be taken lightly. All of humanity needed to be at stake and nearby for Beast to bring all his forces to bear at once.

The rush of the wind on his face was like a caress. The roar below grew in volume just as the war cry behind him rose to meet it. He closed his eyes for a moment.

For a precious second, he blocked out what had been, and what was to come. He was, in that second, alone, in his mind, without distraction, without fear, without grief, without past or future. Just himself, flying through the sky, his wife's arms around his waist, her breath on his neck.

One breath of silent contemplation. Two breaths. Time to come back.

Opening his eyes, his voice roared to join the others as Judah's feet met the ground with a rush of cloud and fire. Beast's feral bellow resounded through the city, and the howls of unholy creatures combined with the booming cries of Fjorna and Awarnach combined to bring walls and ruins tumbling down.

The city that he loved. Crumbling. The clouds he'd ridden in on rolled through the streets, and the sun seemed to struggle and stutter.

"Ivan!" Roland called over his shoulder, and the light strengthened and surged, pushing the goblins back into the shadows.

The battle began in earnest as a wave of enthralled humans rushed forward to meet his attacking force. It hurt Roland, deeply, to fight them, so he spurred Judah onward.

The giant cat flew through the traitorous humans, knocking them aside, and thrust into far more dangerous foes. Horses, with giant snakelike heads and fangs, with tails that ended in yet more jaws whirled and snapped at him. With his spear he jabbed and slashed.

Each kill took multiple strikes, slowing the momentum of battle.

No, no, it was too early to already be arrested and stalling like this.

"Roen!" The King shouted. In a moment, there was a rumble, and a wall of earth jutted up, cutting the enemy forces ahead of him in two and separating them. "Thank you, son!"

Behind him, Serafina had drawn her short sword and stabbed something to their right. Some manner of slimy, amorphous creature Roland didn't want to spend too long looking at.

From above he heard a buzzing. A swarm of horrifying wasps, looking just like the dead one Gabriel had delivered to him in a jar from the wilderness… the ones that made people wish for death with the intense pain they inflicted.

"AIR!" He called, though the archers could hardly be expected to fight off a swarm. The group raised their bows as the black cloud of venomous insects dove with an ear-piercing screech.

Judah crouched, and just over Roland's head flew the fiery phoenix Lysander rode, its white and orange flames incinerating swaths of the insects in a purifying conflagration.

The cluster's speed was broken, but the individuals were sturdy and agile. They separated, diving into the attacking army, and screams rang out here and there as people and creatures felt the unbearable agony of the stings.

"Go, Evey!" Roland heard Gabriel yell, and glanced aside to see his brother in law's dog–who let that dog come along into battle??--leap and grab one of the bugs in its teeth, crushing it before it could sting her. "Good girl!"

"Gah!" Riley, now to the king's right, cried out. Roland's head swiveled in concern, but it appeared the bug had slashed at the General with its pincers instead of its tail. Riley crushed it with the pommel of his sword before cursing at it.

A gaping wound bled.

"Are you all right?" Serafina called as she swung her sword at some kind of snake that was rearing up to strike. Judah raised one great paw and crushed its head under his heel.

"You kidding? I can't be killed by something that small and ugly. It would be an insult to my ancestors!" Riley cried.

The king concentrated on fighting. His spear swung into the maw of a snapping wolf-like creature, piercing the back of its throat and severing its spine. Judah by far had the most kills as he charged his way through the city, ripping with his fangs, his teeth, and his spear-tipped tail.

Roland was torn between concentrating on fighting and paying attention to how the rest of the battle waged. Snippets of images burned in his mind with passing glances as he avoided death again and again.

Victoria's horned beast knocking aside a goblin with its armored head, throwing the screeching thing into the sunlight where it burned and shriveled.

Shayn now on foot, locked in combat with a tentacled creature, fighting for his life.

Caspian and Naomi barely avoiding a swing of Awarnach's club as the giant indiscriminately plowed through the human troops, a battalion of fierce cats biting his arms and legs.

Peter battling what appeared to be a corporeal shadow that snaked past his guard and delivered a crippling blow to the man's leg.

All these people, and many more, Roland loved. All these, and more, were in mortal danger every second.

Judah reared and brought his foreclaws down to bear on a traitorous man with a frenzied look. Roland couldn't bring himself to kill any of his people, enthralled or not, but he would not hold anyone accountable who did.

The choices in battle were limited, and often there were no choices at all. Kill, or die.

And he wanted none of his people to die.

Riley's winged steed rallied high into the air and dove towards Beast, and the man managed to deal a mortal blow to one of its heads. But that was nothing to the monster. It laughed, and roared, and struck the horse hard enough to arrest its flight, leaving Riley to fall to the ground.

One of the rolling clouds swept the General out of the path of Beast's next swipe, depositing him on the ground at a run. He dove between the monster's feet, slashing at one of the legs as he did.

Beast dropped his enormous bulk to the ground, but Roland couldn't watch long enough to see whether Riley was crushed underneath its weight.

Archers were pelting the giants with arrows without success. The meager weapons were not enough to pierce the giants' skin. Roland knew from experience their eyes were vulnerable, but it appeared the two had improvised large metal visors using mangled portcullises torn from the city's gates.

The destruction they wrought upon the already ruined Klain was breathtaking, but as Judah leapt and hissed, Roland jerked his attention back to himself.

The Fae swept through the streets, battling shadows that seemed to have their own will. Flames and darkness tangled together in a war that seemed far more supernatural than physical.

An insect buzzed by his face, and Roland ducked, whirling his spear and hoping he made contact with it. He was fortunate in his mount; Judah was a fighter in his own right and needed little to no direction from the king. Judah's tail whipped through the air, and with a whisper the spear-tipped end sliced through the venomous fiend.

"There!" Serafina cried from behind him, her arm shooting out to point before recoiling from an incoming blow from a goblin's long spear.

Roland impaled the creature and threw it back for Judah to crush beneath one of his six large paws. Once he was sure it was dead, Roland dared to turn his head and look in the direction his wife had indicated. She seemed about to leap from her place on Judah's back, but he shifted to keep her there.

"Stay put, Darling, I can't have you beyond my protection. What do you see?" His eyes searched through the chaos of war. All around them was carnage, blood, death, and desperate clashes for survival. One side was out to kill, the other to overcome. Scanning the turmoil, he found the source of his wife's distress.

Their children.

Roen was on the ground, causing a wall of earth to shield his sister as her winged pony ducked below a cluster of stinging insects. She cried out, though whether with pain or because she was merely startled, Roland couldn't tell. Water surged up from a nearby well and slapped the insects from the air, waterlogging their wings and pinning them to the ground. All this happened in barely half a second, but that was not his primary concern.

It was Ivan who captured his attention.

Ivan had fallen from his pony and lay on the broken pavement of a shattered road, staring up at the sky with terror in his face. The sun was disappearing once more, and Roland watched in horror as his child slumped to the ground, unconscious.