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“Viktor watch out!” I screamed, throwing up a shield over both of them just as another icy spear flew in our direction.
“Fuck! To our left!” Vadim shouted, silvery magic bursting from him just in time to block three successive ice shards.
“Hold it!” I ordered, joining my magic with his and forming a barrier around as many as we could manage. The icy assault persisted, banging like a drum and forcing us to pour more power into maintaining our safe position.
Viktor dropped to his knees in front of his father, holding him by his shoulders and repeating, “It’s going to be okay.”
But Erik’s eyes were already growing distant, and a river of red dripped from both corners of his mouth.
“Endre! Help me,” Viktor begged, but I knew there wasn’t enough healing magic in the world to save him, especially not on a battlefield where we were under attack.
“There’s nothing we can do,” I whispered, but my voice still sounded like screaming through the cacophony of battle.
“No, no, no,” he cried, cradling his dying father against his chest.
“Son, tell your mother I love her… when you see her. It was… my honor to battle beside you,” he wheezed, using the last of his air to convey his feelings for his family. Then, he slackened, going utterly limp in his son’s arms. Hot, angry tears tracked through the blood and sweat on my face, leaving two lines of grief.
We’d already lost so many.
“I can’t hold for much longer,” Vadim rasped, his hands shaking as he held the connection to the magic fueling the shield.
From my position atop my horse, I looked between Viktor, Vadim and his father, Kaztar, and the battle around us. “Viktor, take my horse and your father’s body to the back. We’ll hold the line.”
With a numbness that only comes from loss, he ripped the ice from his father’s chest and heaved him into his arms. I hit the ground with a thud, then held my mount steady as he draped Erik across. Viktor’s sage green eyes were nearly as empty as his father’s as he took the reins from me and turned the horse in the opposite direction. He said nothing as he departed, as heartbroken as I’d ever seen him.
“Ready?” I finally said to Vadim and Kaztar, gripping my axe in one hand and a jagged dagger in the other.
Vadim managed to nod before dropping the silver shield from around us. It was like popping a soapy bubble, and the cacophony of sound assaulted us as quickly as shards of ice flying from desperate Crystal Fae. They were losing, badly, and they knew it.
The sun began its daily descent.
The four of us held the front line, succeeding in pushing back the Crystal Fae until they were nearly even with the edge of the lake. Though, it was no longer the bright blue hue the Crystal Realm was known for; no, it was a deep scarlet, only broken by the bodies floating lifelessly along its surface.
Vadim roared, channeling his rage into his blade and slicing down three opponents in quick succession. High Lord Nikolai, Vadim’s father, fueled himself similarly, and by the way he clenched his jaw, I knew he was just as upset as the rest of us. But there was no time to mourn on the battlefield – that was only available in the aftermath. With renewed vigor, we pushed forward, fighting to make sure that those who died on our side did not die in vain.
A gust of wind blasted across the battlefield, carrying on it the words ‘retreat.’
The Crystal Fae did not hesitate to race away as their leader gave them permission to escape their certain deaths.
The four of us stood and watched them flee, instructing our soldiers not to follow. They’d fought well and earned the reprieve. Besides, we needed to regroup and decide what our next steps would be. Exhaustion filled every part of me as adrenaline fled my veins, and my limbs were nearly impossible to move as I trudged back to our base camp.
Kaztar, Vadim, Nikolai, and myself were covered in blood, and I had no idea how much of it was mine. There was no use trying to rinse in the lakes either – not with their current color.
Barrels had already been cracked to celebrate our victory by the time I reached the healer’s tent. My father worked furiously over his patients, barking orders at assistants, shouting for clean bandages, wisps of silver assisting him for a more serious case. I stood for only a moment at the entrance before deciding to let him work and speak to him later.
The sun neared the horizon.
In the war tent, Kazimir, who looked cleaner than anyone else in our camp, Viktor, Vadim, Desmond, and several others were bent over a map of the Crystal Realm.
“We should chase them down, finish the job, then take Vlisa,” Vadim was saying, gesturing to locations on the map that were out of my field of vision.
I wasn’t going to be party to this.
Backing away slowly, I tried to slip away unnoticed. But Kaztar had already seen me and offered a victorious smile, and Kazimir beckoned me forward. “You were brilliant, Endre. Great job out there.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, busying myself looking elsewhere so he didn’t see the mixed emotions in my eyes.
They continued their discussion while I trudged forward and took a spot between Viktor and Vadim. “I agree, Vadim,” Viktor said, rubbing the side of his dirty face while he thought. “Now is not the time to let them come up with another plan. We must strike while we have the advantage. We should wait until nightfall, when our magic will be at its strongest. It will help refuel us as we raid Vlisa.”
