The Gift of Battle

  They made good speed, the sails full, the river tides pulling them out toward the sea, which she knew lay somewhere on the horizon. She knew that once they reached the open sea, they would be far from the mainland of the Empire, farther from their clutches, and closer and closer to the Ring.

  Yet for now, as they still navigated these narrow rivers, Empire land on either side of them, other rivers still feeding into this one from all directions, Gwen was still very much on guard. They twisted and turned through the landscape of the Empire, and Gwendolyn knew they could not relax yet; they were still deep in hostile territory. They were still vulnerable to attack from all sides. And if the Empire blocked their way, or caught up with them before they made it out to open sea, they would die here, in this land.

  Gwen heard a gushing of water up ahead, and she looked out in the dim light and saw the river currents changing. They were approaching an intersection, several major rivers of the Empire merging in this spot, widening the river and strengthening the current. She was relieved to see the tides grow stronger, knowing they would gain momentum—yet she was anxious to see this river being fed into by dozens of rivers. Empire ships could arrive from any direction in the Empire.

  As they merged into this new river, the ship bobbing wildly as the currents picked up, Gwen suddenly heard a distant horn sound, and her heart dropped. It was a sound she recognized well: the war horn of the Empire.

  Gwendolyn looked back over her shoulder, and she saw another sight that made her blood run cold: a thousand arrows blackened the sky, like a flock of bats, soaring in a high arc, then dropping down right for them.

  “GET DOWN!” she yelled.

  They all took cover as the arrows all dropped in the waters behind them, splashing like a school of fish. Gwen looked up and sighed with relief to see the arrows land just short of their fleet.

  But then her heart stopped to see dozens of Empire ships sailing after them, catching up from all the different rivers, now pursuing them and nearly in range. Their ships were sleeker, faster, and she could see in an instant that they would soon overtake them.

  Gwen realized their chances had just dwindled to almost none. They could not fight off this fleet—not with their meager numbers, weapons, and ships. And yet the thought of being captured again by the Empire was something she could not tolerate.

  She looked over at the other ships, at Koldo, Kaden, Ludvig, and Kendrick, and saw the same disconsolate look on their faces. They were all prepared to fight—and yet they all knew this meant defeat.

  Before they could call out commands, Gwen flinched as there came another sudden sound of arrows soaring through the air—yet this time, when she looked up, she was confused: the arrows came from in front of them, sailing over their ship in the other direction. Had they been surrounded, flanked in both directions?

  Gwen turned, expecting to see more Empire ships—and was shocked and elated to see it was something else entirely. She could hardly believe to see these were people she knew, recognized, loved. People from the Ring.

  Erec smiled back, beside him, Alistair—and Godfrey on his other side, Dray at his heels. They all stood at the bow, as Erec commanded a fleet of soldiers from the Southern Isles, along with a fleet of freed slaves of the Empire. She watched with admiration and hope as Erec sailed forward, right for her, and commanded his fleet to fire arrows back at the Empire. The arrows sailed through the air, over her fleet, and toward the distant Empire ships. They pierced dozens of Empire soldiers, who cried out and began to fall—and Gwendolyn’s heart leapt with joy.

  Now they had a battle.

  *

  Erec stood at the bow of the ship, his heart racing with joy to see Gwendolyn and the other exiles from the Ring again, along with Kendrick and his other fellow Silver members, each at the heads of their own ship, along with several hundred people he could only imagine were exiles from the Ridge. He had never thought he’d lay eyes upon members of the Ring again, especially here, so far from home, and he was beyond elated to see that Gwendolyn was still alive. He had been battling to find her for longer than he could remember, and after missing her in Volusia, he was beginning to wonder if he would ever see her again.

  But Erec was already focused, in battle mode, as his eyes locked on the Empire fleet bearing down on his brothers in arms.

  He wasted no time instructing his men:

  “FIRE!” he yelled again.

  His men fired another volley of arrows, using their long-range crossbows designed for situations like this, and he watched in satisfaction as they sailed through the air, over Gwen’s fleet, higher and higher in a great arc, all the way to the Empire fleet. He watched in satisfaction as he saw them bombard a deck and distract the soldiers from attacking Gwendolyn.

  Yet Erec knew this was not enough—there were hundreds of Empire ships, and he knew he needed to make a bold move if he were to rescue Gwendolyn and the others in time.

  Erec immediately scanned the landscape with a professional soldier’s eye, and as he did, he noticed how the Great Waste rose in elevation alongside the river, rising up in steep cliffs along the river’s edge. As he scanned the slopes, he spotted massive boulders perched precariously amidst them, and he was struck with an idea: if he could shoot out those boulders, he might be able to get them to tumble down into the river and smash the Empire fleet. They would take out dozens of ships, and, if he loosened enough of them, clog the river and dam it up behind Gwendolyn.

  Erec turned to his men.

  “Aim for the rocks!” he commanded, pointing.

  To demonstrate his point, Erec rushed across the deck, snatched a crossbow from one of his men’s hands, aimed high, and fired—as his men watched, confused.

  The arrow lodged beneath a small boulder. Erec watched with satisfaction as the rock loosened and tumbled down the cliff, gaining momentum as it went, bouncing and finally smashing against the hull of an Empire ship. The ship rocked, a hole in its side, and moments later, it began to list and sink.

  Erec’s men, realizing, all took aim and fired at the cliffs. Many arrows bounced harmlessly off of them—but enough of them made an impact. Soon, many small boulders went rolling down the hillside, taking out others, creating small avalanches. Bit by bit, they were damming up the river.

  But while the small boulders were clearly a nuisance for the Empire, the big boulders were untouched. Erec realized that without dislodging them, they would never dam up the river and take out the ships.

  While he watched, Erec saw the Empire ships close in on Gwen and the others; they put up a glorious fight, not flinching from the attack, and firing back volley after volley of arrows for each round that came at them. Despite their smaller numbers, they were fending them off—for now.

  But Erec saw hundreds more ships closing in, saw the sky blacken with more Empire arrows, saw more of their people fall, and he knew that soon Gwen and her men would all be vanquished. He felt an urgency.

  Standing there, desperate, Alistair stepped up beside him. He saw that serene, confident look in her eyes, and he knew she was summoning her powers. Her eyes closed, her palms turned upward, and Erec saw her getting strength, a slight halo appearing all around her. He could feel her power emanating from here.

  Suddenly, Alistair opened her eyes, raised her palms, and threw them forward, one palm in each direction. Erec watched as a ball of light shot forth from each palm, each to a different side of the river, heading for the huge boulders on the cliffs.

  There came a great rumbling sound, the cliffs shook, and Erec watched in awe as the boulders were dislodged. They began to roll, faster and faster, speeding down the cliffs, taking tons of rock with them as they created an avalanche.

  All Empire eyes turned and looked up, seeing the devastation coming for them, rolling down the cliffs. They tried to flee, to turn back, but their ships were too big, too unwieldy. They had nowhere to go as boulder after boulder rolled right for them, a massive avalanche thundering toward the river.

  Shr
ieks filled the air as the boulders smashed into the ships, their wood cracking, splintering, as one at a time, their ships were shattered. Hundreds of soldiers flailed as they fell overboard into the currents.

  The Empire ships that were spared still could not escape the dam. Hundreds more boulders poured down before them, stopping up the river in a huge mound, preventing any more ships from passing as they settled in a great cloud of dust. Within moments, the river closed up behind Gwendolyn, and the Empire was unable to pursue them.

  Erec sailed up to Gwendolyn’s fleet, the two fleets meeting, each beaming with smiles, and as their ships met he ran and jumped up onto her ship. They embraced, followed by all their men, leaping onto each other’s ships, the two fleets blending, all of them now one unified power. He watched Gwendolyn embraced her brother Godfrey, and he stepped forward and embraced Kendrick, Brandt, and Atme, his Silver brothers in arms. He met Koldo and the others, and he watched as Alistair embraced Gwendolyn.

  He could hardly believe it. After all this time searching, it felt surreal. They were together again. Together, he knew, as one force, they could do it—they could snake their way out of this Empire, into the open sea, and make their way back home. As they all embraced, tears of joy in their eyes, these fractured elements of the Ring back together, Erec slowly felt their past returning to them. He felt optimistic for the first time in as long as he could remember, and he knew that nothing would stop them now. Now they would all make for the Ring, for Thorgrin, for their homeland—or die trying.

  CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

  Reece sat on the deck of the ship, back against the rail, and holding Stara in his arms, as he had been all night, still feeling as if he were in a surreal state. So much had happened to him in the last twenty-four hours, he could barely process it.

  He looked up, bleary-eyed, at the rising sun, having been awake all night with dreams of Selese reaching out to him from the water, melding with dreams of Stara. He looked down now in the first light, feeling someone in his arms, and was still amazed to see it was Stara and not Selese. Selese had truly left him.

  And just as shocking, Stara had truly appeared.

  Their ship sailed along at a steady clip, its sails full as they caught the morning wind, bobbing up and down on the huge rolling waves of the open ocean, and as Reece smelled the ocean air, he marveled at how mysterious life was. His mind spun with the events of the last day. On the one hand, Reece knew, from the day Selese had emerged from the Land of the Dead, that her time with him was limited. She had always had an ethereal quality, and in the back of his mind he knew that she would leave him one day. Yet he had allowed himself to slip into denial, and had somehow believed that he could hold onto her forever. His time with her was too short; he had not seen the ending coming so soon. It left him with a feeling of sadness in his stomach.

  It had all left him even more confused when he had seen Stara appear. It was as if Selese had sacrificed herself for Stara, as if each had taken some time from the other, in some karmic cycle of destiny. It was an act of selflessness on Selese’s part, Reece knew, the final act of selflessness from a girl who had loved him entirely from the day they’d met. Selese had known she could not be with him forever—so before she’d left this world, she had found him someone who could.

  Stara, unconscious when he found her, still lay unconscious in his arms, as she had all night long. He wondered if she’d ever wake. It felt good to hold her again, to keep her warm, to keep her alive. He held her limp body tight, a part of him imagining it was still Selese. And yet he knew that this was what Selese wanted: to love Stara now was to love Selese.

  Holding Stara, Reece slowly began to realize how much he had missed her, too, all this time. Was it wrong to love two people at once? He wished it were otherwise, but he had to admit he did. And now that Selese was gone, all Reece had left was Stara, and he was determined to keep her alive, whatever the cost. And to learn to love her once again. As much as he ached for Selese, Reece knew, after all, that this was what she wanted.

  Reece leaned down and kissed Stara’s forehead, holding her, silently willing for her to come back to him. He could not believe she had come for him, had crossed the world for him, alone; he could not fathom the dangers she had faced, the sacrifices she had made. He was beyond touched. He saw how much she loved him, how she would literally cross the world for him.

  “I love you, Stara,” he whispered to her. “Come back to me, please.”

  It was a sentiment he had repeated often throughout the night, staring back at her eyes, beautiful even while closed, and wondering, hoping.

  But now, as he stared in the early morning light, Reece for the first time thought he saw them flutter. And as he sat there and watched, he was shocked to see her slowly open her eyes.

  Stara’s watery, light-blue eyes stared up at him, shining, so filled with life, with love—and as they did, he remembered how much he loved her. They were as beautiful, as mesmerizing, as he remembered, those eyes that had haunted his dreams ever since they were children—and he fell in love with her all over again.

  Reece, his own eyes tearing up, felt reborn again, and couldn’t believe how elated he was to see her alive, back in his arms.

  “Reece?” she asked softly, her voice hoarse. “Did I make it?”

  Reece smiled with joy and a tear fell from his eye as he leaned down and kissed her on the lips.

  She lifted her head and kissed him back, and he could feel her love for him.

  “You did, my love,” he said.

  She reached out and clasped his hand, and he held hers.

  “Did you cross the sea alone?” he asked in wonder.

  She smiled and nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks.

  “I did,” she replied. “I searched the world for you. I prayed to God that if I did not, then to let the waters take me.”

  Reece pushed back his tears, overwhelmed by her words, that she would love him that much. He felt once again the connection that they’d had since they were children. It had never completely left. And though so much time had passed, it was as if it were yesterday.

  As Reece looked into her eyes, it was the strangest thing—he watched something shift within them, and for a fleeting moment, it was as if Selese’s spirit lay within her, as though Selese looked through Stara’s eyes too. He felt Selese’s spirit strongly, living through Stara, and no longer did he feel the conflict. He felt to love Stara would be to love Selese, too.

  “I love you, Reece,” she said, sitting up, looking into his eyes and holding his cheek. “And I always will.”

  They kissed, her warmth returning, and for the first time since Selese’s death, Reece’s heart was restored again.

  As they sailed for the Ring, ever closer, he knew a great war lay ahead of them, perhaps the greatest battle in his life. He hoped and prayed they could rebuild the Ring, that he could start life over again in his homeland, with Stara by his side. That they could one day have a family of their own.

  But whether they lived or died, for now, at least, being together with Stara once again, he had truly lived.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  Erec stood at the stern of his ship, Alistair by his side and Strom nearby, looking out as the two suns began to fall on the open sea, and feeling alive with a greater sense of purpose than he could remember. Not since his days in the Silver, in the court of King MacGil, had he felt this way. He didn’t realize how much of a sense of loss he had been feeling ever since he left his home, left the Ring, left the company of his brothers, the Silver, left King’s Court and King MacGil. Since then, he realized, a piece of his heart, of his soul, had always been missing.

  But now he had a chance to have it all back again, to restore the life he once knew and loved. Now, finally, he could see a future for himself, a place in the world that felt like home. His future was not in the Southern Isles; he realized that now. That may have been where he was born, where his people were—but that was not home. Home, he realized now, was where
he had been raised; where he had learned to fight, where he had met his brothers and fought side by side with them; where he had met and fallen in love with Alistair. Home was the land which he had risked his life defending. It was his adopted land, perhaps—but it was home.

  The thought of returning there now, of having a chance to take it back, made him feel alive again like nothing else had. Erec would risk it all just for a chance to return to the Ring again.

  The Southern Isles, Erec felt, was no place for his people now. The Ring needed to be rebuilt and the Ring needed men and women to populate it. It needed warriors. And he could think of no finer warriors than his people of the Southern Isles. The time had come, he knew, as King of the Southern Isles, to merge their peoples. The Ring, anyway, would need them to take it back. They could help fight for their new home. They had no option to remain isolationists now, anyway; if the Ring was lost, they would all be lost. If the Empire defeated the Ring, they would turn, with all their might, to the Southern Isles next, the last bastion of freedom in the world. To lose the Ring would be to lose it all.

  Which was why he would sail there first, rally his people, and convince them to sail to the Ring with him, to join the battle with him and his people and help reinforce Gwendolyn. It was why he had split off from Gwendolyn’s fleet—so that he could return with an even greater army.

  “Are we not sailing north?” Strom asked, coming up alongside him.

  Erec turned to see Strom standing beside him, Alistair on his other side, very much pregnant, and he could see the look of confusion in Strom’s face.