Sara Larson - Defy

“The army of our enemy approaches! Will we let them conquer us?” He paused and then screamed, “ No! We will fight! We will fight for our king and for Antion! Show no mercy to the dirty heathens who support the evil practice of sorcery!” A violent cheer of approval rose up from the men in the crowd. The woman were mostly silent, grasping their weapons with trembling hands.

“They have brought their sorcerers with them — but will we let them win?”

“ No! ” the crowd shouted back.

“We will fight them! We will destroy them! We will sacrifice our very lives if necessary to protect our nation and our freedom from the slavery of sorcery!” Iker punched his fist in the air and, all around me, men and even some of the women did the same, shouting and screaming in agreement. It sounded almost as if he’d enthralled them in a spell of bloodlust and hatred for the very power he wielded.

“If he were close enough for me to cut his throat, I would,” Deron growled next to me, through the wild cheering around us.

“He’d throw up a shield and kill you before you knew what had happened,” I muttered darkly.

“Are you sure you can do this?” Deron looked down at me.

Before I could answer, Iker turned and began to head back down the stairs. “Now where’s he going?” Jude asked.

When Iker reached the bottom of the stairs, passing Mateo without acknowledging him, the crowd parted. Iker walked swiftly across the grounds to the ten steps leading to the massive palace doors. He walked up the stairs until he stood directly in front of the entryway, cutting off anyone who wished to flee inside the palace. He was visible above the crowd, but anyone who wanted to fight him would now have to cut their way through hundreds of men and women first and then climb a flight of stairs to reach him. He would easily be able to use his sorcery to stop anyone who tried to get to him.

“I’ve got to get closer to him,” I said.

We began to work our way closer to him yet again when I saw one of the king’s guards drag Jaerom up the steps to stand in front of Iker. It looked like his eye was swollen shut and his mouth was bleeding.

“Deron, stop!” I grabbed his arm and we froze, watching in fear as Iker bent over Jaerom, his face twisted with sudden fury. We were too far away to hear what was said, but it was obvious Iker was asking him something because Jaerom kept shaking his head. Iker suddenly grabbed his throat, and Jaerom’s eyes widened.

“Jaerom!” Deron cried out, but luckily the noise of the crowd masked his voice.

“No, Deron!” I yanked him back. “We can’t help him; Iker will kill all of us!” Deron continued to fight me. Jude had to grab his other arm as Iker shouted something at Jaerom loud enough for me to catch the words where , tell , and now . Jaerom’s whole body began to quake violently when he shook his head no again, refusing to speak. Icy-hot fingers of panic spread through me. I had a sinking feeling that someone had discovered I was missing and Iker was torturing Jaerom to find out what had happened.

Iker finally let go of Jaerom, who fell to his hands and knees on the ground in front of the smaller man. Deron fought wildly for us to let him go, and it took every ounce of our strength to hold him back, even though my eyes burned with tears. Jaerom was protecting me. I was sure of it.

Iker shouted again, his face mottled with rage. Jaerom looked up at him for a long moment, and I held my breath.

And then he spit in Iker’s face.

Iker grabbed the sword from the guard’s scabbard and Jaerom didn’t even put up his arm to block the blade as Iker swung it around toward his neck.

“Jaerom!” Deron’s howl of pain and fury tore my heart to pieces. He finally stopped fighting us when Jaerom’s body fell to the ground in front of Iker, rolling down a couple of stairs before stopping, lifeless. Tears blinded me as my captain dropped to his knees, his face pale with shock.

“Deron, you have to get up,” Jude said, tugging on his arm. “People are looking at us. Iker’s going to notice!”

But before Deron could respond, the whistle from the watchtower high above us split the air.

An icy chill of dread ran down my spine.

The Blevonese army was here.

ALL OF THE conversations around us stopped. A deathly silence fell over the crowd as the warning whistle was repeated.

Deron slowly climbed to his feet, still staring at the stairs, where Jaerom lay. I couldn’t look and, instead, turned to the wall, where I could see lines of archers at the ready, their bows taut and arrows notched, ready to fly.

Where was Damian? Would he be at the front, expecting the gate to open and welcome Antion’s prince back to the palace with the Blevonese army at his heels? And Rylan? Where would he be? My heart felt like it might explode in my chest from the panic and pain pounding through me. I couldn’t let myself think about it. I had to focus on Iker — that was my job, my duty. Nothing else mattered if I didn’t find a way to stop him.

When the first volley of arrows was loosed, I turned to see if Iker still stood on the stairs, but they were empty except for Jaerom’s body. In the brief moments that I’d spent looking at the wall, he had disappeared.

“Deron! Where did he go?” I asked, grabbing his arm.

“He went into the palace,” he replied tonelessly, his hands hanging at his side.

“They’re here, Deron. The army and Damian are here. I have to find Iker!”

He looked down at me, his face and eyes empty.

“Captain, please!”

But there was nothing. He was broken.

“Alex, come on. I’ll go with you,” Jude said from my other side. But before we could move, the ground began to shake and a roar filled the air. All around us, people screamed and shouted in fear.

“The sorcerers! It’s the sorcerers!” people began to yell. “Kill the sorcerers who murdered our queen!”

The sound of a massive explosion rocked the air and I spun around to see the giant iron and wood gate blown to pieces before my eyes. All the people who had been standing near it were knocked to the ground, shards of wood and iron piercing their bodies.

“They’ve breached the wall!”

“Swords at the ready!”

I could barely see the rows and rows of Blevonese soldiers outside the wall before Jude grabbed my arm. “Come on, Alex. We’ve got to go now before it’s too late!”

I turned and followed him through the crowd toward the steps as the sounds of fighting broke out across the grounds from us. Blades hitting blades, screams as people were cut down. As people died. More booms, more screams. I couldn’t look back. I had to find Iker.

I had to kill Iker.

And then he was there. Only this time, he wore robes of all black, and on one hand was a strange glove made of metal, inlaid with jewels. He gripped a sword in his other hand. He stood over the crowd, surveying the destruction. Instead of fear or sadness, his face was lit with a terrifying look of hunger . Of exultation.

“I’ll approach him first, to distract him,” Jude said from beside me. “Then you can attack from the other side, and take him by surprise.”

“Jude, no!” I grabbed his arm before he dashed off. “He’ll kill you!”

He turned to look at me with the same chocolate brown eyes as his brother’s, and gently pulled his arm out of my grasp. “I know. But you said it yourself — you have to stop him. And if you just go running at him, he’ll kill you , and then we’ll all die.”

I wanted to argue with him. I wanted to tell him he couldn’t do this. But he was right, and I knew it.