Sharon Shinn - Reader And Raelynx

Cammon fastened on a sword and selected a backup dagger as Amalie lifted her skirts to show the Riders the sheath belted at her knee. “Let me see you use it,” Justin said, so she feinted at him with one quick lunge. “Not bad,” he said. “A little more force, if you can manage it, or you won’t kill an attacker outright.”

“She just has to slow him down long enough for a Rider to arrive,” Hammond said.

“Sometimes help isn’t as close as you’d like,” Justin said. “Show me again.”

Soon enough they were back outside, heading toward the sculpture gardens. “Look, you can see it’s almost spring,” Amalie said. “There are buds on some of the trees, and there are whole patches of green grass where the lawn is always in sunlight.”

Justin didn’t voice his thought, but Cammon caught it anyway. This year, spring means war . Amalie bent down to brush aside dead weeds that covered the curled leaves of a crocus, poking its way up through the hard ground. Still leaning over, she turned her head to give them all a lovely smile. “Almost spring,” she repeated.

Cammon heard a sound. Felt a flutter. He jerked around to peer behind him, swung his head as if to discover the source of an unpleasant odor.

“What is it?” Justin demanded.

“I don’t know. I think-Justin, I think someone has breached the walls.”

Instantly, Justin’s sword was in his hand and Hammond had half-drawn his. The soldiers crowded closer to Amalie. “Back toward the palace,” Justin ordered, and the four of them hustled through the ranks of scowling marble royalty. “Cammon, wake Tayse. Call in the other Riders.”

“I don’t know if the others can hear me,” Cammon said breathlessly, jogging alongside Justin.

“Just do it. Send an alarm. Even if they can’t hear you, they’ll be uneasy enough that they’ll come in from the city. Riders are used to following their instincts.”

Cammon glanced around. They were free of the gardens now and could see the wide expanse of the front lawns, empty and serene, rolling straight to the high stone walls surrounding the palace. “It might be nothing-”

“Do it.”

Cammon flung his thoughts out like water tossed from a half-filled cup. He felt Tayse start from a sound sleep and roll to his feet, his weapon in his hand before he had even put on his boots. He felt the other Riders startle, pause, look around, and then set out running. Those already on the palace grounds headed for the main building. Those quartering the streets of Ghosenhall raced back for the compound.

Those guarding Baryn and Valri pulled their blades and shifted closer to their charges.

Senneth , Cammon called. Kirra. Donnal. Trouble is coming. I can’t tell what. But trouble is coming .

Almost as soon as he thought the words, a runner of fire darted along the very top of the wall, till the whole stone fence was topped by a ragged crown of flame. Justin slowed to a walk, looking pleased.

He said, “Well, that’ll stop anyone who-”

And three men slipped through the partition of fire and dropped gracefully to the ground.

THEintruders were dressed in black, from their closely hooded heads to their polished boots; they moved like dancers. Each of them carried a long blade in one hand and a short blade in the other, and their belts were heavy with an array of other weapons.

Justin loosed an inarticulate cry, and ten Riders raced toward the wall with their swords held high. “To the palace!” Justin cried.

Before they could take another step, twenty more invaders glided through Senneth’s fire and landed on the palace lawn. Motion caught Cammon’s eye and he swiveled around to see another ten-another twenty-swarming up the walls of the palace itself, breaking through panes of glass and diving through windows. Another dozen were storming the main door. From inside came the sounds of hysterical voices and clattering metal. More Riders charged in through the gates and instantly engaged the attackers. Cammon could hardly breathe. The odds against the defenders were horrible.

“ No !” Amalie shrieked and picked up her skirts to run. Justin grabbed her arm and jerked her back.

“There’s no safety in the palace!” he shouted in her ear. “Back to the gardens! We have to hide you.”

Amalie kicked at him, beating his chest with her free hand. “No! No! My father’s in there! Let me go! I have to find him!”

Justin didn’t sheathe his sword but, one-handed, he shook Amalie so hard her hair tumbled in her face, and then he started dragging her very fast back toward the sculpture park. Hammond and Cammon loped along beside him. “Majesty! My orders are to protect you ! Whatever happens to anyone else, I must keep you alive.”

Amalie moaned and twisted in his hold. Cammon caught her other arm and helped Justin half carry her toward what was only the most dubious kind of safety. “Amalie, he’s right,” Cammon said quietly. “There are others protecting your father and Valri. We must keep you alive.”

They ran, but all of them kept looking back over their shoulders. More of the black-hooded attackers- more . “At least two hundred,” Hammond estimated as they ducked inside the sculpture park and lost sight of the battle. “More coming.”

Justin strode through the lines of statuary, looking for a place to hide or a place to make a stand. “Foreigners,” he said. “That’s why Cammon couldn’t feel them, that’s why Senneth’s fire didn’t stop them. Impervious to our kind of magic.”

“Not impervious to Kirra,” Cammon said with a dark kind of gladness. “She just ripped someone’s throat out.” Even as he spoke, he could feel Donnal make a leap for an enemy soldier and bring them both crashing to the ground. “Not impervious to Donnal.”

“Good.” Justin had found a spot that appealed to him, a giant curved slab of white marble carved to resemble a shell. Before it, a black granite pedestal held an oversized and extremely forbidding woman carved out of more white marble. “Majesty, you stand with your back to the wall. Cammon, in front of her.” He and Hammond took up stations on either side of the stone queen. “They’ll have to kill us to get to you, and they’ll have to come at us one at a time,” Justin said. “We can hold off an attack for a good long while.”

“Can you tell what’s happening?” Hammond asked Cammon.

He nodded numbly. He was trying very hard not to get sucked into the vortex of the action through the eyes of his friends-he needed to keep his focus here in case the battle turned their way. But he couldn’t help absorbing some of their rage and fear and ceaseless motion.

“Three Riders have fallen, but I can’t tell which ones,” he said. “Not Tayse. There are close battles up and down the halls of the palace, and it’s hard to tell who’s winning. Kirra and Donnal and the other shape-shifters are tackling the ones who are still outside, trying to prevent them from getting into the palace. A few Riders are still on the lawns, too.”

“My father?” Amalie demanded. “Valri?”

“Alive,” Cammon said.

“Senneth?” Justin asked.

“Fighting with a sword instead of fire.”

“Where’s the city guard?” Hammond asked.

“Massed on the outskirts of the city to keep away an army,” Justin replied. “I’m guessing no one had time to run for them. But the fire on the walls should alert them that there’s something wrong! They’re probably on their way.”

“Why didn’t-red and silver hell!” Hammond exclaimed. He pointed with his sword. “One of them just peered around that statue and saw me. Probably saw the princess’s hair. He ran off, but I’m betting he’ll be back with friends.”