Finn laughed in spite of herself at Roland's generous assessment of the burned meal. His lips twitched slightly at her amusement, but he would never admit out loud that the food was anything but the most delicious he'd ever eaten.
If this was what bound Serafina to him as his wife for the rest of their lives, it was the best meal he would ever have.
Ezra removed their head coverings and began tearing them into strips. The coverings were long and flowing, and each was ripped lengthwise into six equal pieces. The braid was a simple three-strand braid incorporating alternating pieces of each covering. Unfortunately, Ezra was not a particularly experienced braider.
He was clearly concentrating and trying his hardest to go quickly, but it was a lot of fabric to handle, and Roland had to squeeze Finn's hand several times while she twitched with impatience. Her anxious glances towards Klain made Roland uneasy.
The distant sound of a horn made him swallow with trepidation. He wasn't entirely sure what it might mean. He met Finn's gaze and gave her a comforting smile. She smiled back, torn between joy that this man was, at this very moment, becoming her husband and terror that the people they loved were in horrible peril.
____________
Duncan sent another wave of troops into the breach as Klain was driven further back. Though the losses were mounting, His men seemed to be surviving better than he expected given their tactical disadvantages.
Still, the Rhone had control of the battlefield. The Klain could not leave the rest of the wall undefended in case another attack was to be mounted, and so their soldiers were not able to be concentrated at a central point like Rhone's all-in effort.
The Prince would have preferred the original strategy to have worked, with men infiltrating the city while Titania blew another hole into the wall and released the wolves into it before they could perform whatever deterrent magic they had laid out before. However, battle plans change quickly in the moment, and this steady and fierce attack into the breach was slowly working.
He just had to make sure he didn't run out of soldiers first.
The ones who had been set to invade the city from the inside had emerged from the Darkness and were waiting to attack. The breach was narrow enough that the Rhone had to send the men in waves. It was not ideal, but thanks to the ballistae's work at eliminating threats atop the wall, Klain's narrow window of defense was chipping away.
When the second horn blew, Duncan narrowed his eyes. Were the Klain truly so desperate, or was there some trick at play here?
Before he could contemplate this further, a void appeared next to him and Titania stepped out. The Queen looked severe and enraged, as if the next person who spoke to her would be struck dead with nothing but a glance from her black eyes.
"Your Majesty," Duncan bowed deeply, "The battle rages. Our men were unable to infiltrate the city through the Darkness. It seems portals will not manifest within its walls. We are forced to attack through the breach, but we are making progress."
"They have nullified magic." Titania snapped through clenched jaws. "Somehow, these peasants have found a way to keep magic from being used against or inside the city."
"How?" Duncan asked, mostly rhetorically. To his knowledge, the Klain had no interest in or awareness of magic. How would they have come up with such a powerful defense so quickly?
"Fae. It has to be Fae, the cursed wretches," Titania fumed, then raised her voice, "YOU INTERFERING SCUM!"
Her exclamation drew the attention of the soldiers around her, but they quickly averted their gazes when they observed the fury in their queen's demeanor.
"The Fae?" The prince had heard rumors of them, mostly from the stories the halflings told, but had never encountered one himself.
"Self-righteous hermits who condescend to interfere with my designs." Titania uttered a curse so foul that even Duncan's eyebrows rose.
"But why?" He couldn't find a reason why they should be interested in a war between humans.
"The Sorcerer's Will" Titania spoke mockingly, still consumed by her hatred of the interference.
But that was enough for Duncan. The prophecy said to destroy whatever was against the sorcerer's will. If Titania was against it... then there needed to be some kind of change.
As if sensing the shift in him, Titania froze and cut her calculating gaze over to the crown prince.
"Lead the attack," She ordered suddenly.
"Your Majesty?" He was taken aback. The commander usually directed the battle from a vantage point which maximized strategic ability. For him to rush in and lead the attack would expose him to the greatest danger and likely result in his death.
"I said, lead the attack. Unless you are afraid?" She taunted him with her chin raised. Though no one dared look in his direction, Duncan knew every ear in the vicinity was trained on his response.
"I would be honored to take my place at the front by your side, Your Majesty."
______________
Riley was fighting for his life. He had accumulated more wounds as his stamina waned and his strength began to give out. Although in training he was able to continue for hours on end, in battle, even the slightest mistake could be your last. Perfection was all but demanded if you wanted to stay alive. Perfection, or luck.
Luck did not seem to be on Klain's side. The blow dealt to morale when the wall had exploded lingered as the soldiers fought to the death inside a breach that should not exist. Few realized that they were now protected by an invisible barrier that prevented more magical attacks, and the fear of the unknown permeated the ranks.
Theoretically, there were enough Klain soldiers to literally pile on top of each other and fill the breach. The reality, however, was that having to spread them for defense of the rest of the city was causing a strategic nightmare in terms of risk.
The first horn had called all available men from other shifts to join the battle. The second called the rest, all but a skeleton crew to watch the remaining walls of the kingdom.
The ballistae now used large rocks to fire at the unsteady, jagged edges of the breach, knocking loose more debris to rain down upon Klain's fighting troops. They were forced to back away from the wall edges, leaving gaps in the defense. Trading the potential for being crushed to death for the possibility of Rhone slipping through was not what the General would have asked of them, but once fear grips an army, it is hard to cast it out again.
The Klain reinforcements pushed forward past their exhausted brothers-in-arms, allowing Riley a moment's rest from the heat of battle. Taking his turn at the back, He breathed a moment and took a drink from a water skin someone handed him. He almost fell over from the exhaustion, but the buzz of adrenaline in his veins kept him on his feet, at least for now.
Dr. Sherman spotted him and came over to check his wounds.
"Nothing serious. Good man, Riley." He turned away to move on to the more urgent injuries, but Riley briefly clasped his arm.
"Mayra? Is she safe?" He panted.
"She is well. I confined her to the house to help care for the patients there." Dr. Sherman patted his arm then pulled away to attend to his duties.
"Thank you," Riley called after him.
A new sound came from the front lines, catching his attention.
"She's coming! The Sorceress is coming!" the news spread amongst the men. Riley jumped back to his feet, knowing that his rest was over.
Roland had shared Duncan's guess that the woman was borderline immortal and could not be killed. He hoped that drawing her inside the magic-nullification barrier would shatter that.
Pushing his way through to the front of the line, he watched as the Rhone fighters at the back slowly parted to make way for their ominous dark Queen and a man who looked so much like Roland that it could only be his father, Prince Duncan.
Though the prince was commanding in his own right, the Queen's furious gaze was locked on the city. Her presence was oppressive and sinister, as if everything around her became darker as she neared. Across her back rested her bow and quiver. She now held in one hand a curved sword longer than that used by most of the Rhone, with the sharpened edge along the inside, more akin to a sickle.
Dressed in black that matched her eyes, her pale face and white hair were the only things about her that did not reflect the terror of the void. With each purposeful step she strode closer to Klain, bringing death in her wake.
Just before she came to the edge of the broken wall, she stopped. Her lips turned upward with a glee that chilled Riley to his bones as she thrust her sickle forward in a silent command for Rhone to rush into the breach and kill all in their path.