Three Broken Kingdoms-Book 1 of the Lost Continent (Completed)

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Blood and Fire

Myra's Point of View

Myra thought she would be afraid when the battle at last came. Thought her mouth would turn dry, as it had whenever she envisioned the battlefield, death and steel and hundreds of thousands of soldiers marching on and on. As it turned out, she was not.

Her blood was alive with adrenaline, her heart beating in tune with their warcry. Her hands felt useless at her sides-she longed for the rough wood of a bow, or the leather of a sword hilt. She was restless as she ran toward Caelia, her bow already in her hands, her quiver full.

Instead of wasting energy with flight, Caelia stampeded towards the battlefield and the Kallian Army. Behind them, the army gathered: a mixture of foot soldiers banging their swords against their shields, valkyries mounted on the great once-wild horses of Miras and the aerial riders, ready to rain down destruction on the Kallians.

Viktoria, also on a wyvern, lifted the warhorn in the air, holding it lovingly. It was the one that Celia, her predecessor, blew before each battle, the one that Celia's predecessor blew, and her predecessor and her predecessor all the way back to Rhiannon, the first War Queen who had carved it, in her grief, from the horns of the stag she had ridden to battle. The sound it made still shook her to her bones.

As the Empress and her army approached slowly, Myra struggled to understand the shield. Had Jasper lied to them? In the past week, she had grown to trust him, even like him-but as she knew from the elves, prisoners were never particularly trustworthy.

The whole valkyrian army-and probably the elves on the edge of Miras land behind them-held their breath and waited for some sign of the shield.

Then it came. Medea raised her hand in the air. Myra's hand tightened on her bow.

It happened in a mere second, too quickly for anyone to have stopped it. One second, the sky above the Kallian Army was bright and clear. Then the dome went down. It was shadow, and not shadow. Opaque, and yet transparent. Myra could tell that it was there, and that it was black, and yet she could see the soldiers inside just the same. It completely covered the Kallian Army, and moved fluidly with them as they marched towards the valkyries.

Myra glanced at Viktoria, who simply nodded. She released an arrow and it went straight through, though didn't land in the heart of a soldier. That didn't matter. All she needed to know was if it would get through.

Myra turned to look up as flame flew overhead. Elfin magic, hurtling towards the dome. Both armies were silent and still, tracking each second as the flame rushed to meet them...and then winked out.

It wasn't extinguished, didn't crash and break against the shield. It just touched the black wall and disappeared completely.

The Isthmus was silent. Then the valkyries marched, swift as death and plague. Myra let out a war-cry, then Caelia kicked off the ground and they rose into the sky. The world became a thundering of hooves against the ground as they each took off-gryphon and wyvern both-and Myra raised her bow, arrows aimed at Kallian hearts. Viktoria led the aerial legion, swift and unyielding as she flew towards the opposing army. Myra was at her right, Ruby on her left.

They neared the army and in seconds, the first volley of flaming arrows were fired, leaving dozens of Kallians dead.

The two land forces smashed together as blades meet in chaos. Calvary trampled humans; blades skewered Kallian hearts. Medea was out of sight, unfortunately, otherwise Myra would have dived down to end her.

Caelia let out a caw as the first arrows began and the other wyverns and gryphons were forced higher to avoid them.

Wyvern fire hailed down on wooden arrows stopping them in their tracks."Cover me!" Myra yelled to Ruby's Right Hand and another one of the wyvern-riders. Dozens of them plummeted, but only Myra's wing, in groups of three-two flankers, one firer-flame protecting them from human arrows. They pushed past increasing volleys, Caelia occasionally having to swerve out of the way of cannonballs. It was a race against time and they knew it, but the wind was in her hair and the battle was thrumming through her blood so she dived, closer and closer as they plummeted. The world was wind and fire and arrows and Myra was almost there-

Finally. She screamed to Caelia, and the wyvern unleashed all her red-gold fire at the front lines of the Kallian Army. Now was the dangerous time, as Caelia banked swiftly, and her two flanking wyverns helped her escape the maze of arrows and flying rock. She held on tight to her wyvern as they rose into the air, the wind flinging her hair about. The arrows pursued her only for a short while until they gave up, with Caelia whirling quickly and unpredictably.

Beneath her and above her, the valkyries cheered, the first wyvern bombing a success. Caelia darted above the Kallians, coming as close as she dared to the army's arrows and cannons. Myra searched for Medea, hoping to end the empress as quickly as possible. It was still strange, darting through the shadow dome as though it was not there, but she ignored it.

It was unusual fighting like this. Myra had flown in the aerial legion for decade after decade, almost a century, but there had always been something in the air to face: Animated creatures, other gryphons and wyverns lost to MindWeavers or CreatureSpeakers-at least fire and lightning to dodge.

Their only job now was to bomb the army beneath them with volleys of arrows and fire. They had had few losses: four injured steeds, one injured rider and a single dead gryphon, his rider plummeting to the earth with him and likely dead as well. The calvary and foot soldiers would be facing far heavier losses. They were beginning to be pushed back, Myra noticed with no shortage of alarm.

She signaled to Viktoria and Ruby and the three rose slightly, out of the dangerous area.

"Go lower?" She asked shortly, her breath heavy. Viktoria nodded her agreement, and a few seconds later, Ruby replied in turn.

"All out," she agreed. Myra gave the signals and the whole legion dived in a terrifying phalanx.

Fire rained down and arrows rushed to embrace the Kallians, causing mass destruction amongst the stunned army. They barely bothered with cover.

The wyvern fire proved devasting as it caught on something flammable-some grass, finally regrowing?-and spread wildly through the army.

Viktoria nodded at her: the gamble had paid off.  Beneath them, the army's devastation was clear: whole scorched patches were hurriedly been refilled by soldiers and the valkyries on land were pushing back where their opponents had been wiped out. Dozens lay dead with gryphon-rider arrows in their hearts. There had been costs of course-three wyverns now lay dead on the ground, crushing Kallians beneath them-but there always were.

The day went on. Whenever the Kallians started pushing the valkyries back the gryphon and wyvern riders would go on the offensive, forcing them back. The casualty list was in their favour so far, but that was always going to be the case. The valkyries needed a twelve to one ratio of in their favour, given the Kallians had twelve times their army.

By the time Myra got a sleep shift, her bones were weary and she had lost count of how many of her arrows had found hearts, how many burned in her wyvern's flame.