The Trinity War (Book 3 of the Trinity series)

Chapter 42

It seemed like all I had learned about being a leader in Atlantis completely escaped me as I stood in front of the army of 100 witches and wizards that stood in front of me. Even with Gerrard right next to me, I had no idea what to do or say. So I stood there, staring blankly at the crowd in front of me, my throat constricted, my ears drumming, my heart racing.

"Just say something," Gerrard urged.

"I have no idea what to say," I hissed back.

"Say anything. You're good at bull-shitting," Gerrard said.

"I'm sorry, I've never led an army to go kill my friends!" I whispered back. 

"They're waiting for you to say something," Gerrard said.

"I realize that, Captain Obvious," I replied sarcastically.

"Just tell them what the plan is," Gerrard said.

"I don't have a plan," I said.

"Repeat Elijah's orders to you to them," he suggested.

"I don't want to give those orders," I argued.

"You have to," Gerrard said flatly. I glared at him and he looked back at me pointedly. 

He was right, of course. Because of the blood oath, I couldn't defy Elijah's orders. But I wanted to twist his words so that technically the army I was given was following Elijah's commands, but in a way that I could minimize damage to the Order's army.

I took a deep breath, feeling color flood my cheeks as I gazed at the crowd waiting impatiently in front of me. I could tell that many were unhappy with their choice of leader. I was, after all, fairly young. Many of these people were loyal to the dark side even before Elijah was in charge. Several of them were prisoners from the last war that had been given unlawful trials under Elijah and then released to be free. There were people in this crowd that were far more powerful than me and that had an arsenal of magical knowledge that I was only beginning to understand. But Elijah wanted me to lead them and if I had a third of the army, that meant that I had a third of a chance to reduce damage to the people that I cared about. And that included Trey.

"Hello everyone," I began awkwardly. Next to me, Gerrard covered his face, shaking his head at my lame opening statement. "So I'm Caley...Lucia. As you all probably know..." I trailed.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake..." Gerrard mumbled from next to me. I sent him a glare and he shot me a look. I pursed my lips and tried again.

"So I'm just going to cut to the chase because we have to get going in like an hour. Elijah put me in charge of all of you and if you have a problem with that, well that sucks because we're all sworn under oath to Elijah and we have to follow his orders," I started, the anger I felt towards Elijah rekindling inside of me.

"Our job is to stop the part of the Order led by Trey Vulcan. He's controlling roughly a hundred wizards and witches, so about the same number as in this division here.  Your job is to stop as many as you can. By this, I mean that you can battle and injure the enemy, but only as a last resort can you kill them. If your own life is threatened--as in, you've depleted your energy sources or the person you are battling is going to use a killing curse on you--then you can kill the person. But this is only as a last resort. Elijah doesn't want unnecessary magical blood spilled. If you can get out of danger without killing a person, then choose that route. Transport away if you have the energy to. But only if you can't, you can kill," I said. 

Technically, I was relaying the orders that Elijah had told me to give. The only difference was was that I emphasized different points. If I commanded my army to only resort to killing under dire circumstances, at least I could be assured that I was minimizing the number of casualties on my end. I had no idea how Isaac and Gianna were commanding their armies, but I had a feeling that they weren't going to be as kind as me.