“Can someone hit him with a musket?” Sebastian asked.
“At that range?” Vincente asked. He started loading his own. “Unlikely, but we can try.”
Stonehome’s other warriors started preparing their weapons. It seemed to take an agonizing amount of time before they were ready.
“Fire!” Vincente yelled, and a volley of shots sailed out across the heath. None of them came close to hitting Endi. “He’s too far away. Maybe a cannon could do it.”
Sebastian could see that wouldn’t work. Endi was moving too quickly for a cannon to keep up as it aimed, and the idea of hitting one man with an artillery weapon was ludicrous anyway. They couldn’t even make a foray out there to stop this, because that would mean lowering the shield.
All they could do was wait.
Sebastian watched Endi as Sophia’s cousin made his way around Stonehome. He had almost completed a full circuit. Somehow, Sebastian had the feeling that they needed to stop him before he completed that circuit. Force wouldn’t work, but maybe reason might.
“Endi,” he called out. “Endi, this is Sebastian, Sophia’s husband.”
He saw Endi pause and look over.
“I know who you are,” Endi yelled back.
“It would be easier to talk to you if you were closer.”
“It would be easier to shoot me, too,” Endi pointed out. “And you’ve already shown that you’re willing to do that.”
“What are you doing, Endi?” Sebastian asked. “You are my wife’s cousin. My daughter is your blood. You shouldn’t be helping our enemies.”
Endi looked at him for a long time. “If family were the only thing that mattered, you would have died with yours, and mine wouldn’t have cast me out.”
“But you’re helping the Master of Crows!” Sebastian shouted. “You know how evil he is. He has attacked Ishjemme, and your family, and your friends!”
“At least he has a place for me!” Endi yelled, and brought the golden rod down in a last set of markings. He seemed to be muttering words to himself, and almost as quick as a snake he turned, stabbing first one servant and then the other, spilling their blood on the ground.
Lines of power flowed along the spaces that he’d walked, flaring a deep blood red. Energy seemed to twist in the air above it, and for a moment, Sebastian thought that he heard the screams of the dying there beyond the limits of the settlement. He heard those cries echoed behind him and turned to see people staggering from the stone circle at the heart of Stonehome, clutching at their heads in agony. One tumbled to his face, not rising.
Sebastian looked back in time to see the shield around the settlement flicker and die, shimmering in the air for a moment before it fell. Horns and trumpets sounded out across the heath, echoing as they announced orders. The rumble of moving horses and the stamp of feet joined them.
Sebastian saw the New Army start to advance, and now there was nothing they could do to stop them.
CHAPTER FOUR
“You’re dying?” Sophia said, not able to believe her ears. The shock of it ran hot and cold through her, making her want to do something, anything, rather than believe it. Even when Sienne pressed up against her hand, the forest cat’s presence did nothing to bring back the reality of it all.
“You can’t be dying,” Kate said. “Not like this. Not after all we’ve been through. That wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.”
Sophia could hear the sorrow there, and see the tears building in her sister’s eyes. That was almost as much of a shock as the rest of it, because Kate didn’t weep. She got angry so that she didn’t have to.
“Don’t cry, darlings,” their mother said, holding out her arms. Sophia left her seat to go to her, and found Kate doing the same. “This has been coming for a long time.”
“But we’ve only just found you,” Sophia insisted, as if that made a difference. She knew by now that the world didn’t work like that, but it should. It really should.
“You did find us though,” their father said from the side. “We have the chance to be a family again, even if it is for the briefest of times.”
Sophia saw him wince, his hand going to his chest. Until he did that, she didn’t understand quite how brief that time might be.
“Is there nothing that can be done?” Lucas asked. Sophia could see him trying to hide what he felt. She didn’t like that; she wanted her brother there, not a shell of him.
“There has to be something,” Kate agreed. “If I still had my powers, I could heal you. If I hadn’t lost them…”
“Then you would still be in thrall to one of the ancient things of our land,” her mother said. “This isn’t your fault, Kate.”
“No, it’s the Dowager’s,” Kate snapped. “Her and her followers. She’s dead, but they’re still living. I’ll find every last one of them.”
“Kate,” Sophia said gently. “This isn’t the time to get angry.”
“Why aren’t you angrier?” Kate countered. “What’s the point in having all this power if it can’t give us our parents? Why do we have to sacrifice so much all the time?”
Sophia could see that Kate wasn’t just thinking about their parents, but about all the other things that had happened in their lives, all the pain, all the suffering.
“We have to, because sometimes that is what destiny requires of us,” their mother said. “I know you’ve seen glimpses of what is to come, Sophia, and you Lucas. I’ve had a whole life to see it. A time of great power in the world is upon us. I have seen a war, and the way that war turns out will determine the fate of the world.”
“We beat the Dowager,” Sophia said.
“And now the New Army stands on your shores,” her mother said. “The Master of Crows stalks them, killing as he goes.” She turned to Kate. “I’m sorry, darling, but Will is dead.”
Sophia felt the wash of grief and pain flare outwards from her sister like some artillerist’s bomb. She went to hold Kate, and her sister pulled back, didn’t even let Sophia touch her.
“No, it can’t be true, it can’t be right,” she said. “Will… he can’t…”
“I saw it,” their mother said. “I dreamed of Ashton falling, and I saw the moment that he gave his life so that others could escape. He saved Sebastian’s life, sending him on with Violet. He blew up the cannon he was defending, and the Master of Crows barely survived.”
Sophia expected her sister to break down then. Even Kate could only be strong for so long. She even reached out tentatively, mind to mind, but found herself faced with a wall built from white hot anger, so cold that it burned her thoughts to touch it. Kate stood there for what seemed like an eternity before she spoke again.
“How do I kill him?”
Those words had the kind of tightness that came from rage behind them.
“That is a dark path, Kate,” their mother said.
“It’s what should have happened from the start of this,” Kate replied.
Sophia saw her parents look to one another.
“There are things that the three of you need to do to prepare for the battle to come,” their father said.