“What happened to Tesh?” Brin left Persephone’s side, and took bandages from the table, and handed them to Tegan.
“Don’t know,” Tegan replied. “He was with us. But when the door was breached, we all ran. I was too busy worrying about myself to pay attention to where everyone went.”
“The Fhrey saved us,” Harkon said while helping to hold the new wad of cloth to his own head as Tegan and Brin worked to tie a bandage around it. “Threw themselves in the way. Blocked their attacks. Gave us time to—”
“Here they come!” Eres shouted from the sitting area.
Tekchin leapt out of the bedroom to join him, and Moya raced to the archway, stationing herself between the two rooms, Grygor to her left.
Persephone heard a thud, then a bang, and finally the sound of wood splintering as the door to the hallway broke open. Moya let her first arrow fly and had another nocked immediately. Shouts and cries filled the sitting room.
“Get me up! Get me up!” Harkon ordered. Tegan lifted the chieftain and put his sword back in his hand.
“Can’t see!” Harkon wavered. “Blood’s in my eyes!”
“Relax, I’ll tell you when to swing,” Tegan said.
Looking past her Shield, Persephone saw the Fhrey force their way into the sitting room. Just as Moya had described, they were both beautiful and terrible, wearing brilliant gold and shimmering blue. They killed Tanner Riggles in the blink of an eye. Three other men were cut down as the fane’s army forced its way in. Moya fired arrow after arrow. Many found their targets; gold-and-blue uniforms littered the floor.
“Get the little spear thrower!” someone shouted in Fhrey.
That’s when Tekchin rushed them, or tried to.
Grygor threw the Fhrey aside and stepped in the way. “You have an afterlife to go to. Grenmorians just turn to dust.” Grygor unleashed his massive sword, moving with surprising speed and not-so-surprising strength. The bronze armor prevented the Fhrey from being cut in half, but his strokes must have shattered bones. Whomever he hit didn’t get up.
For a moment, Persephone thought there might be hope. If the Galantians could hold them, and Moya could shoot—but then the wall to the hallway exploded and Fhrey poured into the sitting room. Grygor took a spear thrust to his shoulder and another to his side. He staggered. Vorath rushed to his aid and was the first to fall as three blades hit him from behind. Persephone didn’t see it, but she heard Eres cry his name.
Watching through the doorway that separated the bedroom from the sitting area, Persephone saw Grygor beaten back. The giant made a courageous charge into their ranks, disrupting the assault and clearing a swath, but more filled in the gaps. Valiant as he was, the flood was too great.
Are we all that’s left? Persephone wondered. Is everyone else in the fortress dead?
Grygor flew backward, and Persephone saw a Fhrey wearing an asica enter the sitting room.
Miralyith.
Moya saw him, too, and fired her next shot at his chest. The arrow evaporated in mid-flight.
The Miralyith fixed her with a terrible glare and thrust out his hands.
“Moya!” Persephone shouted as, like the giant, the Shield to the Keenig was thrown off.
* * *
—
Tesh was surprised to find Sebek alone. The Fhrey convalescing in the little room one floor down from the top of the Kype had no guard watching his door. While it was Sebek’s responsibility to protect Nyphron, the Galantian leader apparently felt no need to reciprocate. Not that it would matter. None of them would live through the next few hours. Still, he would have expected Nyphron to join his Shield, but maybe that wasn’t the Galantian way.
Sebek sat up in his bed, naked to the waist, his torso wrapped in white bandages. Lightning and Thunder lay on either side of him—a pair of guard dogs that would give pause to anyone who knew the Fhrey. Even as badly wounded as he was, Sebek was dangerous.
The fane’s army had found their goal, their prize. They had chased Nyphron up the stairs into the keenig’s room, into the Shrine. No one had thought to open this nondescript door—no one except Tesh. He regretted not being with Brin, but there wasn’t much he could do for her, or anyone. There was no winning that battle. But there was one victory Tesh could still achieve.
Sebek looked surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“Can’t expect enemies to be courteous and only attack when you’re prepared. Sometimes they catch you off guard in awkward places where you can’t retreat,” Tesh told him.
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t you remember saying that on the bridge when you tried to kill me?” Tesh closed the door while Sebek intently watched.