Miro turned on his heel and the zenblade lanced at Moragon's head. Faster than Miro would have thought possible, the melding ducked with the speed only those with the taint of the elixir possessed. The metal arm smashed into Miro's side, knocking the wind out of him, and Miro fell to the ground.
Miro rolled to the side as Dain Barden's hammer smashed the ground where he'd been a moment before. With a grunt the Akari leader jumped forward and thrust the head of his weapon into Miro's face. Miro managed to pull back but the hammer still hit his temple with the force of mountains, nearly causing him to black out.
Miro gulped a breath of air and forced out the words that would strengthen his armoursilk. He rolled backwards and leapt to his feet, finally standing to face his two opponents with the zenblade held out in front of him.
Even if he could take them both, in moments Miro would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
"I recognise you," Moragon said. He grinned. "You've got a nerve, Lord Marshal, I'll give you that. Just so you know, when I'm done every Alturan woman will be shared among my men. They'll thank me for the opportunity to serve."
Shouts and cries could be heard. Miro looked to the left and right. "I'll see you on the battlefield," he said.
"You'll never get back to your men in time," Dain Barden said. "In fact, you'll never get out of here alive."
"We'll see," Miro said.
There was one last sequence Ella had built into Miro's armoursilk. He used it now, hoping it would be enough.
Miro chanted the runes quickly, one after the other.
A second bladesinger stood beside him, every movement a copy of Miro's own. As his lips moved a third appeared, then five more, and then ten more.
The illusions appeared all around him. As Miro used their confusion to escape from the very heart of the enemy camp, he again thanked his sister for saving his life.
~
IN THE end, though, Dain Barden was right, and Miro missed the battle. He saw it unfold from a distance as he returned to the west, watching in horror as the revenants of the Akari tore through the ranks of the soldiers in green and brown, eventually causing the allied army to break, fleeing back to the protection of the Ring Forts.
Miro hated himself for missing the battle, and now that he hadn't managed to find Amber he hated himself for trying. He knew he was being foolish, that if he had managed to find Amber he would feel differently.
But when he made it back to Sark, and saw the expression on Rogan's face, it didn't make him feel any better.
48
ELLA had never been so filled with rage. She thought about all she had seen, and all she now knew, and she wanted to hurt the ones who had done this. She wanted to hurt them badly.
She ate a cold meal of dried fruit and biscuit and tried to formulate a strategy, to use a clear head and intelligence when what she really wanted was to feel emotion. Through the trees ahead of her she could see three sets of twinkling lights. One set was the prison camp, the second was the camp of the soldiers, and the third set was the terrible place where they took the bodies.
It was located near the road from Seranthia to Sakurai, capital of Torakon, which meant Ella was in Tingara somewhere. Once she had made the decision to leave the Hazarans she had swiftly outdistanced the army, able to make her way through smaller paths and back routes, travelling night and day, burning with her desire to find a way to defeat these Akari and their revenants.
When she'd come across this place and seen the vats, her intuition told her there was something here that wasn't right. She had explored the facility using the near-perfect invisibility of her enchantress's dress, and spoken to some of the prisoners as well as interrogating two guards. She had deciphered the runes on the bubbling vats, as well as she was able to given the strange lore she had never encountered before.
And she had heard the screams.
She told the prisoners to have heart, for she would be back, and soon Ella knew everything there was to know about what went on at the facility. She knew there were two of these places: the one below her, and another not far away, also in Tingara. There had been a third, in Halaran, but it had been liberated at the same time as Ralanast.
Ella wondered whether Miro knew about the facility in Ralanast, and what he made of what the Primate was doing. There would be no peace, not with a man who could perpetrate such evil. She hoped the allied commanders realised this war wouldn't be over until the Primate was dead and allied soldiers walked the streets of Seranthia.
A constant flow of essence was being carted out from the facility, stored in conspicuous canisters of black glass, piled atop drudge-pulled carts. Ella knew that the essence was going to the Akari, and that without the constant supply they wouldn't be able to field so many revenants.
She had found her enemy's weakness, although even if she hadn't, Ella wouldn't have been able to pass this place by. Filled with rage, Ella knew she had to free the prisoners and destroy this evil place.
Ella was glad she had enchanted the wand, even though it had been against Prince Ilathor's wishes. Without it, her difficult task would have been made impossible.