“Yes.” He pressed his forehead to hers as orders were shouted around them in two languages. “Promise me, Sage. I can’t focus down here unless I know you’ll be safe.”
She nodded reluctantly, and he kissed her again, slowly this time, like he had all the time in the world. Then Clare was pulling on her hand, and they were running to the horses already being saddled for them. Sage led the way back through the Neck, hearing the reports of readiness behind them. Outside the canyon, they hooked around to the right and into the shelter of the fortress. She didn’t want to leave the horses saddled—it felt like expecting defeat—but she’d promised Alex they’d be ready to flee.
By the time she and Clare made it to the top of the tower, half the stars had faded. Rows of troops spread out in the twilight below, looking pathetically small, even in the contained area of the bowl. Beside her, Clare’s face was parchment white and her mouth drawn into a thin line. “I wish I hadn’t come,” she muttered.
Sage was about to answer her when the glow of flames could be seen reflecting off the stone walls leading into the pass. Was it the dremvasha? That should’ve been too far to see.
But no, it was torches carried by the lead rank to light the way through the dark canyon. The first Kimisar burst into the open area, appearing surprised to find opposition.
The Casmuni and Demorans charged.
*
For the first hour, the Kimisar made little progress. Every time they gained a few yards into the bowl, the allied fighters drove them back again. Sage could see their side rotating men, having them peel away from the fight to let the fresher rank behind them take over. The sun peeked over the horizon, shining light into the battlefield through the Neck.
If the dremvasha was having an effect, Sage didn’t see it.
“Sage.” Clare tugged on her arm, but Sage was glued to the battle, trying to pick out the one figure she cared about most. “Sage.”
“What?” she snapped, harsher than she meant to.
The fortress’s watchtower was built to see both into the bowl and outside the pass itself. Clare pointed at the flat plain below. “Who is that?”
Sage squinted at a column of figures approaching from the north, along the slopes. It couldn’t be reinforcements—no one lived in that direction. Sage led Clare down the steps of the tower to where they could look out a window and not be seen by the advancing group. The first of the new arrivals reached the mouth of the canyon, and after a brief discussion, several entered the pass. A few minutes later they returned and others gathered around them.
“Come on.” Sage went lower to find a better place to look out at the men, and Clare followed.
“They look like Demorans,” Clare whispered, and Sage nodded in agreement. Their clothes were definitely Demoran in style, but everything was worn and filthy, like they’d come a long way.
Sage crept closer to the window until she could overhear them talking.
Kimisar.
They were discussing what they’d seen in the bowl, concluding whoever had their backs to them were fighting their countrymen. Several wanted to join in.
Sage tried to make a quick count, getting lost twice at a hundred as they shifted around, but she was sure there were more than enough to cause a major problem. The Casmuni and Demorans weren’t expecting danger from the east. With the rising sun, they wouldn’t even see the Kimisar coming until they were right behind them.
“What do we do?” whispered Clare.
104
HUZAR HAD TRIED to make it to the pass before dawn, hoping for the chance to sneak in under cover of darkness. As he and his men approached, he saw no light coming from the fortress in the rock, as if no one was there. Seeing nothing to stop them, Huzar decided to continue even as sunlight poured over the horizon.
The sound of shouting and metal on metal echoed out of the entrance to the pass, and he sent a few men in to investigate. There was fighting in the round area beyond the narrow opening. That must be where the men manning the fortress had gone—to stop Kimisar coming through the pass. Huzar’s numbers were few, barely over 120, but the Casmuni were trapped in the bowl. If he came in from behind the main battle, the Kimisar could wear the Casmuni down on two fronts. He discussed it with the men around him, and they were all eager to join the fight.
This was what real soldiers did—not ally with traitors, not take young boys hostage. They didn’t die under rock slides. They faced their enemies and fought like men.
Huzar was organizing the company into columns and instructing them how he wanted them to spread out, when a scream interrupted him. A white horse came flying around the fortress wall, ridden by a Casmuni man waving a sword. The Kimisar instinctively scattered out of his way, and the rider flew into the pass.
Shit. Just as the Casmuni weren’t looking behind them, Huzar had been complacent about who could sneak up on the Kimisar. The rider hadn’t attacked, though—he was going to warn the Casmuni inside.
Huzar had lost the element of surprise.
105
ALEX ROTATED TO the rear ranks of the allied soldiers, taking the chance to catch his breath. Gramwell was next to him, leaning on his sword and panting.
“Where’s the damn waterfire?” Alex said. “I haven’t seen any sign it’s being used.”
“Want me to go look?” asked Gram.
“Maybe you should.” The whinny of a horse made Alex turn around. Out of the golden light streaming through the pass came a rider on a white horse. He headed straight for Alex and skidded to a halt in front of him.
“Alex!” Sage shouted down at him. “Thank the Spirit!” She sheathed the sword she was carrying.
“What the hell are you doing here, Sage?”
She waved a gloved hand behind her. “Kimisar,” she gasped. “Coming from behind.”
“Where the bleeding hell did they come from?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “But there’s over a hundred.”
Alex grabbed the man next to him. “Turn around! Turn everyone around! They’re coming from behind us!” Soldiers began to react, forming a rear line. “Sage, you need to get out of here!”
“I can’t,” she said. “Not till all those Kimisar come through.”
She was right. Just then a Demoran came running toward them, calling for Captain Quinn. “Over here!” he shouted back.
A man from the dremvasha detail collapsed in front of Alex. “Sir, the waterfire! There was a rock slide. It’s half-buried, and so are most of the men. We can’t use it!”
“Here they come!” someone yelled, and dozens of Kimisar came running out of the sunlight.
Sage kicked the horse to get behind the line of fighting. Alex followed, keeping himself between her and the Kimisar. “I heard what he said about the dremvasha!” she shouted over the noise, and pointed to the path up the ridge. “I can’t go back—let me go help up there!”
Alex held her gaze for a pair of heartbeats, then nodded and grabbed Lieutenant Gramwell beside him. “Go with her, Luke!”
Sage yanked the reins around and took off for the canyon.
106
SAGE ABANDONED LANI’S horse when the ground became too steep for him to climb and scrambled up the side of the bowl on her hands and knees. From the ledge, she paused to look down on the battle below. The Kimisar coming from behind had changed the whole dynamic.