Shield of Sparrows

Banner lifted his sword, taking another step forward.

Godsdamn it, I was carrying too much stuff. I backed away, sloughing the carrier and satchel while Banner continued to advance. Faze ran into Evie’s waiting arms.

I reached for my other knife, raising both as I took up my fighting stance. “Stay back.”

“Do you know what you’re doing with those weapons?”

“Come closer and you’ll find out.” My grip tightened on the handles as I swallowed a gush of terror. I wanted my sword. I’d been practicing with it more. It would allow me to keep more space from him than the knives. But I didn’t trust him not to lunge if I made a change to swap out weapons.

All I could hope was that the months of training, the countless hours with Tillia and Ransom, would be enough.

“Put them down, Odessa. And I vow to make this painless.”

“Fuck you.”

The words were barely past my lips when he advanced and swung, fast and deadly. His sword crashed into my knives, tossing my arms to the side. He was fast—but I’d trained with faster and managed to stay on my feet.

“Dess!” Evie cried as I backed away into the middle of the street.

Ransom would criticize me for retreating. Not my greatest reaction to an attack, but Banner had taken me by surprise. I wouldn’t let it happen again.

I sucked in a breath and took one heartbeat to reset. To breathe and bend my knees and find my center. I could do this.

I can do this.

I had no other choice.

“Do you really think fighting will change the outcome?” he asked, circling me with a hunter’s gaze.

“Do you really think I’ll just let you kill me?” I tuned out the chaos in the streets. I put myself in a training arena with Ransom, and today, I would not fall.

There was pure murder in Banner’s gaze as he came at me again, swinging hard. His movements were that of a loyal and lethal general. Swift and smooth. He was tall. Strong. Fast.

But he wasn’t as good as Ransom. And all those days I’d cursed the Guardian for the training meant I kept my balance.

Every strike, I blocked. Every slice, I evaded. Sweat beaded at my temples, and my pulse was a hammer in my ears, but all those miles I’d run meant my muscles were warm, not tired. Not yet.

“Godsdamn you.” Banner bared his teeth as he swung for me again, his gaze flickering toward Evie still against the house, Faze clutched in her arms.

Would he go after a child to get his revenge? Would he use her against me?

I shifted in front of her, blocking her from his view.

The chaos beyond us grew louder and dimmer at the same time, like my ears were absorbing it all yet dismissing anything that wasn’t Banner, shutting out anything but this fight.

“It doesn’t need to be like this,” I told him. “Get Brielle out of here before it’s too late.”

“I’ll never get this chance again.”

No, he would not. If my father learned he’d tried to kill me, Banner’s life would be forfeit. The same was true with Ransom.

Banner was already dead. He was simply prolonging the inevitable.

“You are not killing me today,” I told him.

This was the reason I’d asked Ransom and Zavier for a sword. This was what I’d spent months and months training for. Not for someone else to come to my rescue.

To rescue myself.

So far, I’d been evading his moves. Time to attack.

I feinted to the left, then struck to the right. The edge of my knife sliced through his thigh, through pants not made of grizzur hide.

He bellowed at the cut, touching it with his hand and coming away with blood. He stared at it, then me, like he’d never seen me before. He wiped the blood clean and came for me with movements uncontrolled yet lethal.

I blocked his strikes, left and right and above and left again. Over and over and over again until the vibration in my palms made my hands ache. Until the sweat threatened to loosen my grip.

But I wasn’t giving up. I managed another cut on his bicep, the blood seeping through his teal coat.

He sliced for my gut, and when I leaped back, he took his chance to go for the kill. He drew one of those knives he was so famous for throwing from his belt, flipping it in his hand until he held it by the blade.

My stomach dropped. I didn’t know how to stop a throwing knife. Ransom hadn’t taught me that yet.

“Evie!” Zavier’s shout filled the street as he rounded the corner of the house, racing for his daughter.

“Papa!” Tears streaked her face.

Except Zavier changed course, not going to his child but running toward Banner instead.

“No!”

It all happened at once.

Banner whirled, gaze wild. His hand moved like a bolt of lightning, flicking that knife, sending the blade tumbling end over end.

It buried deep into Zavier’s gut.

At the same time, I drove my knives through Banner’s.

Then the realm went quiet. The last thing I heard was Evie’s scream.

It was as if my mind had reached its limit. There were too many sounds, too many horrors to comprehend. Something had to give.

It was the noise.

It faded to a dull hum, and all I could do was watch the nightmare.

Evie’s mouth was open in a wail. Her lips were moving.

Papa. Papa.

He stared down at the knife, his eyes unblinking. His sword fell to the ground. Blood seeped from the dagger’s hilt, coating his tunic. He wasn’t wearing his grizzur vest. He’d left the house in a rush and forgotten his armor.

A bubble of red came from his lips, dribbling down his chin as he dropped to his knees.

Evie ran to him, pressing her hands to the knife, her fingers instantly coated in blood as she tried to stop the flow.

A scream penetrated the nothingness, chasing away the silence.

My own scream.

The noise was an explosion, so loud my ears had to be bleeding.

“Papa!” Evie stared at his stomach, eyes wide and panicked.

Then Zavier fell to the side, coughing as his shoulder hit dirt. The blood from his mouth splattered on Evie’s face.

I left my knives in Banner’s body and ran for Zavier, my hands covering Evie’s, holding the blood like I could keep it in his body. “It’s okay. It’s okay, it’s okay.”

This wasn’t okay.

There was too much blood.

“Papa!” Evie’s voice cracked, and with it, another piece of my heart.

His eyes filled with tears of his own as he reached for her with garbled, bloody words on his lips. “I love you.”

I pressed my hands harder into the knife. “Help.”

Gods, I needed help. A healer or magic or anything to stanch this bleeding.

“Help!” I screamed, hoping anyone would hear.

“Go.” His panicked green eyes searched mine. “Run.”

“Help me!” My voice cracked. Where the fuck were the healers? Didn’t they know people were dying?

Zavier shook his head, gasping for a few last breaths. And when he spoke next, it was barely a whisper. “Evie.”

She couldn’t stay out here. Not like this. And so he would bleed out on this street. Alone.

“I’m sorry,” I sobbed, my tears falling onto his blood-soaked shirt.

Zavier’s eyes fluttered closed as I pulled my hands away.

Lifting my fingers to my mouth, I closed my eyes, tasting his blood on my lips, and blew the loudest whistle I could muster. A whistle from Treow, hoping someone, anyone would recognize the signal.

The signal that things were not okay.

I swallowed back a sob as I pushed to my feet, my balance faltering as I started down the road, past Banner’s lifeless body.

The fastest way to the dungeons was down the center of Ellder, but I wouldn’t risk being that exposed. So we’d stick to alleyways and gaps between buildings along the main road, slinking our way through the fortress until we reached the barracks. Hopefully we could slip by to the wall, unnoticed by the terrors in the sky.

I hurried to my satchel, pulling it on again along with Faze’s carrier. I put Evie’s rabbit inside and collected Faze. He was trembling by Evie’s side. With him in the pouch, I sucked in a fortifying breath and lifted Evie into my arms. “Come with me, little star.”

“No!” She kicked and screamed, fighting me as I took her from Zavier. “Papa!”

“I’m sorry. We have to go. We can’t stay here.” I held her tighter, turning her away.

“Papa!” She reached over my shoulders, hands stretched for her father.

I marched on, arms banded around her until we’d left Zavier behind.

She slumped against my shoulder when we turned a corner and she lost sight of him.

“I’m sorry.” I kissed her temple as we stopped beside the toy shop where we’d bought Merry the plush rabbit.

Today. That had just been today.

A window of the shop was broken. A lantern lay shattered on the floor, flames licking the shelves of toys.

The world was on fire.

Where was the crux? I searched the skies, trying to see past roofs. The steady beat of wings, blasts of wind, filled the streets.

She was flying, swooping down to pick at her prey. Out of reach from Ransom’s sword.

Where was he? Helping people escape?

There were people in nearly every shadow, people trying to make their escape from Ellder, either to the courtyard or the side gate.

Down the road, the baker, a man who brought his wife flowers each morning, was risking a crossing of his own. His wife was clutched at his side. They were fleeing their business, likely trying to find a shelter.

Like she could sense their desperation to survive, the crux swept down from the night and, with a slice of her talon, separated the man’s head from his shoulders.

My hand slapped over my mouth to stifle a scream. I used my other to keep Evie’s face buried in my shoulder so she wouldn’t see.

The wife dropped to her knees.

And tried to put her husband’s head back on his body.

The crux circled around, this time targeting a building. She sank both feet into a house, lifting off a section of roof, carrying it for a moment before letting it go. Sticks and beams exploded from the heap as it smashed to the ground, blocking the path I’d planned to take. Forcing us closer to the main road.

I adjusted my hold on Evie, waited until the crux flew the opposite way, then ran across the road, not stopping until I was through another alley and ducked beneath an overhang. I slid along the wall, moving toward the corner so I could look down the main road, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ransom.

There was a woman walking along the row of spikes. She had two knives—my knives—in her bloody hands.

“Brielle,” I gasped. She was dead out there. She had to run. To hide. “Run!”

She stopped instead. She dropped the knives. And lifted her face to the stars.

“No.” My body seized.

A shriek ripped through the air, so loud Evie cupped her hands over her ears. Then came the pulse of flapping wings.

The monster dove from the sky, another shriek piercing the night.

Brielle didn’t make a sound as she lifted her off the ground. As she carried her into the shades.

I hoped it was Arabella’s heaven.

My knees wobbled, the weight of this death too heavy to bear.

“Can you walk?” I asked Evie.

She nodded, so I set her on her feet.

“We’re going to run, okay? All the way to the dungeons.”

She closed her eyes, fat tears clinging to her sooty lashes.

I kissed her forehead, took her hand, and then we ran across one street, then the next.

The beat of wings made me stop and huddle beside a wall as the crux swept down again. This section of the street was without spikes, so it had room to land.

Firelight caught the monster’s wings, making the black feathers glow red and orange.

I ducked back, breath lodged in my throat. Fly away. Leave.

Faze let out a squeak, his tiny claws digging into the fabric of his carrier, like he knew the real monsters had arrived in Calandra.

The ground beneath my boots quaked as the crux pushed into the air, flying toward the courtyard.

My body sagged against the wall. “Okay. Let’s go again. On three. One. Two. Three.”

I pulled Evie with me, my grip on her hand fierce, until we finally made it to the last building. Across from us were the barracks. If we could just make it to those rows of small homes, we might be able to get to the wall. But there was a large expanse that separated the town’s buildings and homes from the soldiers’ quarters.

The gap hadn’t seemed that wide before. Now, it might as well be the Krisenth. And it was littered with bodies and blood. Soldiers who’d come out of the barracks to fight. To die.

“Last push.” I swept her into my arms, waiting until she wrapped her legs around my waist.

I filled my lungs, willing strength into my legs. Then I tore off, leaping over bodies, over entrails and gore.

I reached the barrack rows but didn’t stop. I set my gaze on that dark stone at the back of the fortress and kept pushing, never more grateful for the laps and laps I’d run around Ellder and Treow.

My stamina wasn’t shit, not anymore.

But I was no match for a massive flying monster. She screeched as a wind pushed hair into my face. A wind so powerful it pushed me forward.

“Down!” Ransom’s shout came from my side.

I dropped to my knees, my body curling around Evie’s as I craned my neck to the sky.

The monster came like an arrow, shot straight and true. Her talons were extended, ready to sink into our bodies, to steal us off the ground.

All I could do was hope she would take me and not Evie.

I loosened my hold, putting an inch of space between my body and hers as I braced for the impact.

But it came from the side, not above, as Ransom barreled into us both, hurling us out of the crux’s path.

Pain exploded through my shoulder as we rolled. Ransom’s body slammed into mine, but he made sure Evie was cushioned against his chest. He landed beside me, his sister clutched in his arms and his eyes on the sky.

I looked up in time to see the crux choose another target, a horse that was galloping away, trying to run free.

“Odessa.” Ransom’s silver eyes were wild as he scooped up Evie and helped me to my feet, pulling me to the closest barrack house. He set her down, his hands roaming her body, then mine, searching for injury.

“I’m okay. But Zavier. He’s…” I couldn’t say it. Wouldn’t say it.

His silver eyes flashed with disbelief. Then anguish. He dropped his forehead to mine.

The crux shrieked from the skies. A war cry. A death promise.

He leaned back, eyes searching mine as he threaded his fingers, slick with blood, into my hair. “It’s not safe for you here.”

He wasn’t talking about the fortress. He wasn’t talking about Ellder.

It wasn’t safe for me in Turah. Not if his theory was correct and these monsters were drawn to me.

Not if the migration was starting already.

He’d said it himself, months ago. Quentis was always better at hiding than fighting. And for the migration, all we could do was run.

And hide.

I shook my head, desperate for another way. “What about you?”

He pressed his lips to my forehead. “Go.”

“Ransom—”

“Please.” He untangled his hands from my hair. Then, with a hopelessness the depths of which I’d never seen before, he unclasped the cuff on his forearm. And fastened it around mine. “You know what this is?”

The road to Allesaria.

“Yes.”

“I don’t know where my father went. If he’s still in the fortress, then you cannot be. Neither can Evie.”

“Does he know about the dungeon and the tunnel?”

“Probably.”

Shit. “Then Treow. I’ll find my way to the encampment and wait there.” I remembered most of the path. Granted, that had been in the light, but I’d find it by sheer will alone.

“Walk toward Aurinda,” he said, pointing to the moon above. “She will lead you to Treow.”

“All right.” I gulped.

“If I don’t arrive by the day after tomorrow, you must go. Take Evie from Turah. Do what needs to be done.”

Give my father what he’d been after all this time. Even if it meant Turah—Calandra—would be changed forever.

“Are you certain?”

This could mean the death of the Voster. The end of Allesaria. The spread of Lyssa. I had no idea what my father was planning.

He hadn’t trusted me with his truths.

“I trust you.” Ransom tucked a curl away from my face as the beat of wings grew louder and louder. Then his mouth crushed mine in a hard kiss that ended too soon.

I wouldn’t get a long goodbye, not with that monster in the skies.

“I love you, Evie. Stay with Odessa.” He bent to kiss her hair, then took a step away, looking up to the night. His jaw clenched, his grip on his sword tightening. “Run. Now, Cross.”

Hot tears dripped to the dirt at my boots. “I love you.”

“Yes, you do. Don’t forget.”

“Never.”

“Neither will I.” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “I will find you. Here, or in the shades.”

The crux landed at his back, the ground shaking as she dropped. And Ransom, my Guardian, turned to fight.

To show that bitch who the real monster in Calandra was.

To give us time to run.

He kept the crux away long enough for me to pick up Evie and sprint through the remainder of the barracks. I risked a backward glance at the last row.

The crux flew into the air, high above the fortress’s towering walls. Beating black wings. A screech ripping from her throat.

And Ransom in her talons.

My heart cleaved in two.

“He’ll be okay,” I told Evie, forcing one foot in front of the other until we reached the dungeon. “He’ll kill the crux.”

He’d kill the monsters. He’d kill them all.

And then he’d find me. There was no other outcome that I’d accept.

“We’ll see him in Treow. Come on.” I pulled Evie along the dark walls of the dungeons, letting my eyes adjust and using my feet to feel for the lantern that had been here last time.

It clanged as I kicked it over, but I bent and picked it up, using a match from its tray to light the wick.

Squinting against the sudden brightness, I held it high with one hand, taking Evie’s in my other as we made our way to the hidden tunnel entrance.

Her footsteps were getting sluggish, like her body was shutting down from the stress of this night.

“We’ll rest in a minute,” I promised.

First, I wanted to be behind that tunnel’s door.

It opened with a hard push of my shoulder, the air inside stale and dank. The tunnel was tall and wide, the darkness eating the lantern’s light. We walked ten paces to the first corner, and when I rounded the smooth stone edge, I flinched at another light.

Then I felt the crawling sensation of spiders on my skin.

We weren’t alone.

“Do not run.” Brother Dime appeared from the shadows, and if not for the horse at his back, I would have turned around. He held Freya’s reins, my darling horse alert but not scared.

“What do you want?” I pushed Evie behind me.

“You must come with me now, child.”

It wasn’t a suggestion.

Ramsey had said Brother Dime wanted me. And he’d found me. Why? “Does this have anything to do with my mother?”

He didn’t answer. He simply turned Freya around and led us through the tunnel to the hatch that opened beyond the walls, into the forest.

Brother Dime was careful not to touch me as he handed me the reins. That caution was the only reason I didn’t climb onto Freya’s back and ride across the continent.

I didn’t trust the Voster. But Ransom did.

That was enough for tonight.

“Up you go,” I told Evie, putting her in the saddle first and handing her the lantern before I settled in behind her.

She sagged into my arms, her nose pressing against my chest. Her hand slipped into Faze’s carrier, taking his paw.

I kissed her cheek, feeling tears on my lips. “Hold tight, little star. You’re safe.”

It was a lie. But I said it anyway.

Brother Dime lifted his bony hand, holding up a single finger, and sent a whoosh of air to the lantern, extinguishing the flame.

And then he led us into the night.noveldrama