Between Olivia’s waves of napalm death, Valentia’s burnished icicle-murder, and Robin and Nicole’s small but dramatic contributions, hundreds of kromian soldiers and six octopi fell to five people with rarities and stick children supported by a forest of living trees. As the wholesale slaughter of the kromian army continued, Drake reminded himself of three things.

This army had invaded his home.

This army wanted to kill him and everyone he cared about.

They were all going to die when the fog rose at dawn.

So with those facts clear, all he was doing was speeding their trip to the grave. That and visions of Hugo and Alice lying dead on the beach and memories of Xutag doing jazz hands kept him fighting... and killing. While he knew it wasn’t fair to blame all kromians for the decisions of a few, he did. At some point in the night, the earth rumbled enough to send him stumbling.

Cleavage. Lady Skybreak had found the column, and if they hadn’t all fallen in the massive pit she’d just opened, they were definitely split in two. As Drake hurried through the forest toward the cave he’d seen in the sapling’s vision, several more trembles followed.

So Viktoria had opened multiple pits. There was no way the kromians were going to stay together after that, which meant they’d have to stumble off the path cleared by their octopi and into the trees. Once there, the branches of the silverwood would balk them at every turn.

Drake couldn’t help but worry that Viktoria and her rangers would ignore him rather than return to the clearing, and he decided to make sure. He summoned a vero, gave it orders similar to those he’d given the first one, and asked it to lead Viktoria to the clearing.

Hundreds of kromians and one more octopus died as Drake’s small but impossibly overpowered party moved through the tunnels the vero created in the woods. He knew now why few had ever been foolish enough to attack Gloomwood Manor with an army. If he could, he’d need to make sure everyone heard about this one-sided battle.

For one thing, it would raise morale in the capital and in the other manors. And for another? It would scare the shit out of his enemies.

Ahead, a single outline appeared that looked different from the other kromians he’d seen. It was a human outline, and for a moment, Drake was certain one of his people was out of position. Yet... this person was marching with the kromians.

And as that person turned to look in his direction, their soul turned red.

 “Down!” Drake shouted at his people.

He dropped at the same time his people did, and then a sound like a lumber mill circular saw shrieked through the trees. Silverwood bark flew and trees splintered as a wave of energy coursed by inches above their heads. Silverwood didn’t break, but it just had.

The red figure in the distance had a rarity, but worse, Drake recognized that rarity. He was both thrilled out of his mind and also slightly terrified. On the way home, he’d done a lot of additional research given to him by the Judge, and that had included research into rarities.

Lord Redbow had a powerful and unique rarity, one that had allowed him to seize his manor despite the skill of the former Lord Redbow. His rarity was called scythe, and it could slice an entire column of soldiers apart with a wave of his hand.

“Mine!” Nicole whispered fiercely.

“Stay low!” Drake agreed. He needed to buy time for Nicole to get into position.

“Hey, Redbow!” Drake shouted. “Is that you, old man?”

Another buzzsaw shriek split and cracked the trees around them. Drake heard someone cry out and glanced back in terror to see if anyone had been chopped in half. Robin was on her back, gasping, with blood gleaming on her shoulder. Her shoulderpad was gone, as was a portion of her actual shoulder. It had been chopped right off, and it was bleeding.

The yellow kromian outlines around Lord Redbow’s outline broke into a run, sprinting at him as if they knew he was there... even though the fact that they remained yellow assured Drake they didn’t. It was time for a risk. Lord Redbow wasn’t using scythe non-stop, so he must have to recharge between scythe tosses. He might have just enough time.

Drake rose, summoned Chopzilla, and cut across the oncoming wave of kromians. Shrieks sounded as kromian outlines vanished. Yet Lord Redbow leapt just out of reach like he’d sensed the blow coming. He must have armor or some sort of gem to help him as well.

“So you’re selling out the surface world?” Drake called tauntingly. “Is that because no one up here can stand you?”

Redbow didn’t respond to the taunt. He did, however, launch another wave of energy in Drake’s direction. More silverwood shattered, but it seemed obvious now that he couldn’t find the range to hit them. He couldn’t approach without being in range of Chopzilla.

“It’s not too late to make a deal if you want to live!” Drake shouted again. “If you take down Varnath, the noble court might be willing to spare you!

“You can speak words you don’t believe!” Lord Redbow shouted back. “And for that and so many other crimes, you will die for opposing me!”

Finally, a response. All he needed to do was keep Redbow talking and focused on the people he couldn’t see in the nearby trees. For the moment, it was a standoff.

Lord Redbow couldn’t find the range to hit them with scythe so long as he couldn’t see them, and he couldn’t come closer without being cut down by Chopzilla. Meanwhile, the blue glow of Nicole’s soul creeping around from behind assured him she remained undetected. Redbow launched another scythe, but Drake and his people were already nearly prone.

“I think that one missed me by more than the last one!” Drake shouted. “Have you considered sucking less?”

“Face me!” Redbow bellowed. “Only a coward hides in the trees!”

Drake had to keep Redbow’s attention on him, as dangerous as that might be. He glanced back at his people. All were pressed as flat as he was, and from what a glancing hit had done to Robin’s shoulder, he suspected one hit straight on would cut them in half, feathersteel or no feathersteel. He had to buy more time!

“You’re the idiot who stumbled into them!” Drake shouted back. “You’re lucky you have your blood pact, because you can’t fight your way out of wet paper—”

Another burst of scythe tore through the trees, but it was obvious Redbow couldn’t find the range to take them out. Or maybe he could only send his rarity flying straight.

“Missed again!” Drake taunted. “Why does Varnath even put up with you? At least Lord Frostlight could actually kill people!”

“Enough of your mummery!” Lord Redbow roared. “This ends today!”

Nicole’s creeping blue outline reached Redbow and slid behind him. Too late, Redbow’s form spun about. There was a moment where Drake feared Nicole would get chopped in two, but after some brief shrieks, the red outline vanished.

Drake grinned as Redbow’s outline flickered out. “Game over, asshole. I win.” It was a shame Nicole couldn’t inherit Redbow’s blood pact... she was already part of one... but still, he’d never been so happy to see someone murdered before.

Lord Redbow was dead, and while Drake would have preferred to kill the vapid fucker and piss on his corpse, he’d let Nicole have her moment of glory. As Drake looked ahead, he spotted a massive blue outline that was clear despite it being still so far away.

The elder tree. The silverwood. His memory of the vision told him he was close to the cave he’d seen. His senses also told him Prince Varnath was somewhere ahead.

“Val?” Olivia whispered behind him. Then, she screamed.

Drake spun and stumbled back to his people in alarm. His stomach roiled as he spotted Valentia clutching her arm... or what was left of it. Everything from the elbow down on her left arm was missing. A thick chunk of ice had replaced it.

“Your arm, Val!” Olivia wailed. “You can’t lose your arm!”

“Perhaps.” Valentia tumbled onto her back and passed out.

Drake took one more furious look at their surroundings to ensure no kromians were in sight. Prince Varnath must have led Lord Redbow as his last line of defense before he entered the cave... either that, or Redbow had intended to join him inside. It was now all the more obvious they’d been working together, but Drake couldn’t consider what that meant right now.

Robin was sitting with her back against a tree, clutching her bleeding shoulder. It looked like she’d actually lost bone. As Drake dropped to Valentia’s side, he found her unconscious but breathing. She must have passed out from the pain... but not before she froze a block of ice around her stump. That tourniquet was the only reason she wasn’t dead.

“She pulled me down!” Olivia sobbed. “I couldn’t move and she pulled me down!”

“She’s alive,” Drake reminded her. “And you did amazing today, Oli.”

“But Val’s arm!”

Murdering hundreds of kromians hadn’t been an issue for Olivia, likely since she hadn’t seen them die, but this... had obviously broken her. Even without being injured, Olivia was no longer in any shape to fight. Her pale skin assured him she’d already spent enough blood.

He glanced at Robin. “How’s the shoulder?”

“I won’t be shooting a bow anytime soon,” Robin said. “But it’s not as bad as hers.”

As Nicole finally rejoined them, she gasped and sprinted over. “No, no, no!”

“She’s alive,” Drake said quickly. “Just passed out. And her...”

“I see it.” Nicole dropped to Valentia’s side and traced a finger along her pale white face. “Just your arm then. That’s all right.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” Nicole shouted. “I’m not the one who lost my favorite arm!”

Drake rose. “Get her to the clearing. It’s just ahead, and Raylan and Darion are both there. Maybe he can...”

He paused as he saw something both horrifying and hopeful. Valentia’s forearm. It hadn’t disintegrated. Instead, it had simply dropped to the ground after a wave from Lord Redbow’s scythe rarity lopped it off. He hurried over and picked it up, despite the fact that picking up a severed human arm was the last thing he wanted to do at the moment.

The split looked clean, like an axe had severed it from the rest. The arm was even still warm. The bones looked split evenly, and if it wasn’t too badly damaged...

“Take Val and her arm and get her to Darion,” Drake said. “Fleshbind, remember?”

Nicole gasped. “That will never work!” Yet she gingerly took the severed limb.

“It might if he chugs his burnish potion,” Drake said. “That’s the power of positive thinking. Now go, all of you, and Robin? Get that shoulder taken care of as well.”

He doubted Nicole could carry Valentia all alone, especially while hauling a severed forearm, so she’d need Olivia to help her. Robin couldn’t help carry anyone with half her shoulder blown away. She also couldn’t shoot a bow, and he didn’t need airstep inside a cave.

“But the cave,” Nicole said plaintively. “You can’t go alone.”

“Sure I can,” Drake said calmly. “I’ll handle the cave and the prince. You already killed Lord Redbow, so get to the clearing and help Val. She’s your priority now.”

Nicole didn’t need any more encouragement than that. “Oli. Now. Lift.” She looked to one of the vero with them. “You! Clearing! Go!”

Olivia sniffled as she helped Nicole lift Valentia. As the two of them struggled forward with an unconscious but still living Valentia, Drake looked again to the distant trees. He saw no more enemies out there, but the possibility still worried him.

“Lord Gloomwood will be fine on his own!” Nicole insisted. “He’ll kill Prince Varnath and come back like he always does! Robin, come!”

A brief rush of warmth flooded Drake as he repeated Nicole’s words. There was no snark there, and she couldn’t lie. She actually believed he could do everything she’d just said... which meant she finally believed in him.

“Lord Gloomwood?” Robin asked.

“Go. You aren’t helping me with that shoulder.” Drake turned his gaze to a cave he couldn’t see yet knew he was looking at right now. “I’ll see you at the clearing after.”

“You had better,” Nicole warned without turning around. “If you break Lydia’s heart by dying in there, I’m going to significantly lower my opinion of you.”

Robin glanced hopefully at him as she passed, clutching her ruined shoulder. Drake motioned impatiently for her to follow the others. Everyone here had done their part.

Together, the five of them had slaughtered half an army of kromians. With rend soul to call upon, Drake could easily handle one genocidal prince. Then, something Nicole had said then belatedly caught up with him.

“What do you mean, break her heart?”

“Gods, you are such an idiot!” Nicole called back.

As Drake stared after their retreating forms, he finally... no, that couldn’t be right. Nicole was teasing him again. Wasn’t she? Because if she wasn’t, then that meant Lydia...

No time to think about that now. The vision from the tree was a reminder that he still had more to do here. He hurried forward until he found the corpse of Lord Redbow and verified, yes, the man was dead. The many holes stabbed in his chest proved that.

That was when he noticed the gems.

Lord Redbow wore a number of golden rings, and all had colored gems attached. Moreover, these gems looked valuable. As he thought back over all the tricks he’d seen this asshole pull since the cabal, he recognized a similarity. All had involved jewels.

As urgent as it was that he move fast, he couldn’t abandon a find like this. One by one, Drake pried the rings off Redbow’s fingers and dropped them into the small pouch on his belt. He’d examine them later. Then, he looked to the vero waiting patiently ahead.

“As per our sacred pact, I ask you to lead me to the cave ahead, fast. Go.”

His vero skittered forward. Drake jogged after it. While the blue outlines of his people remained visible as their paths diverged, even they eventually vanished. No more outlines appeared save the tree in the distance. Why could he see it from this far away?

Maybe it was because of the silverwood’s soul. Maybe its soul was that strong.

He was on top of the cave almost before he realized it. He didn’t even see it, only the two yellow outlines crouched at its entry. The moment they turned red, he summoned Chopzilla and cut them down. They dropped dead.

Drake advanced slowly into the dark cave. More yellow outlines manifested, but they were far ahead and around a curve in the tunnel. Drake cut them down as well, straight through the rock. He doubted either of them ever saw the death blow coming.

No wonder Emily was so cheery all the time. Using rend soul felt like wielding the power of a god. He also never saw the people he killed, just their souls. That made the killing easier.

The tunnel continued forward and down. It soon became obvious Prince Varnath had left multiple kromian patrols throughout the tunnels, and to back up Lord Redbow. Layers of security stood ready to cut down any who came after the kromian prince.

Yet their multiple layers of defense would be their downfall. Rend soul revealed the positions of the ambushers long before Drake arrived, and Chopzilla ended them after. The grim trudging slaughter continued until the tunnel widened out.

Drake finally found himself in a huge underground cavern from his vision, lit by a glow that came from nowhere and everywhere at once. As his feet splashed into water, he didn’t remember seeing water in his vision. He knelt, dipped a finger, and brought it to his lips.

Salt.

Prince Varnath had brought another sea gate, and this time, he intended to poison the silverwood in its very roots. Cresh and the others could defend the fortifications above the entire night and never know. As Drake splashed forward, a single yellow outline appeared on the ridge ahead. As Drake summoned Chopzilla and glared upward, the form called out.

“Stay your hand, Lord Gloomwood!” a strong voice demanded. “I request a parley!”

Drake charged forward. “Not a chance in hell!”

“Then you will die like so many others!” Varnath shouted.

Drake saw the glimmer almost too late. His reckless charge was the reason the spear of ice slammed into the water behind him instead of growing through his head. Prince Varnath had just launched an icicle!

That hypocritical son of a fish had a rarity! As Drake quickened his pace, he chided himself for being surprised.  Of course Varnath had a rarity. He wanted to eliminate everyone with divine blood so he’d be the only person with it. So he would be the only one with a rarity... and possibly, the only one with a blood pact.

Another sharpened icicle hurtled toward him. Drake avoided it by tossing himself to the side, but he lost his footing when he slid across the water. Chopzilla passed straight through his own body, which made him immensely grateful he couldn’t chop himself.

He scrambled upward in time to run, but not in time to dodge the next spear of ice. It slammed into his shoulder—his chopping shoulder—and tore through both armor and flesh. Drake spun around with the impact and crashed into the ground on his back.

Fuck, that hurt! As he struggled to his feet without his god axe, he began to wonder just how badly he’d miscalculated his chances in this fight. Why hadn’t he just lied to Varnath and told the prince he’d parley? Slaughtering the kromians outside had made him overconfident.

Above him, on the high ground, Prince Varnath raised his hand. Another sharpened icicle crackled into the space above his fingers. This couldn’t be how it ended. Drake wasn’t about to die to some stupid fish fucking ass—

A single arrow thumped into the prince’s chest.

Varnath’s icicle shattered as he stumbled backward, clutching his chest. As Drake glanced behind him, he spotted a single yellow outline at the entry. Even at this distance and even in the faint light, he knew her instantly as she faded blue. That stubborn, foolish...

“Finish him quickly, lord!” Sachi shouted. “I only had one arrow left!”

“Wait!” Prince Varnath roared from above. “Lord Gloomwood, we need not fight! You can still serve me as my ally!”

Varnath stepped into view again as Drake tried desperately to summon Chopzilla, then groaned as his savaged shoulder refused. Was that really it? Was he done being a god?

“This stone holds every blood pact still in existence!” Varnath crowed. “If you cut me down, it will shatter into a thousand pieces! So listen to my offer first!”

“Hold up.” Drake stared up in alarm. “That stone holds the blood pacts?”

 

Author's Note: Next week, book 3 wraps up with a betrayal, a confession, and a lie.

Have a great weekend, everyone!