The Shadow

Chapter 17

Kai set the second tower alight from the outside, sticking a torch into a shallow depression beneath the wood. The flame was hidden from view, causing the tower to fall even faster than the first.

He hid his smile at the sounds of triumph that arose from the Arian soldiers; they had taken control of a large portion of the wall, pushing the enemy soldiers back. However, one more siege tower still stood, and while it stood the battle would not end.

Kai approached the tower now, masking his surprise. Guards had been stationed outside the siege machine, checking their men for anything out of the ordinary before they could be let up the tower.

The soldiers had found out, then. They had realized that their other two towers had not simply fallen from flaming arrows, but had been destroyed from the inside.

Kai took a deep breath, backing away from the tower, into an open, unwatched space. There he dropped all of his torches but one, along with his makeshift pouch. He stuffed the torch down his shirt and walked back to the tower, flint safe in his belt.

A gray-haired guard looked him over quickly before nodding him inside the siege tower and turning to the next soldier. Like the others, this tower held multiple floors, with a large ladder strapped across the wood planks, leading to each compartment.

Kai knelt beside the ladder, pulling his torch up from his shirt as he looked for a place to light—

"What do you think you're doing?" A gruff voice boomed from behind him, cutting through the cries of battle. Three of the guards strode toward him, swords drawn. Kai tried to conceal the torch but it was too late. They saw it. Was he going to die? All three of the men were enormous—all of the Dark Army seemed a bit larger than regular men. Or perhaps it just seemed that way when they were trying to kill Kai.

He backed toward the tower's far wall, but there was nowhere to go. He might be able to kill these men, but what then? What about the thousands beyond the tower that would surely hear the guards' cries of pain? A hundred years of training wouldn't be enough to prepare him for that.

The first man lunged, swiping for Kai's heart. He parried, dancing to the side—and into a wood-plank wall. Another sword joined the fray, then another. Kai deflected their blades, ducking and dodging, but it would not be enough, not as more men entered the tower.

He jabbed, and a man fell. Two more came to replace the dead soldier. He anticipated their frantic sword-swings, deflecting their massive swords against the one he had looted from the soldier in the trees, hardly half an hour before. It was a large, bulky blade, and one that he was unfamiliar with. That wouldn't stop him, couldn't stop him. Not now. Kai's grasp tightened around the blade's hilt as he thrusted it through one of the men. He pulled a knife from his belt in the same instant, using it to deflect a blow that would have surely decapitated him. Kai moved faster, ducking under thrusts, swinging with his sword as he stabbed with his throwing blade. He was the wind, weaving past their swords as he parried with his own, but even the wind wouldn't be enough. He felt hot liquid staining his skin, streaming from dozens of spots on his body. Shallow wounds, but they would add up eventually. He couldn't keep this up for much longer.

Time seemed to slow as a blade shot toward Kai's unprotected abdomen. He wanted to parry—needed to, but he could not. His sword remained mere inches away, crossed against a broadsword. He pushed and pulled, but his body would not move. The sword would hit, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. It inched toward him, taunting him, mocking him.

The blade was a finger width from his stomach now, sharpened steel gleaming. And then it stopped. Time resumed as shadows shot toward the blade, pulling it from the soldier's hands and throwing it to the muddy ground with a dull thud.