Shield of Sparrows

“Crux!” The warning wasn’t enough. It came too late.

The crux dropped to the courtyard, landing in front of the open gates. The soldiers who’d been posted there, those of Ramsey’s who’d stopped just inside Ellder’s entrance, died the moment the monster crushed them beneath her claws.

She was enormous, bigger than I ever could have fathomed, even after years studying those paintings in the gallery in Roslo. When she stood upright, her head was three times the height of a man. All the other monsters we’d faced in Turah. The terrors I’d witnessed. Nothing compared to the crux.

I gaped, unable to breathe or think or move. All I could do was stare at the female, at the eyes and feathers blacker than ink.

Her talons clawed into the earth, gouging and scoring the dirt. The slashes were so deep they could be used for graves. Her beak curved to a point as sharp as any sword.

The males were always drawn with horns, but this female had spikes of her own on the front of her wings. With every swipe through the people in the courtyard, she ripped through flesh and bone.

The courtyard was pandemonium.

Ramsey’s soldiers fled, most running toward the heart of Ellder while others near the walls urged their horses behind the monster, trying to escape her wrath. A few people managed to get free.

Jocelyn tried to slink to the wall, but the crux pecked at every human, like a chicken eating bugs. My former lady’s maid was gouged in two.

“Ama, save us.”

Arrows flew from the ramparts, most bouncing off the monster’s body. Some seemed to find purchase, but the beast barely flinched, like they were mere pinpricks.

“Take shelter!” Ransom yelled, bending to retrieve the sword I’d taken from his grip, holding it in defense as he pushed me backward. “The spikes. Go.”

I was still frozen, watching the horror unfold.

“Cross,” he barked, snapping me out of it. “Run.”

I whirled, about to make my way to the main road, but people rammed into my side, tripping over one another in their hurry to leave.

An arrow zinged past my shoulder, and I crouched, pushing forward with Ransom at my back.

Screams mingled with the screech of the monster, the noise so loud my ears hurt as I weaved through people.

“Watch out.” Ransom’s arm wrapped around my middle, and he swept me to the side.

A soldier’s body flew past my face. His chest had a hole in it.

A hole the size of a monster’s talon.

“Hurry.” Ransom set me on my feet, urging me on, his hand on my back the entire time.

He should have been fighting that monster, not running with me, but he wouldn’t leave my side. Not until I was out of this courtyard.

So I pushed my legs faster, leaping over a body in my path, sidestepping anyone in my way until I was at the nearest spike in the road, my boots skidding to a stop as I ducked behind the wooden pillar.noveldrama

I looked to the courtyard in time to see the crux slam a wing into the gates, nearly knocking them off their hinges. The vibration of that hit made the soldiers on the rampart above lose their footing, giving the monster a momentary break from the barrage of arrows.

“Ransom. Go.” I pushed at his shoulder. “Your mother.”

Luella was still in the fray, helping an injured man to his feet. She looped his arm around her shoulders and began inching him toward the wall.

“Evie,” he said.

“I’ve got her.”

He nodded, pressing a hard kiss to my forehead before he was gone.

I needed to move. To get to the house. Except I couldn’t stop staring at the carnage. There were so many people. Where were Tillia and Halston? Where was Zavier? Cathlin?

Someone had knocked over a burning barrel, and the fire had caught in the stables. The boy inside was shooing out the horses, their frightened whinnies mingling with the shouts and death.

My nails dug into the spike as I searched frantically for familiar faces.

When I spotted Tillia, my body sagged against the post.

She was running toward the wall, away from the monster. Her face was coated in blood. But beyond her, Halston and two other rangers ran toward the crux.

They ran to slay a monster.

The crux saw them coming and stretched out an enormous wing, the full span so wide I gasped. Then she swept that spiked wing forward like she was clearing a path. Catching those trying to escape.

“Tillia!” Halston screamed.

She was in that path.

Tillia bent forward, dropping into a tucked roll on the ground as the crux’s wing swept over her spine, missing her by a hair.

Halston’s body sagged when she stood upright. But he’d been too focused on his wife. He’d taken his eyes off the crux.

And the monster’s talon took off his leg, tearing through flesh and bone.

He fell to his side, eyes wide, blood spurting from the wound as his limb landed on the dirt.

Tillia’s mouth was open in a scream as she changed direction, dodging another wing sweep to get to her husband. She slid on her knees when she reached his side, whipping off her belt to tighten around his thigh.

Ransom had run for his mother, to help her with that wounded soldier, but Luella pushed him away, shaking her head.

He kissed her forehead, too, then left to battle the beast.

He charged the crux, a streak of flashing silver as he did his own tucked roll, slicing at the monster’s neck while he flew beneath her body.

She reared back, a deafening screech filling the air. Then she snapped and snapped at Ransom, trying to catch him in her beak, but he evaded her, a blur of movement, faster than I’d ever seen him move, cutting into her wings and belly and neck, over and over and over again.

What the fuck did it take to kill that monster? Were her feathers made of iron?

Ransom aimed for her legs, but before he could strike, the crux stood tall and backed away. Her wings stretched wide, and with a single beat, she lifted off the ground.

The wind sent a cloud of dirt and air into my face, grit scratching my eyes. The blast was enough to knock Ransom to the side.

“Luella!” It was Ramsey’s shout that carried above the chaos.

She was still with that injured soldier—one of his soldiers—and their progress was slow. Too slow.

“Run!” He screamed for her, pushing off the wall where he’d taken shelter.

She looked up, looked over her shoulder.

But it was too late.

With that single beat of her wings, the crux leaped from one side of the courtyard to the other. And with a snap of her beak, she cleaved Luella’s body in two.

The monster flung her torso to the side. Her hips and legs collapsed.

I dropped to my knees, mouth open, unable to breathe as tears flooded my eyes.

Horror consumed Ransom’s face. “Mother!”

My pulse was so loud it drowned out all else.

This couldn’t be real. This wasn’t real. This wasn’t happening. The migration wasn’t until months from now. Until next spring. This was only a nightmare. I’d wake up safe in bed, in Ransom’s arms, and Luella would be alive.

She’d be downstairs, drinking her morning tea, waiting for Evie to wake. She’d be making notes for lessons, preparing to teach her daughter about arithmetic and science.

The crux turned to Ramsey, but then a roar stole her attention. Her head whirled at the sound as Ransom leaped onto the monster’s back, his sword raised to drive through the crux’s skull.

Except before he could drop the blade, she took to the air, tossing him to the ground.

Zavier and three of his warriors had raced up the wall, taking up bows and arrows.

There were huge crossbows mounted to the ramparts. Remnants of migrations past. Except Ellder had only begun preparations. The blacksmiths had been focused on weapons for other monsters, the bariwolves and grizzur. They hadn’t started forging the large crux bolts yet.

Zavier and his rangers fired at the beast in rapid succession, hoping one arrow would find its target true, maybe an eye to blind the crux.

But all it seemed to do was piss her off. With another screech, she flew higher and higher, taking a few soldiers from the walls with her into the skies.

I didn’t wait to see where she’d land. I pushed off the spike and raced for the house.

For a girl who had no idea she’d just lost her mother.

“Evie!” I burst through the door, running for her room.

Her bed was rumpled and empty. So was Luella’s.

“Evie,” I called again, my voice cracking.

Where was she? Where had Luella told her to hide? She wouldn’t have gone into the streets, would she? To fight monsters?

Faze. She’d be with our tarkin.

I grabbed a pair of her boots and pants from her bedroom, then took the stairs to my suite two at a time, my footfalls loud as I flew through the door. I ran straight for my room, dropping to my hands and knees to find Evie under my bed, her new stuffed rabbit, Merry, clutched to her chest beside Faze.

Thank the gods.

“Come on, little star.” I waved her out.

She shimmied across the floor, and as soon as she was free, I hauled her into my arms, her legs winding around my hips, her arms around my neck.

I held her for only a moment before I set her on the bed to collect my things. “Put your pants and boots on for me.”

She nodded, obeying as I moved without thinking, collecting my journal from beneath my chest of drawers and stuffing it in my satchel. I grabbed the dagger Ransom had given me, refusing to think of the last time it had been in my hand. And then I donned my weapons, strapping on my shoulder harness for my knives and adding my sword to its sheath across my spine. I slung Faze’s carrier across my chest, and then I collected Evie from the bed, where she sat with Faze in her arms.

“He’s scared.” Tears glistened in her eyes.

“I’m scared, too. But it’s going to be okay.” I took him from her, tucking him in his pouch. Then I clutched Evie’s hand and led her outside.

In the streets, people ran in all directions, shouting and crying.

“Dess?” Evie whimpered.

“Hurry.” I pulled her behind me to the main level and into the house, moving through the living space to Luella’s suite. When we reached the bedroom, I let go of Evie’s hand to shift the bedside table out of the way and opened the migration cellar’s door.

“Careful on each step.” I took the same lantern I’d used earlier, lighting it on the top stair, not worrying about closing the door before we descended into the cellar, taking the stairs slowly until we reached the bottom.

“Hold this.” I gave Evie the lantern as I dropped to my knees and popped open the hollow beneath the last step.

The books barely fit in my satchel, but I forced them inside, closing the flap before taking the lantern.

Evie’s sniffles filled the room.

“Be brave for a bit longer.” I smoothed the hair from her face, kissing her cheek. Then I took her hand in mine once more and jerked my chin to the stairs. “Up you go.”

“We’re not staying here?”

“No.” There were no spikes on the roof, not yet. Without them, there was nothing to keep a crux from smashing this building to splinters. Now that I saw just how big they were, I wasn’t taking that chance. The last place I wanted Evie was trapped beneath a house, but I wasn’t leaving these books behind.

“We’ll go to the dungeons,” I told her as we climbed. “It’s going to be frightening outside. Just hold my hand. Don’t let go, no matter what. Can you do that for me?”

“Y-yes.”

“That’s my brave girl.” We climbed upstairs and moved through the house, my heart beating so hard it hurt as we made it to the back door. I checked left and right and above for the crux, and seeing it was clear, I stepped into the night.

But we were not alone.

Banner emerged from the shadows, from Brielle’s doorway in the servants’ quarters. Even in the dark, I could make out the wildness in his eyes that I’d seen in the courtyard when he learned that Ransom was Ramsey’s son.

He walked toward me with an eerie stride, measured steps. The hairs on my neck stood on end. I might not have thought much of it except for the sword in his right hand.

“Banner. Where’s Brielle?” I tucked Evie behind me, searching past him.

“Hiding.” He took another step forward, his eyes sweeping me head to toe, noting my own weapons.

“What do you want?”

“You should send that child inside, Princess.”

My stomach dropped. I’d spent enough time around monsters lately to know the look of a predator hunting prey. I reached over my shoulder, pulling a knife from its sheath. “What are you doing, Banner?”

“They’ve made fools of us with their lies. Of me.”

I pushed Evie away from the door, angling my body in front of hers. “You’re not a fool. You’re a general with a fiancée who is probably scared and wondering where you’ve gone. Go to Brielle. Take her home to Quentis.”

“I made a vow. I promised to avenge him.” He swallowed hard, staring at me for a long moment. Almost like he wanted to let this go, but the ghosts of his brother, his mother, and his pride would not let him quit.

He might have come to Turah for Brielle. But he’d stay for vengeance.

By killing me.

The person the Guardian loved most.