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Neither of them said a word

CHAPTER 10

The world had becorising to the frigid sky

Lysandra had learned theseIt was chaos and pain and there were no grand, heroic duels Only the slashing of her claws and the rip of her fangs; the clash of dented shields and bloodied swords Arore-splattered, and were it not for the dark of her enemy’s colors, Lysandra wasn’t entirely certain how she would have discerned ally from foe

Their lines held At least they had that much

Shield to shield and shoulder to shoulder in the snowy field that had since becoh Eldrys

Aedion had picked the field, the hour, the angle of this battle The others had pushed for instant attack, but he’d let Morath ht to where he wanted them Location was as important as numbers, was all he’d said

Not to Lysandra, of course He barely said a damn word to her these days

Now certainly wasn’t the time to think of it To care

Their allies and soldiers believed Aelin Galathynius rehost leopard’s form Ren Allsbrook had even commissioned plated arht as to not be a hindrance, but solid enough that the three blows she’d been too slow to stop--an arrow to the side, then two slashes from ene her body Bloodshe’d done a torn open on fallen swords and snapped arrows

But she kept going, the Bane holding firainst what had been sent to meet them

Only five thousand

Only seemed like a ridiculous word, but it hat Aedion and the others had used

Barely enough to be an arh to pose a threat

To theed between two Bane warriors and launched herself upon the nearest Valg foot soldier

The man had his sword upraised, poised to strike the Bane soldier before hiht the blade up, the Valg grunt didn’t spy his onco death until her jaere around his exposed neck

Hours into this battle, it was instinct to cla like a piece of ripe fruit

She washis throat onto theBane to decapitate his corpse How far away that courtesan’s life in Rifthold now seemed Despite the death around her, she couldn’t say she missed it

Down the line, Aedion bellowed orders to the left flank They’d let rest so hoan had sent, and had filled the ranks with a mixture of soldiers from the Lords of Terrasen’s own small forces and those from Prince Galan Ashryver and Queen Ansel of the Wastes, both of whom had additional warriors on the way

No need to reveal they had a small battalion of Fae soldiers courtesy of Prince Endymion and Princess Sellene Whitethorn, or that the Silent Assassins of the Red Desert were ast them, too There would be a time when the surprise of their presence would be needed, Aedion had argued during the quick war council they’d conducted upon returning to the cah without rest froes of Orynth, had barely listened to the debate Aedion had won, anyway

As he won everything, through sheer will and arrogance

She didn’t dare look down the lines to see hoas faring, shoulder to shoulder in the ht flank, where Lysandra had been stationed Galan and Ansel had taken the left, Ravi and Sol of Suria fighting ast the

They would count their dead after the battle

There weren’t many of the enemy left now A thousand, if that The soldiers at her back nu, the blood of her eneh Aedion ell aware that victory against five thousand troops was likely fleeting, considering Morath’s full host had yet to come