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Galloping hooves drowned out the battle, and then Chaol was there, sword flashing, driving into the unending tide that rushed from the tower’s entrance

"To Lord Chaol! To the queen!"

How far they both were from Rifthold From the assassin and the captain

Arrows rose from the army beyond the wall, but a wave of icy wind snapped them into splinters before they could find any ed past, and then Lorcan was at the siege tower’sso fast Aelin could barely follow it He battled his way across the e of the tower, into the stairwell beyond Like he’d fight his way down the raan Morath had brought in their battering ra them all down Then Erawan And then she’d unleash herself upon Maeve

At the opposite end of the field, the khagan’s ar the field step by step

Not helpless Not contained Never again

Death became a melody in her blood, everyfro his way down the interior Those who got past hiold, and Gavriel had slaughtered his way into the siege tower as well, twin blades a ind

What Lorcan and the Lion would do upon reaching the bottoe the tower, she didn’t know Didn’t think about it

Not fro and movement, of breath and blood Of freedoift and her friend for these long, long years She was happy to greet it again under the goldensun

CHAPTER 58

Elide wasn’t even on the battleain

The soldiers ere hauled in, their injuries … She didn’t kno the healers were so calm How Yrene Westfall worked so steadily while a ans poked through the gash in his belly

The keep shook every now and then, and Elide hated herself for being glad she didn’t knohat ithow her coh so that this nightmare could end soon

It would be hours yet, the dark-skinned, sharp-eyed healer na aHours yet until it was over, the terse healer had chided, so she’d better finish heaving and get back to work

Not that there was ift of power that ran through the Lochan bloodline, she possessed noBut she helped the healers pin down thrashing es, hot water, and whatever salves or herbs the healers calmly requested

None of theht around the too loudly for their words to be heard

The sun was barely over the horizon, judging by the light at the s set high in the Great Hall, and so , and Elide kepta dull, then a sharp ache A minor pain, compared to what the soldiers endured Compared to what they faced on the battlements

She didn’t let herself think of her friends Didn’t let herself think of Lorcan, who had not coht the As if he didn’t want to be near her As if he’d taken every hateful word she’d spoken to heart

So Elide aided the clear-eyed healers, held down screa men, and did not stop

Farasha did not balk from the Morath soldiers who ed froe tower that docked down the wall, or those who nificent horse trampled them, fearless and wicked, just as Chaol had predicted A horse whose na foot soldiers

Had his breath not been a rasp in his chest, Chaol ht have sht have laughed a bit, too

But Morath was launching itself at the walls and gates with a furor they had not yet witnessed Perhaps they kneho had coht back-to-back, and Fenrys had plowed his way down the battlee tower