Me. Not my mother, or anyone else. Seconds ago, I was about to get impaled in the best way, and I'm supposed to come up with a plan against an invasion right now.
I've had to act like I know what I’m doing, to ensure no one questions me, but this is a bit much.
I need to think. I need…
Help.
I need help.
I only have to glance to Drusk, and he's speaking. "We can defend Whitecroft Hall itself. The children and those who can't fight should come here." Drusk resumes our walk toward the entrance of the keep. "Whatever archers we have should be inside, on windows. The guards need to protect the gates. The humans' strength is their numbers. We need to funnel them—ensure they can't surround us and attack on many fronts. If there was one magic user every two or three meters all around Whitecroft, but for an opening we choose, they'd be forced to try to enter where we can manage them."
"That won't work—not indefinitely." Liken shakes his head. "They'll kill the mages, eventually."
"Nothing will work indefinitely," Drusk counters. "This isn't the entire human army. It's a tenth, if that. Reinforcements will be on their way. Let's manage one crisis at a time."
The truth of his words makes my stomach sink.
The unvarnished truth is that we simply don't have enough mages, enough fighters, enough fae to withstand an attack by hundreds of thousands of humans.
We have to try all the same.
We reach the sculpted doors, and I finally see them in the distance.
There are at least ten thousand humans rushing down the hill, most on foot, some mounted on bridled horses, pulling machines I've only read about. Catapults. I see one working right away, propelling a fire stone right at us. It crashes against the hall of Stars. Screams, blood, and gunpowder thicken the air.
"The shield," I say, numb and cold. So very cold. "What about the shield? We could…"
"We don't have all the elemental stones—not yet," my mother replies. "The Court of Ash hasn't made one, and we're still missing water."
I'm desperate. We're all desperate and hopeless. "I'll go to the opening." I start to run.
My mother is quick to catch my arm. I turn to her, glaring up into her green eyes.
"No. You can't. If we lose you—"
"No one can kill as well as I," I point out.
"And you have the stamina of a child. Don't waste your life against vermin."
"So, I should stand back while our people waste theirs?" I'm screaming at her.
I yank my arm back, though her claws grow and sink into my skin.
But when I turn to run southwest again, Drusk stands in my way.
"Not you." There's a warning in my mind. He doesn't get to hold me back.
"We don't need you to suck humans dry. Our soldiers, our knights can manage them for a time. What we need is a water stone and a fire stone. Only one of us has a link to the Sea Court."
A link? I could roll my eyes, if I wasn't too busy fuming. I danced with one guy, once.
"I can go to Ash, and make them craft a fire stone right now. You need to get us a water stone. This is how we save Whitecroft. You aren't a soldier, princess. Let them to their work. Yours is to lead."
I want to rage, scream, and insist I rush to the front. I don't, because under the haze of bloodlust, I can tell he's right.
I nod. "All right. All right," I repeat, with more conviction. "I'm going."
Before I do, I step closer to him and get on my tiptoes. Embarrassingly, that's not high enough to reach his face, but he bends down and drops his lips on my forehead."Go get that stone, princess."
