A large effigy in the visage of Varilik was certainly not what Ainreth would have thought of, but he had to admit it was just insulting enough to get under the Herald’s skin. And it was tall enough to be seen far and wide.

Ainreth couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of it, now burning. He really hoped it was clear who the effigy was supposed to symbolize. But even if it wasn’t, he was sure that someone had already notified Varilik about the rebel gathering if nothing else.

He just hoped this would be provocative enough to make Varilik not wait until it was dark to get the army here. Hopefully the threat of the rebels riding off to hide once more would be enough to sweeten the deal as well.

And they were ready to ride off. There was always the possibility of the battle happening at night, even though it would be a logistical nightmare, just because at night Fenn was the strongest and Ain the weakest. But that would just be a slaughter, and so the plan for that possibility was to simply escape, no matter how embarrassing that would be.

Ainreth still didn’t particularly liked this, though. No matter what, innocent people would die here. But if they didn’t try to do this then even more innocents would die. No option was good, but one was worse.

He blinked when he was suddenly hugged, looking down to see that it was Petre. Ainreth hugged them back, sighing.

“Don’t get hurt, you hear?” he said, despite knowing very well how absurd that was to say given the situation.

“Ain,” they said, pulling away and staring up at him. “If we don’t make it—”

“We’ll make it,” Ainreth immediately interrupted them, but Petre scowled at him in such a fierce way that Ainreth shut his mouth immediately.

“If we don’t make it,” Petre repeated, sighing. “I just wanted to say that I love you.”

Ain blinked at the way their voice broke. Petre hugged him again, almost clinging, and Ainreth embraced them back, nodding. “I love you too, little guy. Little sibling.”

Petre smiled as they pulled away. “Good, I just wanted to say that. And if I die, don’t you dare feel guilty about it. I decided to be here of my own free will.”

Ainreth sighed. “But—” Petre glared at him, shutting him up yet again. “Right. I’ll…try. But we’re not dying here, okay? We will win and fix everything.”

Petre nodded and smiled, reaching into their satchel to give Ain three vials of healing tonic. “Here, take this. I’ve been stocking up.”

Ain took them, nodding in thanks as he put them in his own satchel, definitely ignoring the way his stomach twisted when his fingers touched the hand clamps he had in there as well.

He was now in full armor, minus his red cloak. He, along with most of the deserter soldiers, had wanted to wear the cloak too, but it would be too confusing on the battlefield. It was confusing enough that most every soldier involved would be wearing lightforged armor.

Still, it was a shame. The cloaks would so nicely symbolize why they were doing this—for their country. But there was nothing to be done about that.

“Ain,” Petre said, staring into his soul. “If you have to kill Fennrin….”

Ainreth rubbed his eyes but nodded. “I will. If there is no other choice, I will.”

He wanted to vomit. Those words absolutely disgusted him to say. But he meant it. If he killed Fennrin, he didn’t think he’d ever recover from it. But if it meant protecting thousands of innocents, then he had to.

Petre nodded, a look of sympathy in their eyes. “It will be okay.”

Ainreth sighed and nodded. “It better.”

That was when Arem walked toward them, ending their conversation with one simple sentence. “They’re coming.”

Ainreth nodded, looking up at the burning effigy again. “How far away are they?”

“It’s difficult to say exactly,” Arem said as Ain looked back at him. “And it is unclear how many there will be also. The soldiers are being sent from various places due to having been split up to ‘protect’ towns. Our scouts report that they are gathering at the wall for now.”

“So once they’re all gathered, it will take them about, what, two hours to get here on horseback?” Ainreth guessed, to which Arem nodded.

“Do you wish to go stay out of sight with the rest of your group?” Arem asked, looking at the tents they’d set up.

A select group of their soldiers had been staying inside of the tents the entire time to make their forces seem smaller than they actually were. It wouldn’t be much of an ambush if whichever spies were watching them could see all of their numbers, which would then mysteriously lowered.

“Is that necessary? They probably know for sure I’m here by now,” Ainreth pointed out. “They don’t even have to see me. It’s obvious we wouldn’t be doing this without me.”

Arem hummed. “I suppose that is true.”

“Overthinking the preparations?” Ainreth asked, nodding. “Yeah, I have been doing that too. But it’s a bit too late for that.”

Arem nodded, rubbing his eyes. “I haven’t been in a battle in years. It’s making me anxious.”

Ainreth was shocked by the honesty, but it was a welcome surprise at least. Usually Arem didn’t let any of his real feelings be known aside from anger and annoyance.

“I have just the cure for that,” Ain said, chuckling as he reached into his satchel to bring out a small bottle of mushroom wine.

Arem pulled a face, his eyes wide, looking almost scandalized. “I cannot drink. That’s for after we win.”

Ainreth waved the bottle in front of his face before taking a swig of it. “Mm. This bottle is a few years old. It really brings the flavor from great to amazing.”

He grinned at Petre who shook their head. But Ain could see the hint of a fond smile they couldn’t hide.

Arem rolled his eyes. “I cannot believe you’re drinking right now.”

Ainreth took another swig and then handed the bottle to Petre who sighed and also gulped some of the wine down.

“I’m not drunk. Just a bit less tense,” Ainreth said, shaking his head. “Or do you want to be hindered by your anxiety?”

Arem rolled his eyes once more before taking the bottle from Petre and drinking some of it, humming when he swallowed and looked at it.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“This tastes better than I thought it would.”

“Exactly!” Ainreth chuckled, then put the wine bottle away again. “Just a little bit, though. We don’t want to get drunk.”

Arem sighed and nodded, walking away to talk to soldiers by the tents.

“I never expected you two to get along,” Petre commented, and Ainreth couldn’t help but frown.

“We’re not….” He hummed and then nodded. “Oh, I didn’t even notice.” He smirked. “It must be my natural charm. It’s irresistible.”

Petre snorted, shaking their head, grinning in amusement. They were clearly no longer bothering to hide their smiles. Good.

“What else could it be, Ain?” they asked, patting his shoulder. “I need to go finish making more tonics. I took a break so we could have this talk.”

Ainreth nodded. “Thanks, little guy.”

Petre hugged him again before nodding and walking off to the tents as well. Ainreth sighed, looking around. All this waiting would be the death of him.

Ainreth ended up talking with the rebels, trying to make them feel a bit more at ease about what they were about to do, inspire them. He never felt like he knew what he was doing, but somehow it tended to make people feel better.

The effigy was slowly but surely turning to ash and the sun was high in the sky as Lys-Akkaria’s army gathered on the horizon. Ainreth gave himself a moment to look at them.

Even from this distance, he could see Fennrin, a dark figure surrounded by the gold and red of the soldiers. Ainreth swallowed thickly.

It was time.

He rounded up the rebels who would be attacking from the rear, gathering behind the line of tents to stay hidden from the opposing army. There were around a hundred of them. Ainreth truly hoped he could manage to hide them all for long enough for the ambush to work.

Instead of trying to catch light around everyone’s bodies and try to bend it around, what Ainreth had started doing was create a kind of dome around whatever he wanted to make invisible, which was much easier to manage.

Of course, things like trees would get in the way, but here there was just grass. And no one would notice some disappearing grass. At least Ainreth hoped.

“All right, I make us invisible, and then we go around the army and attack from behind,” Ainreth told the gathered rebels. “Try to hold hands or something. If you wander too far away from me you will become visible again. I have no way of knowing where you are.”

A grumble of agreements followed, and the rebels started grabbing each other’s hands, to which Ain nodded.

“And try not to trip over anyone else. I know walking while invisible is tough, trust me,” Ain said, stretching his arms as he started manipulating the light around them.

As everyone turned invisible, Ainreth took a few deep breaths. He needed to concentrate more than he’d ever concentrated in his life to keep this up. He could already feel this draining him. But he’d manage.

“Come on, move out,” Ain said, this situation so familiar that he couldn’t help but act like a general again.

Slowly but surely they made their way toward the Lys-Akkarian army. Their numbers were higher, there was no doubt about that, but the numbers didn’t matter as much when each side had a person who could defeat either army single handedly.

Ainreth hadn’t given this much thought before because he didn’t tend to fight az-ari this powerful, but this wasn’t very fair, was it? The fact that a single shadowforger or lightweaver could butcher hundreds so quickly and easily was very discomforting.

He still didn’t believe that Orinovo could simply make some of them out of thin air, but he could understand why Fenn had felt so sure they needed to invade Orinovo to stop that possibility. It was terrifying.

Ainreth pushed those thoughts away, though. It was far too late to think this way. They had one goal here, and that was winning this.

Trudging on, they finally made their way behind the army. Ainreth scanned his eyes over the whole group, wincing at how large their numbers were. And then frowned when he that many of them were wearing strange, dark glasses. Was that meant to protect their eyes from his light? He would love to test the effectiveness, then.

Then his eyes slid over to the horizon, noticing a few tents far away, but still close enough that the situation could be monitored from them.

He wondered if Varilik was watching. Ainreth certainly hoped he was. He wouldn’t go looking for him, though. He wouldn’t abandon his friends just on the possibility that he might be able to capture Varilik, letting them be slaughtered. It might not even end the fighting anyway. And once they won, Ainreth wouldn’t go after Varilik either. He would kill him on the spot.

Ainreth flinched when the sound of a horn filled the air, turning back to the army, which was now marching toward the rebels.

Ainreth almost dropped the invisibility then, ready to attack, but they were moving too fast. If anyone looked behind them for whatever reason, the ambush would be for nothing.

So instead, Ainreth pulled together all the strength and concentration he had to maintain the invisibility as he and his rebels too started running, catching up with the soldiers.

Finally reaching them, Ainreth dropped the invisibility, gasping but not giving himself a second of rest. “Now!”

The rebels didn’t hesitate, rushing the soldiers in the back of the formation who were now turning around, making alarmed cries. Several rows of soldiers turned around, shock on their faces.

“Behind us!” one yelled as the rebels started fighting them. More soldiers were turning, splitting their forces, exactly as planned.

Ainreth grimaced, raising his hands to the sun. He took no join in shaping a large spear of light and then throwing it at the crowd. But it had to be done, he told himself as he watched soldiers scream and burn. There was no other way. He needed to help the rebels win, no matter what.

Narrowly dodging an arrow, Ainreth pulled a beam of searing light together, aiming it at the now scattering army. Unfortunately they weren’t scattering because they were retreating but rather to avoid giving Ain such an easy target.

No matter. He’d done what he could here. He had to go fight Fennrin now. Before he killed all of them.

Turning invisible again, Ainreth ran back to where they’d started from, looking around until he spotted Fennrin.

Fennrin who was slaughtering the rebels. There was no other word to use for what he was doing.

Ainreth had to stop in his tracks for a moment, just a few feet away from Fennrin, but still invisible. He was so shocked by the hate and anger on Fennrin’s face as he snapped the necks of every rebel he saw. He was merciless in his precision. And so utterly wrong.

“I’ve really lost you,” Ainreth said out loud, not having realized he was speaking until he’d already done it.

Fennrin flinched, looking around. And Ainreth flinched too at the fear on his former lover’s face. It was gone already, but it had been impossible not to notice. What he possibly be afraid of? Ainreth?

“Show yourself!” Fennrin yelled, clenching his fists. He was surrounded by shadow, light diminished around him to the point of his face being hard to see, especially with those strange glasses.

“All right,” Ainreth sighed, indeed showing himself, but making himself glow so brightly that he wouldn’t have a shadow. “Here I am.”

Fennrin threw out his arms immediately, no doubt trying to grab or kill him, but he had nothing to grab.

“Go fight the soldiers!” Ainreth yelled at the rebels around them. “I’ll handle Fennrin.”

Fenn raised his hand, glaring at the rebel closest to him and jerked his hand to the side, making the woman’s neck snap.

Ainreth gritted his teeth. He wouldn’t kill Fenn. He refused to. But he couldn’t let him do this.

He threw his arm out, shining light right into Fenn’s glasses. But he just raised his arms and started lifting the nearby tents into the sky, making them fly at Ainreth.

Seeing that, Ain quickly turned invisible again and ran off in a different direction to confuse Fenn. He needed to grab him, restrain him, and then win the battle. He couldn’t afford to waste time and lives here.

“Coward!” Fennrin yelled, his shadows spreading further and further, growing erratic in their movements. “Face me!”

Fennrin almost sounded desperate as he looked around, swirling as he tried to find Ainreth, the battle raging behind them both.

Ainreth pulled the clamps out of his satchel. It was time to end this.

Rushing forward, he grabbed Fennrin’s wrists, wrestling him to the ground.

“No! Let go of me!” Fennrin snarled at him, bucking under him, trying to get free. Ainreth just held him down tighter, his superior physical strength letting him get an upper hand.

Ainreth grabbed Fennrin’s wrists into one hand, struggling to keep him restrained as he readied the clamps. But Fennrin was struggling too much to be held down like this.

Grimacing, Ainreth snuck an arm around Fennrin’s throat, squeezing hard, hating every moment of this.

Fennrin gasped, struggling even more, but soon his fighting grew weak. Ainreth waited for him to get to near unconsciousness before letting go. Fennrin collapsed on the ground, groaning weakly.

Letting out a breath, Ainreth pushed one of Fennrin’s hands into the clamp, locking it, before moving on to the other.

But that was when he froze. The sound of another horn blared from somewhere right in front of them, making him look up from what he had been doing.

And then he gasped in shock and horror.

From the west, another army was marching their way. And Ainreth didn’t need to see the blue uniforms to know which one this was.

“Oh no, oh no,” Ainreth muttered to himself as pulled himself to his feet. Orinovo must have broken through their defenses while they had been too busy fighting each other.

He looked back, watching the fighting. He needed to do something. He needed to save everyone somehow, just like he’d done back when—

Ainreth nodded to himself. He knew what he had to do.

He just hoped he would be able to do it.