The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) by Garrett Robinson (elon musk reading list TXT) 📕

and they came charging across the mud at us with bared steel. At their head was the brute woman, and above them swooped Kaita in her raven form. She was drawing closer, and I knew it could not be long before she would take the field in one of her animal forms.

Mayhap we can at least kill her before the end, I thought.

“Keep going!” I cried. “Run! As long as you can! We have to give the captain time to—”

Another roar filled the air, hundreds of voices screaming in bloodlust and fury.

The Shades ground to a confused halt, even as I turned my gaze to the east. The rising sun fell into my eyes, and I had to shield them with a hand. When I could see again, the sight nearly made me weep.

Three hundreds of soldiers swept down from the eastern hills. At the head of the charge were the redcloaks, with Kun himself holding a sword high in the air. Their fury shook the ground as they swept down upon the Shades.

“Retreat!” roared Tagata. “Get back to the hills! Retreat to our siblings!”

Kaita watched from the sky as the Shades turned and fled. Tagata waited until the last, holding the rear of the formation as they ran into the hills. The Mystics’ militia were coming right towards her forces, and they outnumbered the Shades two to one.

Kaita cursed in her mind. She had been too focused on Mag and me and had forgotten to watch out for the rest of our allies. Now the Shades were going to fall—mayhap even Tagata would fall—and it would all be Kaita’s fault.

But no. She had to cast such thoughts aside, for they would not help her fix anything. Kaita swooped low, looking for any way the Shades could escape. They made their way north through a narrow gap between two hills. It was the closest thing to a defensible position that Kaita could see. Tagata formed up squadrons of spears before the opening, to hold it against the Mystics as they attempted an offense. But it would not last long—soon, the Mystics would simply move up the hills and around the sides of the Shade formation.

Kaita swung wider, looping in the air and looking for anything to help. There seemed no hope of escape in these cursed hills, and a last stand would serve little purpose. But there had to be a way. Her hunt could not end like this. Tagata’s tale could not end like this.

She tilted her wings to bank left, and she felt the odd bulge in her chest.

Kaita’s heart nearly stopped.

The magestones. They would give her the strength of hellskin. Kaita had never seen it, of course, but it was supposed to be terrible. What use would the Mystics’ weapons be against her hide? How could their shields withstand her claws?

Even if they managed to bring her down, she should at least be able to kill Mag and me before the end.

It was not the promise she had made to Rogan, but darkness take that vow. Rogan was the one who had sent her on this pointless march, promising she would have her chance. That was clearly false, whether or not Rogan had meant to lie to her. If she would never have a better opportunity, then she would take what she could. Who cared if she died in the end if she fulfilled the purpose that had sustained her all these years?

But then her eyes fell upon the fiery wyrm.

She recognized it in a flash, though she had not been searching for it. It was a blazing trail of fire down a hill to the northeast of the Shades’ position. My fallen archer had dropped a torch, and it had tumbled back and forth as it rolled down the hill. The grass had caught fire, and tongues of flame had licked the turf as though an artist had painted it with a great brush. It looked for all the world like the shape of a flaming wyrm stretched out upon the hillside.

The Lord had told Tagata that they would see this sign. And that the sign would lead to escape. Was it possible?

Kaita swooped lower, feeling lightheaded. The blazing trail ended behind a cluster of grey boulders pressed up against the side of the hill. But there was nothing there, not that Kaita could see.

Wait. There.

Kaita could not see it until she landed on the boulder. It was a cave entrance, though it could only be seen from among the rocks. Anyone walking by the hill, or even on it, would not see the tunnel until they were nearly inside it.

In an instant, she was winging her way back to Tagata.

“Charge!” cried Kun. He wore his smile still, but it was fierce, alive with the thrill of battle. He and his Mystics pressed towards the gap between the hills. It was their third charge against the Shades, and I knew it would be the last one.

“Loose!” I cried. Our arrows flew over the Mystics’ heads, landing among the enemy and casting many of them to the ground. The rest of the Shades wavered, and they broke almost the instant Kun’s Mystics slammed into them. As one, they turned and scattered, blue cloaks fluttering in the air behind them as they ran north in the mud.

Mag and I guided our squadrons close behind Kun’s as he ran in pursuit. But almost from the moment I pressed through the hills, I felt that something was wrong. There were a paltry few dozen of the Shades in front of us.

Then I forgot such thoughts as another roar filled the air.

Zhen, Kun’s nephew, cried aloud as he led his company from the east. Kun had sent him east to loop around behind our foe. Now they were flanked and cut off. Four hundreds of our soldiers met in the center of the battlefield.

The Shades turned back and forth, wavering. They did not know whether to face