Especially since my biological father was one of the ones that had helped create this mess. Indu Mattison had to be here somewhere, and I wondered dimly if I would recognize him from the few grainy photos Bekk Vallin had shown me.

As I stalked across the battlefield—knocking out an overzealous tween Älvolk with the hilt of my sword—I heard rocks falling behind me. I turned around to see a spider the size of a small Siberian husky climbing down a pile of stone, but its spindly legs kept knocking rocks loose.

Despite the unstable footing, it was horrifyingly fast, and I moved quickly to drive my sword through its thick abdomen. Viscous lime-colored blood oozed out onto the ground and the spider let out a high-pitched shriek as it died.

I pulled the sword out and looked back to see a tall blonde with a bloodied lip arguing with a shorter girl, who had black hair coiled on her head and blue makeup smeared across her eyes.

“Tuva, this is madness!” the blonde yelled at her.

“I am the chieftain!” Tuva shot back at her, and she held her bardiche like a staff as she glowered up at the blonde. “We fight until all our fathers cross. And only then do we follow.”

A spider jumped at her from behind, and with a flick of her wrist, she spun her pole weapon like a pinwheel around her body. She slipped it behind her back, and in a matter of seconds, she’d sliced through the arachnid.

One of the Skojare guards that followed me here was nearby, fighting an Älvolk, and the blonde rushed over to assault him.

I went to Tuva, intercepting her before she could join her comrades in attacking my ally. She immediately swung her weapon at me, and I blocked it with my sword. But she used enough force to knock me back on the ground. Tuva shouted at me in another language, but it definitely sounded like an angry slur.

I kicked her hard in the abdomen, but my blade was wedged in her wooden pole, so it went with her. An abandoned kasteren axe was just to the left of me, and I rolled over to grab it.

The dragon cried in the sky, and I looked up, searching the green fog for a shadow. Instead I caught sight of another monstrosity slithering toward me. It was bigger than my horse, Bloom, with skin like leather, a thick shell, and a long mouth of angry teeth.

It was a murder snail, and it was coming right for me.

I got to my feet, and Tuva stood on her bardiche to pull my sword free. For a moment, she wielded both weapons, and I stood a few feet away with the murder snail barreling toward us.

She looked to it, then tossed me my sword. I chucked the axe at the monster, and it landed in the shell with a thwack.