The raised drawbridge jolted and exploded in a hail of splinters and debris that rained down into the black chasm below as if it had been struck from inside the castle instead of outside. The force of the explosion knocked them all to their knees. Trynne winced in pain, her ears ringing with the cracking noise as she watched small fragments of the drawbridge rain down with the snow across the bailey yard. Twisted and steaming hunks of iron littered the bailey yard too. The gate had been wrenched and snapped apart. Soldiers were scrambling to get away from the doorway.

Drew rose shakily to his feet, his eyes wide with shock. He gripped Fallon’s shoulder and nodded. Trynne couldn’t hear what he said, but she saw him mouth the word “Now!”

As if Gahalatine had heard the silent word, the first leaf-armored warriors began to land on the battlements as if catapulted from below. The din of clashing metal broke out all along the upper defenses.

It was just after midnight, and Trynne wondered in desperation if they would even be able to hold them off until dawn.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE Battle of the Kings

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Battle of the Kings

The thick flakes of snow obscured the onslaught against the walls of Dundrennan. Even though she could not see her enemies well, she sensed them through her magic and responded to their attacks. Trynne caught many of the warriors as they were unfurling and landing on the battlements, sending their bodies plummeting into the black abyss.

Fallon, holding a sword in one hand and a curved horn in another, pressed his lips against the end of the horn and let out a long, sonorous blast. From high above them, the noise was repeated as the watchmen on the tower began to sound their horns as well, signaling the commencement of the surprise attack.

Trynne was buffeted by a warrior landing near her, but managed to deflect his glaive with her twin swords. She rocked him off his heels, sending him into the abyss. After he fell, she saw something in the flurry below, movement coming from the warriors of Gahalatine’s army. Not all were vaulting up to the walls. Then she saw it. That gap in Gahalatine’s army was now filled with warriors carrying long wooden poles. No—they were the trunks of pine trees!

Trynne watched in horror as the soldiers carrying the trunks lumbered forward and she divined that the trunks had been prepared to clear the chasm. They hadn’t brought siege equipment; they’d brought their own makeshift bridge, knowing that the Wizr would demolish the existing one.