The humans shouted, “Stalana!” echoing his battle cry in tribute to him, and he smiled wider as he used the last of his strength to flip the Farungal Queen the bird. My heart ached for him even as my chest filled with admiration. He had gone out on his terms, and he'd given the Farungal Queen a big fuck you as he went.
Good for you, buddy, I thought.
As I swung back around yet again, heading to the pile of oiled bombs, I saw a giant Lynx sprint across the field to the fallen human and then shift into the Lynx Lord himself. The warlord cradled the dying human as a group of Sylphs flew over them, shielding the men in a blanket of air that deflected the Farungal's arrows. A flash of green caught my eye and sounds of awe spread through the Fae. I glanced back just as the broken human sat up and stared at the warlord in shock. The Lynx Lord picked up the revived hero, tossed him over one broad shoulder, and ran for the safety of our front lines. The Sylphs flowed over and around them, protecting them the entire way.
I shrieked in joy as I scooped up a bomb and swung it through a fire pit. A shining feeling of righteousness filled me as I flew back toward the fortress. The Lynx Lord made it to lines of human soldiers and gently laid the human in the grass. He was alive. One, broken human had sacrificed himself to save the whole fucking world, and then he was saved. His valor had won him a fae soul. And damn if that fucker didn't deserve it more than I did. I saved one guy while he had saved us all. If he didn't become a Valorian, I was going to have a word with the Goddess.
Dalsharan shrieked orders beside me as we flew our bombs to the fortress. Farungal fired their iron-tipped arrows at us as their queen continued to rage; the bitch was losing her damn mind, going doubly crazy now that the human had been saved. We couldn't use magic to deflect their arrows in our beast form, not that I was able to do that type of magic yet anyway. But we could fly higher than the Farungal could shoot. We simply angled up sharply, then dropped our bombs from a great height.
The Farungal scrambled without leadership, their queen nearly mindless with her failure. Yeah, that had to suck, being so certain that you had one over your enemies and then having victory snatched away at the last second like that. Bummer. What was a real bummer was that I couldn't smile in my hawk form. I was able to poop though, and I let one out on the Farungal fortress after I dropped my firebomb. I sailed back with Dalsharan, laughing my feathered ass off.
“Please, tell me you did not just shit on them,” Dalsharan said with barely hidden amusement.
“Fuck yeah, I did!” I shouted. “I dropped one bomb after another!”
“You are such a child.” Then he laughed uproariously.
The Farungal fortress burned, and the Queen had to be pulled down from the battlements by her soldiers. The monsters swarmed out of their stronghold and met the waiting horde of enormous beasts and very pissed off humans. But the gates shut behind them, and Gremara went into the burning fortress instead of out.
I shrieked at Dalsharan, and he looked back at me. “They're just buying her time to escape! She went inside the keep!”
“Not fucking happening,” Dalsharan snarled.
He let out a high-pitched scream that had a contingent of Hawks—including his guards—flocking to him. We dove for the fortress and landed amid thick smoke, flames leaping around us. My eyes stung and I drew my wings in tightly to keep them from getting singed. Wood creaked and crumbled, but most of the stronghold was stone and it held. The gate, though closed, was now on fire and the courtyard empty. The fighting was happening just beyond the fortress walls but within, it was almost peaceful. The roar of battle was dulled by the wind-like bellow of hungry flames.
“This way!” Dalsharan shouted and shifted. He ran into the fortress buck naked.
I did the same and followed him inside without hesitation, as did every other Hawk there. Male and female, they all ran naked into the burning building after their warlord. That's the kind of loyalty Dalsharan inspires—the kind of trust. They would follow him anywhere.
Inside, smoke covered the burning ceilings but the chill in the stone walls battled it back, keeping the air below clear enough to breathe. Dal led us through the corridors, down into the depths of the stronghold. He seemed to be following something, but I couldn't tell what it was at first. Then, I saw it, a gleam of light on the floor—cold patches. Farungal footprints. He was tracking the Queen.
Down and down we went until the sound of battle disappeared entirely and the corridors got ice cold. I couldn't see the footprints anymore but it didn't matter now, there was only one way forward. Our path let us into a dimly lit cavern and there, crossing it no more than fifty feet ahead of us, was the Farungal Queen and ten of her soldiers—at least three of them female.
Dalsharan shifted and launched into the air. The rest of us followed suit, flying across the vast space toward the fleeing Farungal. The Queen spun and dropped into a crouch, splaying her clawed hands wide and lifting her poisonous tail. Her soldiers spread around her, drawing their swords to use in addition to their deadly claws and poisoned barbs. They swung as we dove and bird shrieks mixed with Farungal screams.
The Farungal were vicious, deadly, and desperate, but we outnumbered them two to one and although we didn't have poisonous barbs on our tails, we dead have claws and beaks, both made to rend flesh. I used the opportunity to perfect my beak-work since I'd done such a shit-poor job of it with Brendallen. I struck and bit. Slashed and clawed. I held Farungal soldiers down with my talons and bit poisonous barbs off their tails before stabbing their black hearts.
Then a sword hit my wing, and I screamed. Dalsharan roared and spun. He was at my side, as he had been the entire battle, so it took only a second for his claws to lash out and gut the Farungal who had hit me. The Farungal dropped to the ground as I did, but he wasn't breathing. His guts painted the floor and the stench of it stained the air.
“Ravyn!” Dalsharan nudged me with his beak.
Behind him, I saw the Queen leap, jumping over the Hawks that had surrounded her. Her poisonous barb lifted and her clawed hands curled as she focused on her target—Dal.
“Dal!” I shouted.
Dalsharan twisted and opened his beak in one beautiful movement. I gaped, and so did the Farungal Queen as his beak snapped closed around her throat and broke her neck. Blood gushed and the Hawk Lord twisted, tearing Gremara's head from her body. He tossed it away as if it were nothing—as if killing her was nothing—and hurried back to me. Around us, the cavern went quiet, all the Farungal lay dead.
“How bad is it?” Dalsharan growled as his bloody head nudged my limp wing.
I let out a sharp, surprised laugh. “The bitch is dead and you're worried about my wing?”
Dal looked at me with one golden eye and scowled. How he managed to scowl with a bird face is beyond me, but he did. Which made me laugh harder. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Of course, it came out more like shrieking. But the other Hawks recognized it as laughter and started to laugh as well until, finally, their lord let out a small chuckle.