Free Earth & Sky by Kaye Draper Page B

doing?”  He shouted to be
heard over the din of battle.  Not waiting for an answer, he pulled off his
gloves and knelt to destroy the flag. 
    I slashed at his arms, stopping his reach for the ground. 
“We are pulling out.  Now.  Round up the men.”
    Maddox reached us, and I turned to him.  “We have to go,
now.  It’s a trap.  They’ll close us in and we’ll be outnumbered.”
    He frowned, but didn’t argue, spinning on a heel and
dashing back the way he had come, sounding the retreat as he went.  I turned
back to Yates who had drawn his sword and stood scowling at me.  “You are a
disgrace!”
    I snorted.  “Yeah, yeah, I know.”  I flung out an arm at
toward the fighting.  “Get them out of here now.”  When he didn’t move, I
pulled my pistol.  “Either follow orders or not.  But let’s get this over with right
now.  We don’t have time to screw around.”
    “You are not my leader.  You never will be.”  He growled
and made to lunge at me.  I trained my gun down and used my last bullet to
shoot him in the foot.  Then I pulled my cuff into a rough sword and pointed it
at him.
     “I may not be king, but these are my men, and I’m saving
their lives.  Help me, or don’t even bother coming home.”  I turned and strode
away, purposefully showing him my back.  I pulled on my aura, tapping into the
hidden dominance there and sent it sprawling across the field, connecting with
every shifter there.  Compulsion sizzled down the connection, and though they
couldn’t hear my words, they all turned and fled- Yates included. 
    I took up a stance at the end of the fleeing Shifters in
order to help defend their flank.  Clapping my hands, I touched the earth and
pulled huge rock walls behind my people.  Surprisingly few of the Fallen
attempted to follow, and I wondered if they had been commanded not to give
chase. 

*****
    We trudged back to the big house in defeat.  Yates’ foot
had mostly healed already, but he was still pissed.  I stopped inside the entry
to drop my heavy armor and weapons in a bloody, grimy mess.  Someone would come
and clean them.  Usually I did it myself, but this time I just didn’t care.  I
had drained most of my power on the field, and the trek back was exhausting. 
The entire army was outraged over our retreat.  They had all felt my dominance,
and given the resultant loss of victory that had followed, they were none too
happy.  Having connected with their consciousness once, I found it hard to turn
it off, and I was bombarded by their emotions, ranging from relief, to anger,
to outright hatred.
    A door banged open to my right and my father’s voice
bellowed from within.  “Wren! Bring your cursed, mangy, rotten red hide here
this instant!”
     I straightened my spine and made my way to the meeting
room, my boot heels leaving chunks of mud in my wake.  My hair had long ago
escaped its ponytail and was hanging down in straggly, sweat soaked strands.  I
pushed the mess back from my face, feeling the grainy film of dirt that coated all
of me.
    I joined father, Winona, and several advisors.  The two
generals trailed in behind me, Yates still limping slightly.  Winona smirked.  My
father’s aura was glowing with anger.  “What have you done?” 
    I gave him a level stare, too tired to play submissive. 
“I’ve saved the lives of everyone in our troop.”  Winona snorted.  Yates threw
up his hands. 
    “It looked like we were winning, but we were being set
up,” I said calmly.  “If we had stayed there a moment more, a second troop of
Fallen would have closed up the valley and we would have been trapped like
cattle.  With another troop there, we would have been completely outnumbered.”
    Winona paced forward, hands on hip.  “What made you think
there was another troop coming?”
    I glared at her.  There was no way to explain my actions. 
“A scout saw them closing in.”
    She shook her head.  “I don’t believe there was a