Free Golden Tide (Song of the Aura, Book Four) by Gregory J. Downs

just her.
     
    Early on someone pushed a spear into her hands. She hadn’t even thought of it, and her knives were back in the command chamber. Very well. She didn’t need weapons to fight, but she kept the spear, just in case.
     
    As it turned out, she was lucky she had. Two more Pit Striders were still living, killing Vastic soldiers indiscriminately with fire and sword- until she shoved the spear down their throats, crackling with lightning from her Sky Striding.
     
    All her life, Karanel had known there were limits to what she could do. But ever since the Wisp Demon, and Vail’s sacrifice… Those limits seemed to have disappeared. She was unbeatable… but she was only one.
     
    “ Windmaster! Windmaster!” A young boy with a winged helmet far too large for him stumbled through a door to the side and fell at her feet, blood streaming down his face. She stopped and dropped low beside him, knowing with sickness in her heart that it was already too late. She lifted the lad’s chin: it was Ran, the second messenger. “Wi… they… courtyard… a golem… inside the dalheim…”
     
    Ran’s head fell to the side and he collapsed. Karanel did cry this time, and she let the men see it, too; but she kept on moving, no matter what. “Mancaptains Yorun and Ragan! Rally men to you and clear this keep of any of the invaders! All else to me! We’ll drive these fiends from the dalheim once and for all!”
     
    The men believed she could work miracles. They cheered her on, barely aware of the dead boy on the ground. Biting back her horror and fear, Karanel calmly ordered the body moved to a place where it would rest out-of-the-way until the battle had been won… or lost.
     
    Life was a mass of sensations: burning lungs, ragged breath. Wet eyes and dry mouth. The taste of salt and bronze and blood. Determination. Fear. Rage. Courage. At last Karanel and her ragtag horde reached the keep’s main gate.
     
    “ Open!”
     
    She called, and it was done. The bolt was thrown and the great double-doors swung outwards, angry sunlight revealing the blood-soaked courtyard beyond. The lone golem was out there, a great golden beast of metal plates and spikes and gears, vaguely shaped like the giant apes of the Far West, flames spurting from its mouth, its eyeless mask of a face covering the Pit Strider who lay inside, controlling the demonic machine with his powers. Another Coalskin, probably, like the one that had attacked her.
     
    The golem was ravaging the courtyard, massacring horses and men alike, slaying those who fled and those who fought. Its flaming breath and slashing claws could tear through any armor, and crush any flesh. Only stone seemed to hinder them, for no reason Karanel could tell.
     
    Stone… and Lightning.
     
    “ For the Sky King!” Karanel shouted, raising her spear. “For Vastion and Larion!”
     
    “ For the Aura!” someone behind her screamed.
     
    Then she charged. The burnt grass in front of the keep crunched under her feet. The wind blew all around her, speaking in a voice only she could hear. The golem turned and saw her, its metallic screech drowning out the wind-voice. Karanel grimaced as it swung towards her. Her spear lifted, her legs blurred as she ran up through the air, dodging the golem’s clumsy swipe. Tiredness and exhaustion meant nothing to the euphoria of battle. She landed atop the golden monster, stabbing it with her spear again and again. Lightning crackled and flashed along her blade, and flickered in her eyes.
     
    “ Die, unholy thing!” she spat. The golem rocked to one side, trying to throw her off, but she stabbed the spear into it and pierced the Coalskin inside. It died without a sound. Fire licked up from the iron belly of the beast, curling around the sides and scorching her. Letting go of the spear where it stuck in the shining hull, Karanel leaped skyward, propelling herself with Wind Striding as she watched the flaming hulk of the golem crash to pieces beneath