Kingdom of Ash

and the demon prince battled their way across
the city wall.
He kept his feet beneath him, as Rhoe had
taught him. As Quinn had taught him, and Cal
Lochan. As all his mentors and the warriors
he’d admired above all others had taught him.
For this moment, when he would be called to
defend Orynth’s very walls.
It was for them he swung his sword, for
them he took blow after blow.
The Valg prince hissed with every blast, as
if enraged that his power could not break that
shield.
Rhoe’s shield.
There was no magic in it. Brannon had
never borne it. But one of them had forged it,
one of the unbroken line of kings and queens
who had come after him, who had loved their
kingdom more than their own lives. Who had
carried this shield into battle, into war, to