Raze the Night (Nightstar Book 2)
Chapter 42

Ainreth gritted his teeth, sweat running down his forehead as he raised his hands to the sun, pulling at the beams of light it produced.

He had been training constantly since people had started getting killed. He couldn’t believe they’d gotten here, but they had, and so he had to do his best to protect them.

Pulling in the sun’s rays, he formed as spear from them, sending it flying at a nearby tree, wavering a bit with exhaustion as he watched the light sear through the wood, burning a hole through the tree.

Ainreth sat down in the grass for a bit, catching his breath. He didn’t tend to use the light from the sun directly, instead preferring to use the light scattered all around him.

The sun brought with it…unpleasant memories. It made his hands shake just remembering how he’d burned everyone that day.

Ain shivered. He could hurt people a lot with the light around him, but not burning a crowd of soldiers to a crisp. Not in an instant.

But no matter how much he wanted to keep letting his fear and guilt hold him back, he and his rebels didn’t stand much of a chance unless he did the difficult thing and pushed through.

Maybe they’d been a bit too eager to send that letter to tell the Courtiers—most Varilik—off after that idiot Tyr-Ethas declared war on them, but it was too late to take that back.

Ainreth stood by every word in that letter, but it could be seen as provocation. They’d had people from the Lys-Akkaria army desert and join their ranks, but the majority was still loyal to the Court. And if mostly armored civilians stood against professional soldiers, it was bound to be messy.

It made Ainreth sick to his stomach to imagine how many people might die as a result of this. Lys-Akkaria would no doubt call more of their soldiers home to defend the country from the rebels now.

And even if they could defeat the soldiers, so many people would die either way, just on the other side. But they were all Lys-Akkarians. And these were soldiers, just following orders for the most part. It would be tragedy either way.

Not to mention that Orinovo might use whatever result this infighting might cause to their advantage, but Ain refused to think about any of that.

All he would do is fight through his mixed feelings and try to prepare as best he can.

He wished the sun would help him make people invisible better, but unfortunately that played no role in it. He had to bend light around objects he wanted to disappear, so it was irrelevant.

But he was making strides there as well. And he had an idea as to how to use said invisibility as a battle strategy. He just needed to be better at it than ever before. Which was easier said than done, but he had to try.

He got up, once again he pulling in the sun’s light, forming a painfully brightly glowing arrow which he then threw at the same tree as before, cutting it in half that time. Ainreth watched it fall, humming. He’d really rather not do this to a person.

“I didn’t know your light images could do this,” Petre’s voice said from behind him, making him turn.

Ainreth smiled at them, and then at Enlin who was trailing behind them. Enlin had joined them just a few days prior after deserting from the army to help the rebels, though Ainreth suspected it was mostly because of Petre.

Deserting from the army was something that was punished harshly. Ainreth couldn’t help but appreciate every single soldier who had joined them for the bravery it took. In a strange way, Ain was sort of glad he’d been robbed of that choice.

“Yeah, if I try hard enough, they get a lot more deadly,” Ainreth said, glaring up at the sun. He always made sure to bend the direct light away from his eyes, but the sun was still hard to look at like this.

It made Ainreth’s guilty mind wonder if those burns around Fennrin’s eyes he’d given him were healed by now.

“I don’t like doing this.” Ain sighed. “But we don’t have much choice, do we?”

Ainreth blinked as Petre hugged him without a word, but he immediately hugged back. As the hug lingered, Ainreth looked at Enlin, smiling at her.

“Thanks for joining us, by the way. I haven’t said it directly yet,” Ain told her, nodding. She blushed and nodded back, ducking her head a little. She was sort of adorable.

“Yes, of course, si—I mean, Ainreth,” she said, blushing harder. “I couldn’t in good conscience support the High Herald with everything he’s done.”

Ainreth hummed sadly, Petre letting go of him now. “Understandable.” Ainreth gritted his teeth, just thinking about Varilik. “He’s a sundering, blighted—.”

Petre cleared their throat, interrupting him. “Tyr-Haran and the others want to talk to you. It’s important.”

Ainreth nodded and sighed. “Yeah, all right.” He wiped the sweat off his forehead. “The new usual place?”

Petre nodded at him, and Ainreth turned around, heading back to the village they’d taken up temporary residence in. It was on the eastern edge of Lys-Akkaria, next to Ora-Teron, the massive lake that took up a fairly large part of the southeast of the country.

There were quite a few settlements near it, unsurprisingly, most of the people being fishermen, but the village the rebel leaders were hiding in was tiny and relatively isolated.

There were only about a dozen houses, and while that would usually not be great for hiding out, the people here were all their supporters, and some of them had rather large basements, ideal to hide out in for a few days at least.

Ain would have been a bit suspicious that perhaps someone here was lying to get them to lower their guard, only to call the army here and rat them out. But one of the rebels was apparently from here, and she knew everyone, vouching for them, which was good enough for Ain.

Ainreth still didn’t let anyone see him coming in and out of the village, though, slipping in and out while invisible. It doubled as good training, too, already having made himself impossible to see despite barely seeing the houses in the distance.

Once Ain reached the right house he walked around it to access the hatch leading to the basement. There was a large padlock keeping it locked, but he had been given a key so he wouldn’t have to reveal himself just to get inside the house.

Taking a look around to confirm no one was watching he unlocked the lock, managing to maintain his invisibility through it despite the annoyance of moving his fingers while putting the key in the lock.

With that done he left the open padlock hanging from the metal loop on the hatch and lifted it, climbing down a few stairs before closing it behind him and finally letting himself be visible in the dimness of the basement.

All the usual leaders were there, except by now there were twelve of them counting Ainreth, joined by a few higher-ranking people from the army who he recognized. No generals, though, not that Ain was surprised. He didn’t miss them either, so that was fine with him.

“Good, we’re all here,” Arem Tyr-Haran said as Ainreth sat down, leaning on the table they were sitting at with his elbows. “We have a situation.”

Ainreth grimaced. He didn’t like the sound of this at all. They already had a situation.

“Another one?” one of the fresh deserters, a woman who Ain thought was Fyr-Oran said. He would feel bad for not keeping up with who the important players were here, but they changed so often it was hard for Ain to keep track. He’d leave that to Aram.

“Yes, another one,” said Aram grimly. “Varilik and his shadowforger attack dog have been slaughtering our people at the towns we protect. They forcefully keep them in line by stationing soldiers there. And they’ve already killed civilians.”

Ainreth scowled at Fenn being called an attack dog, but there was no point arguing about that. “The only one who can stop Fenn is me. And I can’t be everywhere at once.”

“Exactly,” Arem said, nodding at Ain. “Which means we need to do something drastic to put a stop to this before more people die.”

Ainreth found himself nodding, even though he was upset about the entire thing. No matter what, innocent people would die. But he’d rather it be soldiers and guards than civilians.

“I sense a plan,” Ainreth said, to which Arem nodded as he stood up and walked to a nearby shelf from which he picked up a map. Ain studied it as Arem spread it over the table, blinking when he realized it was simply a map of Lys-Akkaria and Orinovo. There was nothing special on it, though he wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting.

“Varilik wishes to destroy us instead of having to go from one town to the next, killing or arresting a few people and likely inspiring more to join our ranks as a consequence.”

Everyone nodded to that, very well aware of it already. Ainreth had a feeling he already knew where this might be going.

“We cannot win a direct battle. Our numbers are large, greater than the army’s currently in Lys-Akkaria, but most of us aren’t professional fighters. But we could use that to our advantage,” Arem continued, pointing at the map, at the plains beyond the border wall, the old, newly retaken territories.

“This area is mostly plains and fields, no forests in sight, and no large settlements that could be caught in the crossfire. If we could lure the army here, we could use the complete lack of cover to our advantage.”

“But we won’t be able to ambush them then,” said another deserter soldier, voicing Ainreth’s thoughts. But there was definitely more to what Arem was saying.

“Indeed, not using physical barriers. But we have a man on our side capable of making himself and others invisible,” Arem said, looking at Ainreth.

Ain almost chuckled, amused that he and Arem were in sync for once. He’d thought of using that as a battle tactic as well, but he hadn’t brought it up out of fear that he might not manage it.

“We could split our force in two and attack from behind,” Ain said, nodding. “If I can keep control over so many people at once, that is.”

Arem nodded. “Precisely what I was thinking. You’ve been getting better at it, do not think I haven’t noticed.”

Ainreth raised an eyebrow at the man, not sure what to think. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think this is a compliment.”

Arem snorted and shook his head. “It’s simply a statement of fact.” Then he looked around the table to address everyone once more. “The army will no doubt expect this to be a trick. But they do not know Ainreth has been training his invisibility. And they will be likely to underestimate us.”

Ain tried to wrap his head around the idea for this plan, trying to decide if it would be worth it. Perhaps they could somehow lure the army over to a place like this, but could they win?

And not to mention that there was very little stopping Fenn from just killing everyone on the spot aside from perhaps his conscience. Which Ainreth knew he had, Fennrin wasn’t evil and he never would be, but Varilik had him too wrapped around his finger.

“We’ll need to distract Fennrin somehow,” Ainreth said. “That will be the biggest challenge. I can fight him, but I can’t make our forces invisible during it. And if we don’t strike fast enough, the group that will be visible might be dead by the time the ambush happens.”

Arem nodded, while Fyr-Oran made a doubtful hum. “Can you fight him?”

Ainreth scowled at her. “I fought him before and I will again. There’s no choice.”

She nodded, shrugging. “You just seem very…conflicted about it.”

Ain was certain she wasn’t trying to make him angry, but she was succeeding immensely.

“Do you want to have your neck snapped with a twitch of a finger?” Ainreth grumbled at her, scowling. “I’m the only one who can fight him. So I will.”

Tyr-Oran said nothing else, and neither did anyone else. But Ainreth could see the worry in their eyes. Not that they didn’t have reason to worry. It was very possible they didn’t have what it took to defeat Lys-Akkaria’s army, and they would simply get slaughtered or jailed.

But that kind of thinking wasn’t helpful in the least. Nothing in life was certain anyway. There were other things he wanted answers to, anyway.

“If we win, what then?” he asked Arem. “Do we march on Kyr-Toryl and forcefully depose Varilik?”

Arem hummed. “That would be ideal. We have public support. All we’d need is to start a new election for the position of High Herald. And a candidate.”

Arem gave Ainreth a meaningful look, to which Ain let out a half-shocked, half-baffled laugh. “No.”

“You are a symbol. Our enemies fear you and our people love you,” Arem said, as if imploring Ain to reconsider. “Being the High Herald is mostly simply a representative function, anyway.”

Ainreth shook his head, adamantly against this idea. “Representative,” he repeated and snorted. “Look what Varilik is managing with that representative power.” He took a deep breath and shook his head again. “I’m sure people would vote for me. But I shouldn’t be a politician, and certainly not in this position. I’m no diplomat.”

A silence followed, everyone looking at each other. It was clear they weren’t interested in trying to convince him otherwise, and Ainreth was happy about that. He would have made for a horrible Herald.

“Very well,” Arem said after a moment, sighing. He looked disappointed, which was shocking to see in this context. They didn’t like each other, so he wasn’t sure why the man was torn up about Ainreth not wanting to be the Herald.

“The plan remains, however. We will replace a worthy replacement for Varilik who will not use their power to actively hurt this country. And we will also need to do something about the shadowforger.”

Ainreth sighed. “We are not killing him.”

There was some grumbling, but no one dared oppose Ain. Good. Because he was not going to ever be on board with something like this.

“Very well. And so your solution is to keep him a prisoner forever?” Arem asked in that flat tone of voice that always made Ain think he was being sarcastic. And maybe he was, there was no way to tell, but that didn’t mean that Ainreth would let it make him angry.

“If I have to, yes,” Ain said. He couldn’t imagine ever killing Fenn. “Unless I absolutely have to kill him on the battlefield…. Otherwise, he lives.”

There was more grumbling, but once again no one said anything specifically against it. “Good. Glad we understand each other.”

A moment of silence followed before once against being broken by Arem. “Very well. Now the last point of discussion is how we can lure Lys-Akkaria’s army where we need them.”

Ainreth hummed, thinking. It would have to be something very, very provocative. Possibly insulting. Something that would make Varilik ignore that it might be a trap because it would be more than a little suspicious to do this otherwise. And while Ain was sure that Varilik would be confident that he would win no matter what, it couldn’t hurt to make it more tempting to go fight them.

“We could send another letter?” someone suggested, but Ainreth wasn’t convinced.

“They would probably ignore it. It would be better to make it seem as though we aren’t inviting them in.” Ainreth narrowed his eyes in thought. “Instead what if we make it look as if we are gathering for something big. Some planned attack. They would have to come to us.”

A lot of people nodded to that.

“But how do we betray our location? Those plains aren’t often frequented by anyone,” said Arem, frowning.

A moment of thoughtful silence followed. And then Anyri chuckled, speaking for the first time during that meeting.

“Oh, I have the perfect idea.”