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“I am the god ofwar,” Thane barked. “I know what I’m doing. No one moves until I say!”

Foot soldiers still ran out from inside the fortress and if she had more than those five gods or demigods with her, he hadn’tseen them yet. Gods and goddesses were worth ten of a good mortal soldier. They didn’t tire and they didn’t die, though they rarely fought. They’d rather have mortals do their bidding.

Time seemed to pass slowly. Minutes felt like hours. In the air, Hel shredded through a dragon like it was wet paper, straight through its chest and out its back. Once he hit the ground bodies flew up in the air by magic or his sword.

Pricilla and her ilk walked through the field, killing pale ones with ease. Though they kept their distance from Hel; they wanted to get him alone. But Thane would not leave him alone.

The moment he’d been waiting for finally happened; the flow of Pricilla’s army from inside the gates stopped. Now he’d seen her final number. It was still twice what they had, but no matter. “Ronan, take her archers, burn down her catapults. Piper, Fennan, Leif, with me.” He turned to Piper, “If we had not waited for all her army to come out, they would have boxedusin.” Thane raised his sword high and turned around to his Ravens and the dragon army. “I know we have always fought against the pale ones but today they are our allies. They will not attack because a greater enemy threatens our land. This army of giants and minotaurs, of creatures you have never seen before, would come for our homes, for your children and your wives, and destroy everything. We stop them here. For Palenor!”

Their echoing cheers drew Pricilla’s eye as they charged into the open. Phantom thundered over the grass. Armor clanked in a steady rhythm. Ronan took his beast form, followed by his dragon soldiers, and they soared for her fortress. Fire arched through the air, their talons slashed, breaking stone and sending bodies flying.

“Turn! Protect the rear!” Pricilla wailed. “Protect the fortress!”

Bones crunched under Phantom’s hooves. Thane brought his sword down across a man, then the god of war lived up to hisname. Everything in his path fell by blade or by magic. He boiled blood with his power. He hacked and stabbed, only seeing red. It didn’t matter if Pricilla outnumbered them.

A half-shifted dragon covered in crimson scales ran up on Piper. He launched himself from Phantom and tackled him to the ground. Mud splattered across his face while they rolled and fought for dominance. Thane managed to gain top position and pushed the point of his blade closer and closer to the dragon’s throat.

His enemy screamed, trying to dig talons into Thane’s armored forearms. Dragon scales were nearly impossible to push through with an ordinary sword, but Ronan had brought weapons that could. All his Ravens had them, and so did he. The dragon’s arms shook, so did Thane’s, until the blade-point pierced his scales and he gurgled blood and went limp.

“Thane, behind you!” Piper smashed her shoulder into the minotaur coming up on him, then ducked under the axe and shoved her blade straight through his heart.

Thane nodded his thanks and rose up to fight. Leif and Piper fought back-to-back now. Screams of battle, cries for help, and roars from dragons became background noise.

Then he spotted Hel. Gore and blood smears covered him. He was nearly as good as Thane with a sword but favored his magic. The enemies dropped dead around him, legs breaking, necks snapping. With a stretch of Hel’s hand, a bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and burnt a troll to ash. It had been millennia since they fought together like this. Thane fought his way to his side and Hel smiled over at him. “About time you showed up. I was beginning to think you’d abandoned me.”

Hel’s army was a quarter of what it was and dwindling. “I’m here, as I said.”

They fought side by side after that. The cousins who were more like brothers. They’d betrayed and hated and fought eachother, but in the end it didn’t matter. Hel’s enemies were Thane’s enemies.

Momentum was on their side until horns blew all across the battlefield. Horns not of his or Hel’s army but from another army coming over the horizon. Crimson flags with a white flame at the center rose high into the air. The goddess of fury.

“We cannot win this battle,” Thane breathed. He whirled in a circle, finding his Ravens were too scattered. They’d lost all formation even if he could get them back into lines, Eliza brought another thousand or more.

A Raven right beside him took an ax to the chest and went down. Ronan and his dragons clashed with the enemy in the sky. Their numbers were even but Eliza had other winged fighters, riders on hippogriffs and griffins, and even men with feathered wings.

“Hel, we have to go back.” He raised his sword and pointed it south toward the woods where the portal was. “Retreat!” Thane bellowed. “Raven’s retreat! Ronan! Get your dragons back to the portal!”

Fennan carried the message, “Ravens retreat!” and soon others were shouting. The signal gave Pricilla’s forces a boost in morale. They fought harder and chased his retreating soldiers.

Eliza ordered a charge, the incoming battalion roared, their feet thundering.

Hel jerked Thane by the collar of his armor. “I’ll hold them off. Go!” He shoved him in the back.

Thane stumbled forward but turned and pointed at him, “You better come back, Brother!”

“I will,” he smirked.

With a whistle, he ran. Phantom hopped over bodies and galloped to Thane. Mid stride, he leapt on. He glanced back as Hel swung his electric-blue sword furiously. “Keep fighting!” hecommanded his army. “Fight to the very end! Bite them, turn them!”

The pale one’s rage intensified. Entrails hung from mouths, blood oozed between their teeth and from their blades. They didn’t touch any of Thane’s Ravens or Ronan’s dragons on the ground as they retreated.

Hel was sacrificing his army to save them…

With his Ravens riding and sprinting with him, and dragons landing all around them, they rushed into the woods. Thane smashed his hand to the portal, “Take us to Palenor,” he commanded. It opened in a swirling pool and his soldiers sprinted through. “Get back inside the wall!”

Thane peered through the trees, his heart pounding, his breath rushing in and out. Hel raised his arms and called down a wall of lightning bolts that hit the ground and cut across the field, stopping Eliza’s charge. Some of her fliers crashed into it and went down. He could only hold that for so long.

“Faster!” Thane waved his arm in a circle to get them moving.