The shadow vanished. No whistle. No streak. Just a sudden, profound absence of sound where the siege engine’s fiery belch had been. The iron beetle shuddered, its furnace heart going dark. The hollow men paused, confused, their commands dying in their throats.
Erome slumped to his knees, the bow clattering beside him. The arrow was gone, spent. But Veridias was not saved. Only granted a breath. arrow erome
His orders were clear: loose the arrow into the heart of the invaders’ siege engine, the great iron beetle vomiting fire onto the lower terraces. But as he drew, the arrow’s hunger spoke to him. Not the machine, it whispered in a voice like his own mother’s. The man commanding it. The warlord on the black horse. End him, and the rest scatter. The shadow vanished