Break the Day (Nightstar Book 1)

Ainreth hated going out on missions. Nothing interesting ever happened, leaving him with boredom, dirty clothes, and far too few distractions for comfort.

This particular instance was especially irritating, though, because he was stationed near the end of the border wall. There were miles upon miles of flat land and fields of grass. No sane Orinovan spy or soldier would dare try to cross here, with no forests or mountains to hide them. And sure, he sometimes doubted the sanity of Orinovo’s soldiers, but they weren’t suicidal. Which meant that Ainreth and his regiment were left to stand guard here, with nothing to do.

Sometimes he wondered if the Bulwark was punishing him with these missions because of some perceived insubordination. There was no need for a general to be present, after all. He was meant to be coming up with strategies and fighting on battlefields, not monitoring the situation here.

Ain sighed, leaning against the stone edge of the border wall and folding his arms over his chest. He let his eyes close for a moment. The summer heat combined with his boredom was making him sleepy. Maybe he should just go do that. No one would dare report the great Daybreaker for taking a nap instead of doing his very important duty of staring into space.

Just as he thought that, though, he heard the noise of someone crying out in pain. Frowning, he looked back at the camp of tents they’d built behind the wall, his eyes searching for the spot reserved for training, but the six people currently sword fighting didn’t seem injured. They simply continued their training with a surprising amount of enthusiasm, their swords clashing loudly.

And there it was again, another shout of pain. Frowning harder, Ainreth turned around again, realizing that the sound was actually coming from the opposite side of the wall. They weren’t allowed to cross the border so as not to provoke their enemy, which was one of the rules that Ain had no problem with. But thankfully, he didn’t have to follow them.

Twirling his fingers, he grabbed onto the rays of light all around him, bending them to his will like he had done thousands of times before, rendering himself invisible. As long as he maintained his focus, he could stay like this and investigate, and no one would be any the wiser. Ainreth had done this many times before, after all.

Continuing to move his fingers to keep the light from revealing him, Ainreth walked around the thick wall, venturing onto enemy territory. Even though the dirt beneath his boots was still the same, it always felt different somehow, cold and uninviting.

He walked slowly and carefully, the wall to his right, looking around as he followed the cries. It was strange that he hadn’t spotted anyone yet with only a tree here and there, and it was stranger that the guards patrolling the wall hadn’t noticed anything, either.

But those thoughts ended there as suddenly, a horrible shriek filled the air. Ain’s hands flew to his ears, attempting to shield his hearing from the loud noise, but before he could even manage it, he was suddenly flying as a powerful force threw him back.

His back collided with the hard wall, forcing a cry out of him, pain stabbing through him as he collapsed on the ground. What in the sun was that? He’d been invisible. And—

Despite still being in too much pain to properly move, Ainreth’s eyes flew open, staring in horror at his now very visible hand.

Oh no.

Ainreth scrambled to get up, trying to get past his spine screaming in pain, quickly spotting his attacker, who was now standing right in front of him.

It was a cloaked woman with a black mask over her mouth and nose, long, white hair her only distinguishing feature. She was watching him, almost looking amused. Ainreth glared at her, summoning light to immediately burn her with it. He wasn’t sure what type of az-ari she was, how she’d managed to find him, or what that blast had been, but she had attacked him, and he was going to respond in turn.

But as he clenched his fist, throwing a beam of sunlight at her, bright enough to burn her to a crisp instantly, she waved her hand. A strange, humming noise, almost too quiet to hear pierced the air. And Ain stared in horror as his light beam dissipated before it could even reach her.

“What the sunder is this?” he demanded, staring at the woman with wide, shocked eyes. How could she just dispel his light? That shouldn’t be possible. No one had ever managed this.

“The great Daybreaker is not so undefeatable after all, eh, comrade?” the woman mocked him, her accent thick and very obviously Orinovan, as if calling him comrade of all things hadn’t been enough of a clue.

“What are you?!”

Ainreth winced at his intimidated tone. He’d meant to sound commanding, like a general should, but he was too horrified to manage it. If this woman could simply stop his light from harming her, then he was powerless against her. And she knew it.

“Aye, good question,” she replied, raising her hand again. And that was Ainreth’s cue to go.

Bending light again, Ainreth turned himself invisible once more, but before he could start running, the woman threw another screeching blast at him, throwing him to the ground and leaving him gasping, his invisibility disappearing as the noise canceled it out with ease.

Since when did noise change the way light worked? It made no sense.

Even though Ain thought it hopeless, he pulled at the light around him, aiming at the woman as he forced himself to his feet again. She raised her hand, summoning more of that strange humming, the beam of light dissipating right in front of her, but it forced her to stop in her tracks.

And that was all Ainreth needed to fall back to the camp. He couldn’t defeat her himself. If he couldn’t use his power, all he had was a sword, and the odds there were so heavily stacked against him that he might as well stab the sword through himself.

Dashing back over to the border, Ainreth threw more deadly light the woman’s way. But Ainreth’s strategy worked only for a moment. He almost reached the edge of the wall when another blast threw him right into it. And this time he hit his head.

Crying out, Ainreth struggled to get on his knees, to get moving again, but his head hurt and spun too much. He could feel warm blood starting to flow down his temple already, dripping into his eye. But he could barely manage to drag his eyes open when he felt a hand drag him up by his hair.

“Nothing personal, lightweaver,” the woman said. Ainreth squinted up at her as she put the tips of her gloved hand between her teeth, pulling the glove off. “But I need your power.”

Ainreth tried to grab at her hand as she reached out to him, almost touching his neck, but he couldn’t stop her. He couldn’t focus enough to even try to blind her with his light.

As Ain shut his eyes, somehow trying to prepare himself for the death that was coming, there was a shout, though. Ainreth groaned as the woman let him go, his head falling forward, Ain barely managing to catch himself before his face hit dirt.

The shouting continued as Ainreth blinked, trying to pull himself together enough to figure out what was happening. And as he finally dragged himself up to sit, relief flooded his heart.

His second-in-command, Petre, was standing right in front of him, their sword raised, while his other soldiers were shooting at the woman, who, while managing to stop the arrows with her power before they could pierce her, was now being driven away, deeper into Orinovan territory.

Ainreth had managed to get over his dizziness and stand up just as the woman disappeared from sight, using the few trees around to hide from the onslaught of arrows. Petre was now looking up at him, their eyes worried as they rummaged around in their satchel without ever lowering their gaze down to it.

“Are you okay?” they asked, finally bringing out a small vial with a green liquid in it. Ainreth gladly accepted the healing tonic, downing it. They always tasted bitter and kind of salty, but they were effective, so Ain never dared to point that out.

“Yeah,” he breathed, handing Petre the empty vial and holding a hand up to his bleeding head injury as he kept staring off the way the woman had escaped. He still felt unsteady on his feet, but it wasn’t just from the attack. It was more because of what it represented.

Ainreth had never been defeated like that, not when using his powers. And certainly not by a single enemy, that had never happened. How was this possible? What power had the woman used to render his light useless? And what had she said about needing his power?

Ain swallowed, taking a few deep breaths. The Bulwark was not going to be happy to hear about the Daybreaker being defeated at all, much less as embarrassingly easily as he had been. He had been an inch from death, and he had the feeling that this woman could have easily finished the job had she wanted to. He had no idea what she’d been planning on doing, but he was certain she could have killed him from afar.

Petre was still watching him with concern, preparing a bandage for him.

Blight, this was awful on every conceivable level. What was he supposed to do?