Chapter 26
Chapter 26
J ust as I prepare to leap forward, a slender figure appears in the corner of my vision.
I recognize her instantly, and that makes me freeze: Petra.
She’s the daughter of Nero, the leader of the metalworkers who led the attempt to kill me outside this very wall.
I’m not sure if she’s here to finish the job or to defend the city.
She’s wearing the armor of the Wasteland Warriors and carries a sword at her back and a dagger at her waist. Her oval face is pale, and her lips are set in a determined line. The streaks of dark purple in her hair that mark her profession as a healer appear blood red under the crimson sky.
I’m baffled that I didn’t sense her presence sooner, let alone detect her approach.
Where did she come from so suddenly?
My focus shifts to the weapon she’s holding in her hands, and my concern only grows.
It’s a crossbow, and it’s loaded with an iron bolt that’s tipped with a glistening, crimson powder.
It looks like the weapons Asha described from her altercation with the humans before she’d escaped this place.
The powder on the bolt could be crimson coal.
I’m not sure if the dragon riders will realize the extreme volatility of the weapon Petra’s aiming at them.
Because, yes, as Petra takes another step forward, it becomes clear that she’s aiming her weapon squarely at Catalina and not at me.
Catalina takes a hasty step away from me, her head swiveling from side to side as she attempts to keep both me and Petra in her sights.
The dragons and their riders all tense up, each one of them also dividing their attention between Petra and me.
“Hello there,” Petra says to Catalina. “Unless you want to die, I suggest you move farther away from the Vandawolf.”
At that moment, four more women appear, but not from behind Petra.
My eyes widen as they rise up out of the mud around the base of the stone monolith, shaking off the dirt as they jump to their feet.
It’s a trick of camouflage that I taught the Wasteland Warriors in case they ever needed to conceal themselves before a fight—a tactic my father had taught me, although we could never use it in the freezing snow.
Fuck me, how long were they hiding in the muddy ash?
I recognize all four of the women, and I’m relieved to see that they’re alive.
Nearest to me is Councilor Genova. She tips her chin at me before she pulls a hunting dagger from a holster at her waist and brandishes it at the nearest dragon riders, fearlessly ignoring their dragons.
Her skin is light brown and weather-beaten, her frame lean and muscular from her work as leader of the farmers. It isn’t her blade that draws my eye so much as the small, but clearly full, pouch attached to her belt.
I’m concerned about what could be inside it.
More crimson coal?
The woman next to her is Mother Solas. Her hair is silvery gray, and her eyes are faded brown. Her normally rosy cheeks are pale, and the smile lines around her mouth and eyes are nowhere to be seen.
She glares at the newcomers while her granddaughter, Rachel, takes position on her other side. Rachel’s eyes are the same shade of brown as her grandmother’s, and her skin is just as pale. She, too, grips a dagger and carries a pouch at her waist.
Nearer to Petra is Maybelle, who also holds a knife. She and her husband, Kedric, took Asha’s siblings in and treated them like their own.
They stare down dragons without a hint of alarm, and it worries me a little.
Only those who have already faced their worst fears could look into the eyes of dragons and find nothing to be afraid of.
Catalina seems to have taken quick stock of them. “You’re all human.”
“So are you,” Petra retorts. “A human with no power here.”
“On the contrary,” Catalina says. “Our Queen rules over all humans. Therefore, you’re now under her jurisdiction.”
“Like fuck we are,” Rachel speaks up, her savage retort taking me by surprise. She was always reserved, concealing her compassion beneath a stoic facade. “We govern ourselves.”
“By what authority?” Catalina demands to know.
“By the royal line of Solas,” Rachel replies. “Which is to say, by my authority.”
The other four women, including Petra, give Rachel firm nods.
I may not know what happened within this city while I was gone, but if Rachel has claimed her crown, then much has changed.
Catalina lowers her weapon slightly. “You’re descended from King Solas?”
Rachel returns her glare. “I am.”
Catalina’s eyes narrow. “Can anyone verify that?”
“I can,” Mother Solas says, her grip on her blade unwavering.
“And you are?” Catalina asks.
Mother Solas’s lips twitch upward, and for an instant, I glimpse the power she keeps hidden. Not magical power. It’s the power that comes from knowing herself.
“ My name is Isabella Solas,” she says. “I believe your Queen was named in my honor.”
When Catalina’s eyes only narrow further, Mother Solas continues. “Your Isabella was born and named five days before Malak took control of this city. The last communication I received from outside these walls was from her parents. They told me how happy they were and how they hoped she would grow to have the strength and wisdom of her namesake. I have their letter still.”
Catalina’s guard finally seems to lower, but she doesn’t appear any less wary.
She takes her eyes off the women to look at her dragon, who edges forward, its focus on Mother Solas and Rachel. Its nostrils flare as it inhales so deeply that the air shifts around me.
It speaks in a distinctly male voice when it says, “They have the blood of the Solas royal line. I can smell it.”
At that, the two riders who were closest to Catalina also step forward. One of them is male, tall and lean, while the other is female with blonde hair—an unusual color, at least among the humans in this city, whose hair is predominantly brown.
They circle in close beside Catalina, speaking in such low murmurs that without my wolf’s hearing, I wouldn’t be able to pick up what they say.
The man speaks first. “If these women are of the Solas royal line, we can’t afford to antagonize them.”
“We need them,” the woman with the blonde hair says bluntly. “Not only them but every human in this city capable of fighting the fae. And damn, you have to admit, the way they hid in the ash was a little impressive.”
“More than a little,” the man says. “We need fighters like that.”
“Desperately,” Catalina finishes, speaking the single word in a hushed exhalation.
She turns back to Rachel and Mother Solas, takes a deep breath, and then gives her gloved hand a flick, at which her weapon fully retracts.
The other dragon riders follow suit, all of them putting away their weapons and folding their arms across their chests. It seems that’s their way of indicating they aren’t going to attack.
Catalina presses her lips together and gives her shoulders a little roll as if she’s recalibrating before she steps forward again, this time with her hands raised, palms out.
“I apologize for the tone of our initial greeting,” she says. “But we weren’t sure what we would encounter, and we had to be cautious.” Her focus flickers to me. “Setting aside the situation with the Vandawolf, we didn’t come here for a fight.”
She points to the sky before she continues. “It’s important that you understand: this land has turned. It has reached its tipping point, just like the land in the east did. You can’t stay here any longer. You have to come with us?—”
Petra snaps back. “You can’t make us leave our homes. We’ve fought too hard for them.”
Unlike the other women, whose daggers have lowered, her crossbow hasn’t wavered. All she needs is a spark and she could kill every human in this clearing, although the dragons would most likely survive. And kill her in retaliation.
But it seems Petra isn’t alone in her view of the situation.
Councilor Genova also speaks up. “ You don’t understand,” she says to Catalina. “For the last week, we’ve fought a war within these city walls. We brought down the tyrants who would have subjugated us once more. We are finally free from the hatred of the past. We won’t give up our freedom without a fight.”
My eyes widen at what she said.
They fought a war against tyrants.
If the fight was against Petra’s own father and his allies, then it would have been particularly painful for her. The tear sliding down her cheek and the press of her lips tell me it was.
“We have no wish to make you give up your freedom,” Catalina says, her tone placating. “We can offer you new homes. A new life. Simply in a new place.” She looks at the sky. “But if you stay, your fight won’t be with us. It will be with the beasts that won’t stop coming.”
The crimson dragon speaks up from behind her, its voice a deep rumble. “We have witnessed the devastation in the east. Whole cities were razed to the ground. Endless dust storms. Blood-rain that clogs the air when the dust doesn’t. Even if you can hold back the monsters for a time, the soil will sicken, and illness will spread. Very soon, you won’t be able to breathe. It will take your children first, and then it won’t stop.”
I’m impressed by the way that none of the city’s women flinch in the face of the dragon’s ferocity, but their pensive expressions tell me they’re thinking about what he said.
They won’t be able to ignore the way the sky is boiling, and the lightning hasn’t stopped flickering.
It was Genova herself who said that the crops were starting to fail. The darkness must be seeping in from every direction.
“If you ask us to leave, of course, we’ll go,” Catalina says with a shrug of her shoulders.
She won’t.
Her whispered discussion with her comrades made that clear to me. She needs more bodies in her army, and these women have proven how hard they’ll fight to protect what they love. Any commander would want them in their army.
But Catalina hasn’t finished. She jabs her finger first at the clouds churning in the sky behind her and then at the wasteland. “But those creatures won’t. There’s no stopping them now. The people in the east tried and failed.”
I narrow my eyes at the way she used the term ‘people’ instead of ‘fae’.
This city has been walled off from the rest of the world for a long time. Thirty years under Malak’s rule followed by ten years under mine. The first news we had of a war in the north between the human Queen and the Fae Queen was when Thaden arrived.
He gave that information to me and Asha. I didn’t try to stop it from getting out, but I’m not sure how informed Mother Solas or Rachel may be about the war they’ll step into if they go with the dragon riders.
I draw breath to speak, and then I pause.
I can’t influence their decision one way or another. It isn’t my place. If they want my thoughts, they’ll ask for them. It’s up to them to make decisions for themselves now.
“You will do us the respect of giving us time to decide,” Rachel says to Catalina.
Catalina nods. “Of course. But don’t delay. If you want your people to survive, you must all come with us by the time the sun reaches its zenith. We can’t linger here any longer than that. Our own people need our protection. We’re risking their lives the longer we stay.”
With that, she focuses on me. “However, there is one matter we must determine immediately.”
Rachel stiffens. “What is that?”
“Regardless of what you decide for your people, the Vandawolf will come with us. He attacked a dragon.” She gives me a cold smile. “He must face the consequences.”