29. Keira
Chapter 29
Keira
W e leave Windkeep Stronghold in pursuit of Finan’s army the next day. The long column of our force exits the city gates and travels five warriors abreast across the meadows beyond, like a dark snake marring the landscape. Even the birdsong has disappeared under the indistinct rumble of so many boots striking against the road and the clamor of their plate armor.
Caitlin’s horse whickers as she rides up beside me, my own tossing its mane. “Are you ready?”
I glance to my father and Aldrin at the head of our troops, wearing matching scowls as they look out to the west, where our enemy tries to sneak past us to Wenchwick Hold. There is such little evidence of their march from our position.
“It is hard to leave them when I know they will be riding into battle again.” I clench my reins hard. “They will be on the enemy’s tail by nightfall.”
“And we will meet them on the battlefield with the fae reinforcements Cyprien musters. If our plan is to succeed, if we want to trap the enemy in our pincer attack, we must part from the main army now.” Caitlin rests a hand on her swollen belly. An extra panel has been sewn into her boiled leather armor to accommodate the growing baby, and it now has two rows of buckles across her torso.
“Let me say goodbye.” I spur my mare forward and dismount before she completely stills as I reach Aldrin.
A huge smile grows on his face, lighting up his amber eyes as he holds open his arms and I race straight into them. It feels like coming home. I wrap my arms around his neck and he squeezes me so tight I can hardly breathe, but all I need is his body close to me and his scent embracing me. Aldrin’s lips crash against mine, forcing my mouth open and sliding his tongue inside.
I feel like I am falling and falling, my heart swelling so much it almost hurts.
I don’t care that we are on display as the entire army crashes past. My fingers slip into his hair, half pulled back in a knot, and across the clean-shaven skin of his cheeks. He manages to get a hand under the boiled leather skirt of my armor and squeezes my ass before we pull apart, panting.
I place my hands on his chest and peer up into his face. “Stay safe, Aldrin. My heart couldn’t handle it if you were injured again.” I run my fingers along the lines of his breastplate, all the way to the tips of the spikes on his shoulder guards, becoming very interested in the fae runes engraved in them. “All I want in this life is you. To love you and live for you, without some villain coming along to tear us apart.”
Aldrin tips my chin back up. “I will give you more than that, dear heart. We will conquer these enemies, in this realm and my own, and you will live a life befitting a queen. You already hold my heart in your fist, but I will give you my titles, my wealth and my power. You will want for nothing and never doubt your value.”
I choke out a half laugh, half sob. “Your heart is enough for me, though I do like the promise of the blood of our enemies.”
Tearing myself away from him when we both march toward so much death is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.
“I will find you on the battlefield,” I promise, still gripping his hand.
Aldrin runs his calloused fingers over my palm. “I will find you on the battlefield, dear heart.”
I glance up as trotting hoofbeats approach us, expecting Caitlin to be hovering over me like a storm cloud. Instead, my father stares down at us with a slight frown pinching his features and glassy eyes he tries to blink away. He came from Caitlin’s direction.
“Come on, Keira. It is time for you to go,” he says gruffly. “Your display is going to make my hardened soldiers weep for their own partners.” He dismounts in a smooth leap and pulls me into a bone-crushing hug that makes me feel like I am five years old again. “And take care of your sister.”
All three of us turn to Caitlin, spans away, where she is in a yelling match with Gwyneth, the words not quite decipherable.
“Gwyneth, back to your station!” my father commands across the distance, and the Captain of the Protector Guard jolts straight, gives Caitlin one last scathing look, then rides off. Caitlin runs a hand across her face to mask her expression, composing herself.
I give Aldrin one final peck on the lips, disentangle myself from his hands and mount my horse. My heart flutters wildly with fear and the anticipation of loss. When I turn back, my father and Aldrin have already returned to the head of their army, disappearing into the distance.
“Are you okay?” I ask Caitlin.
Hard emerald eyes flick to me. “Other than my murderous rage? Sure. Why wouldn’t I be pissed off that my life partner decided to fight me instead of kiss me on the eve of battle?”
I give her a sidelong glance as we trot our mounts side by side, my heart aching for her. “Do you want to talk about it?”
She huffs out a long breath. “It’s always the same old argument, Keira, and I tire of it.” Caitlin gallops ahead of me, and I give her the space she needs.
Our band of five hundred cavalry waits for us, their armor and the tips of their weapons glinting under the sun. Caitlin is already laying down her orders by the time I join them.
“We have selected the strongest riders and best archers to join us in this covert mission,” she says, and many of the soldiers straighten under her praise. “It is going to be a hard ride over difficult terrain, much of it done at speed. Our task is to skirt around both armies and get ahead of them.”
Her narrowed gaze drifts over the warriors, and several shrink under it.
“We will be taking detours to put enough distance between us and the royal forces that they will not notice our presence. It will be hard going, and we only have two days to do it before we must meet Lord Cyprien and the newly recruited fae at the portals near Wenchwick Hold. Then we have a day to ride at breakneck speed to get to the battlefield at the exact right time. If any of you believe you are not up to the job, raise your hand now.”
There is a fierce determination in the eyes of all the men and women gathered before us, and not a single one of them wavers.
“We ride for the North!” I call out. “We will allow no king to pillage our lands!”
“For the North!” they chant in response.
We ride at a dead gallop through the rolling meadows that surround Windkeep Stronghold and skirt near the rocky base of the Stony Mountains, where we are forced to slow our pace. The early autumn sun still has enough bite to bake down on us and make the thick layers of armor suffocatingly hot. Heat radiates off all the slate around us.
There is nothing to break the fierce wind that flicks dust and small stones in our eyes, and the uneven ground covered in small boulders and sliding gravel threatens to make our mounts lose their footing at the speeds we are forced to travel. A low mist that rolls off the mountain and coats the ground makes for an especially difficult ride, and my heart is constantly leaping and thrusting.
Caitlin calls for us to make camp long after the sun has gone down, not allowing us fires to cook our food in case we are discovered. I am not unpracticed in spending long hours in the saddle, but even my muscles ache. Fiery pain stretches up the insides of my thighs, my rear is completely numb and my lower back aches.
I find Caitlin stretched out on her bedroll, staring up into the kaleidoscope of stars above.
“One thing I could never get used to in the fae realm was looking up at the night sky and seeing the stars were all wrong,” I murmur as I sit beside her.
“There is something comforting in being able to see our constellations. It means I will always be able to find my way home.” Caitlin’s eyes flick to mine. “Are you sure you want to leave our realm behind for Aldrin? I can understand some of our father’s fears. We cannot reach you there. We cannot go to war for you if you are in another world entirely.”
I place a hand on her shoulder. “I have never been more sure of anything in my life. My destiny was always to leave my home, like yours is to stay and protect Appleshield. But I love Aldrin, and I love his people and his court. This is my calling. And you will be able to open the portals, Caitlin. Bit by bit, we are removing the blocks on our power. When we succeed, you will be able to do it as easily as any other fae.”
“I will miss you,” she chokes out. “I will miss seeing you every day and having each other’s backs, even for the small things.”
I place a hand on her shoulder. “I will visit.”
Caitlin sits up sharply, then groans, throwing a hand to her lower back.
I pull a tub of druid-enchanted healing salve out of my satchel and unscrew the lid. “Are you sure you are not pushing yourself too hard? The babe must be so heavy now.”
Caitlin turns and gives me a hard look. I throw my hands up in the air.
“Okay, okay, I won’t question what you are capable of, but please let me help you. I know your muscles must be aching as much as mine.”
We enter the privacy of her cramped tent, and I apply the salve to her lower back, massaging it in, then she does the same for me, dissolving my aches. I made sure every one of our cavalry was gifted the salve so we would be fresh by the time we clash with the enemy, despite our ride.
We rise with the sun the next day and are forced through a bog with thick, squelching mud and insistent flies. The water is only a few inches deep and not lethal with the wrong footstep like the Deadman’s Marshes, but it slows us down with each sluggish pull of the horses’ hooves through it.
I sigh a breath of relief when we reach the thin woods beyond. We fly through them at a gallop, the wind in my hair as it streams out behind me, darting between thick trees and leaping over fallen logs. I never feel quite as alive as when I am riding at an insane pace through the woods like a wild thing.
We burst through the other side as the sun is setting, casting the sky in long streaks of pink and orange. Beneath the dying rays, a ring of moonstone portals glow with a white vibrancy, throwing spots of light across the stony landscape in a rainbow of colors. Thick mists roll out of the portals, and through them, high fae march into our realm.
My stomach tumbles at the sight. Then I recognize the thin black braids of a tall fae man, tied in a thong running down to his shoulder blades, his scalp shaved on the sides. Cyprien has arrived.
Many of the amassed fae turn sharply toward us as we cascade out of the trees like an assaulting force. Ripples of magic burst around them. Their commander barks out a few words and they calm immediately.
I trot my horse right up to Cyprien. “You actually did it!” I laugh, watching fae warrior after fae warrior steam into my realm.
“I made a promise, did I not?” He glances up at me, then back to the portals.
I slide down from my mount just as two embodiments of flames in humanoid form duck to pass under the top arch of the portal. They must be at least eight feet tall. “And fire sprites! Gods, Cyprien, I could kiss you.”
He cringes. “I would prefer it if you did not.”
Caitlin joins us as kelpies stream out of another portal in their half-horse, half-fae form, with pale blue skin scattered with scales and pelts of navy or bottle-green hair. I recognize Kai in their number and wave like a fool at him across the space.
The tree nymphs enter next, and a murmur goes up from the column of human cavalry behind me. I scan their ranks. Most faces are lit up in awe, and some in fear, but there is no hatred. We only selected soldiers who were comfortable fighting alongside the fae. Those who were the most open to Aldrin and his high fae army and their training of humans.
Shouts ring out from the fae, and I whirl back around to them. A dozen have their hands pressed against the moonstone of one of the portals, a vibrant white light streaming from their palms. With a great effort, they drag the blocks apart, and flying nymphs with buzzing butterfly wings extend the top of the arch higher in the air.
I draw in a sharp breath as my blood races, and I turn wild eyes to Cyprien. “What are they doing? They are going to break it!”
Cyprien smirks at me. “The portal will not break. They are widening it so someone…larger can come through.” I open my mouth, but he holds up a finger. “Ah, don’t ask. I don’t want to ruin the surprise. You will see what I have brought you.”
My breaths come hard and fast as they open the portal impossibly wide. The mist rolls out in even thicker waves, then is penetrated first by two long, thick golden horns, followed by gold-and-white scales. Next is a huge maw with rows of sharp teeth, a long neck and immense wings. I don't know if the ground shakes with each step the beast makes, or if it is my body trembling violently.
A dragon. Cyprien brought us a dragon.
It is the size of a peasant’s house, maybe larger. The creature unfurls its huge wings, tipped in claws, and snakes a long, barbed tail around itself as its head swivels around the clearing, taking stock of all of us little fae and humans that it could crush so easily beneath a foot.
It sniffs the air, then freezes. Massive, swirling eyes snap to me, then the dragon paces forward and lowers its neck until we are at eye level. I swallow hard under that gaze, cold sweat breaking out across my body. I try to take a step back, but Cyprien holds me in place with a hand on my arm.
You have the scent of Aldrin, the true king of the Spring Court fae, all over you, the dragon rumbles in my head. Are you the king’s mate?
“I—ah—I…” I turn to Cyprien for help, but his self-satisfied smirk only widens.
Does this one have a name, Lord Cyprien, or is she a simpleton? the dragon asks rudely.
I turn sharply to it with narrowed eyes. “I am the king’s betrothed!” I snap, and it blinks at me, uncomprehending. Betrothed is, after all, a human term.
Cyprien exhales a long breath. “Ezekiel, this is Lady Keira, the king’s consort.”
I do not like that word. I like it even less when Cyprien slaps my back and walks away to help the other fae as another dragon, this one black and iridescent, gets stuck within the arch of the portal.
The golden dragon, Ezekiel, stares at me for a long, unnerving moment, and I try to stay as still as possible. He sniffs me again, the intake of air into his nostrils so sharp I can fill the drag of the air pulling at me, then he makes a chuffing sound.
Lady Keira. You will ride into the battle seated on my back, as Aldrin does.
I open my mouth to protest, to ask a million questions. Is Aldrin truly bold enough to ride a dragon into war?
Ezekiel flaps his powerful wings, kicking up a torrent of air and dust, then he launches himself into the air, our conversation over. All I can do is gape at him, my stomach bottoming out.
I am crazy enough not to pass up the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of riding a dragon.