Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
ZANDYR
“ I t’s done. Soryn sends his regards.” The leather flaps of the command tent swept out of the way as Ryker strutted inside with a mightier scowl than usual and stopped at the other end of the strategy table.
A raised brow was my only reply.
Now I had to wait–and worry.
If I was right, the situation between me and Evie would become even more complicated.
I clenched my jaw.
This was not the time to doubt myself.
This was a time for war.
“Went on a little vacation, Commander?” Elysia's dulcet voice rang out.
The Viper was perched on the cabinet in the corner, like that damn cat of hers she loved to the point of danger. She kept denying she’d brought Lord Purrlock to the battlefield, but I’d heard the purrs coming from her tent during my nightly patrols through the Blood Brotherhood camp.
We had more sentries than I could count.
Calyx’s caltrops had been hidden all around the perimeter, waiting to spring from the ground and spike any enemy who dared come close.
There were enough protective runes around the camp to shield it for two full weeks. Most had been weaved by The Huntress and Calyx’s fiancee, of all people. The Blood Brotherhood did not deal in protective magic. That was the Protectorate’s mysterious domain, and we could only borrow, not create.
Yet, I patrolled.
Every.
Single.
Night.
“I asked Ryker for help with a special mission,” I said, only half-focused on the conversation.
My gaze didn’t leave the battle table, magicked to reveal the changing environment around us in real time.
The Obsidian River cleaved it in half. It flowed from the Crimson Dam, one of the oldest structures in all of Malhaven, magicked to withstand any destruction by human hands. Our camp was on the Southern riverbank, still green and lush. On the other, the valleys had been scorched by the Serpents. The villages had long been evacuated, those civilians now safe in the Capital or Frostfall Reach, the only truly impenetrable stronghold.
Beyond the dam were the Merciless Mountains, their sharp peaks concealed by clouds. We couldn’t pass them even if I sprouted dragon wings, like some rumors claimed I could. If only.
I stared daggers at the mountains, as if I could melt them out of existence. There had to be a way to cross them without endangering my troops.
We needed a surprise attack against our invaders, who somehow outnumbered us.
The Serpents were waiting for us in the valleys with traps, no doubt. Crossing the river was out of the question–my warriors were fierce, but the Obsidian River had taken more lives than the scribes could count. A few warriors at a time could survive the currents, but an entire army would be a perfect target trapped in the water.
Luckily, the Obsidian River was also keeping most of the Serpent soldiers at bay, even if their monsters could pass it.
“Still a vacation,” Elysia mumbled. “He’s finally got some color in those pale cheeks. Made a quick visit to the missus?”
“None of your business,” Ryker snapped.
“Miss her, do you?” Elysia asked oh-so-innocently.
“Keep the poison off your tongue and on the battlefield, Viper,” Ryker growled, but it lacked its usual ire. He’d definitely visited The Huntress if he was in such an exhausted mood.
Elysia huffed and jumped off the cabinet. “My poisons are not doing anything against those reptiles .”
“Come now, Elysia,” I drawled. “They’re snakes, you’re called The Viper. There should be some semblance of camaraderie.”
A shiver wracked her small frame. “No snake should ever grow big enough to swallow an entire carriage.”
And yet we’d all felt the ground shudder as those reptiles had slithered between the troops. We saw their jaws unhinge and swallow war wagons whole, horses and all.
Dark magic kept them barely controllable. But even the Serpent warriors avoided their own snakes like the plague.
Fear was good.
Fear was exploitable.
“I thought the Clan Council forbade the use of magicked creatures on the battlefield,” Elysia said.
“The Viper’s right.” Ryker folded his arms in front of his chest. “It’s cheating.”
“It is. You two can go tell those snakes their presence is illegal and that they should go home,” I said.
Elysia scrunched up her nose. “Calyx needs to get his ass back here and bomb the scales off them.”
“He’d love that.” Our Master of Arms would have, indeed, tried to bomb the snakes with those special mechanisms of his. But if Elysia’s poisons and our weapons didn’t work on the monsters, explosions wouldn’t either.
The arrows and spears we’d thrown their way had simply ricochet off their scales.
And Calyx needed to heal. The wound he’d sustained at Evie’s first wedding was still ravaging him, the unnamed poison boiling his veins.
He’d insisted on joining us days ago and I’d found him feverish and babbling after securing the camp’s perimeter. I had to wait until he passed out to send him back home to heal completely, knowing full well he would have worked until he’d died to protect us.
I’d nurse his ego later.
I wouldn’t let my friend die if I could prevent it. Especially not brought down by one festering wound. Calyx would never forgive the gods if he didn’t die a warrior. I cared more for his soul and life than his pride.
If the three of us failed and Soryn got discovered on his mission, Calyx was our last true defense. He was the only member of the Blood Brotherhood Elite who could lead the army.
For the good of the Blood Brotherhood, one of us had to remain standing.
“It’s not fair.” Elysia shook her head as she stared at the table. She saw the same minuscule replica of the fire and chaos the Serpents had left in their wake.
If their army crossed the river, we were doomed.
“What isn’t fair?” I muttered absentmindedly, impossible plan after impossible plan forming and vanishing in my mind.
The right answer pulsed against my temples, just out of reach, I could sense it.
I thought I’d gotten rid of the Serpents after I’d killed Edrion, one of their feared generals. He’d dared to ask for Evie in exchange for peace.
My power manifested itself and turned him into a burst of blood for the audacity of even suggesting that.
The Serpent army was now led by Kleonos, the Battlefield Butcher, freshly pardoned for the crimes against his own people. He’d been released from the famed Serpent prison in the depths of the earth only to be sicced on us.
Because giant snakes weren’t enough. Now we had to deal with a war criminal parading as a general.
We needed to push the Serpents past our borders one last time, hard enough that they would never dare slither into our lands again.
I would not shame my dynasty by failing .
“That Calyx can’t heal as fast as he used to,” Elysia said, bringing me back to the reality of the tent. The leather scent. My sword hanging above the altar. The sounds of warriors training.
“Find the antidote for the poison and he will,” Ryker said.
“You think I haven’t tried?” Elysia snapped.
An ugly silence pulsed through the tent. Elysia didn’t raise her voice. I righted myself as Ryker stared at her, surprise flickering in his stone eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“What’s wrong ?” Elysia’s voice reached the upper limit of piercing. “We’re in a Clan war that the Council refuses to acknowledge. The Serpents dared to attack us–”
“Zandyr killed their heir at the altar,” he said.
“–and they are much better prepared than we anticipated. Than they should have been,” she went on, full on pacing and waving her hands around so fast, her poison-filled rings clinked.
All of that was true.
The Serpents must have had help to attack us so fast and so viciously. Whoever had been so gracious had a death wish. Going against my Clan could only end in bloodshed.
“You think this will stop with the Serpents?” Elysia said. “Someone wants those Vegheara brats dead and we’re caught in the middle of it.”
My blood boiled, even as I kept my face impassive.
Nobody would touch Evie–or the rest of her cousins, if for no other reason than the fact that she loved them.
“Not even the Serpents have enough gold to fund this kind of scheme.” She huffed. “The Protectorate First Family is strong. That power they keep so secret is stronger.”
Ryker shook his head. “We keep our power secret as well.”
“Those who have it,” she bit out. “The gods didn’t yet deign to bless me like they have you two. Maybe if they had, I would have found the antidote for Calyx and a venom strong enough to stop those snakes.”
“Patience, Viper,” I said. “My power only came when the Serpents threatened everything the dynasties before me had fought so hard to build.”
And Evie. They’d dared to threaten Evie.
Elysia marched right up to me. The comical difference between our heights didn’t deter her in the slightest. “How can you be so calm? Our Clan is in danger. All the civilians will be at the Serpents’ mercy. They would be slaughtered. Our temples will be destroyed. Our way of life burned. Your wife will die .”
“You think I’m calm?” I turned to her, eerily slow. “Tell me, Elysia–”
Her dark gaze widened. I’d only used her true name to her face a handful of times, all of them tense.
“–what good would it do if I fretted alongside you?” I lowered my head, gaze not leaving hers. “If you could feel the rage inside of me when one of my warriors dies, would that make you sleep better at night? Make our army strike harder? Bring the supplies in faster or protect more civilians?”
Her nostrils flared. “No.”
“Then don’t assume.”
The stress was getting to all of us and the worst mistake I could make was to let it show. If I wavered, even for a moment, I would sow panic.
Right now, my army needed a formidable leader, not a human.
The Dragon, not Zandyr.
Elysia averted her gaze, but her jaw was still clenched.
Our beloved Viper used her poisons from a safe distance. She planned, she bided her time, and struck when the time was right, always removed from the chaos. She was deadly and efficient. Out of her lab, on a battlefield where lethal surprises surrounded us at every step, was not the environment she shined in.
She’d known that, but she’d still come to fight.
“The Calling comes when you least expect it,” I muttered. “And you will be so powerful, Viper.”
She huffed a sad laugh.
“You will,” I insisted. “Make sure you don’t take down the mountain during the ritual. It managed to survive for so long, it would be a shame for it to crumble now.”
She shook her head, some of the shadows in her gaze abating. Good. The Blood Brotherhood Elite couldn’t waver on the battlefield, either. Our warriors needed us strong.
What happened away from curious eyes was only for our ears.
“Finding that Protectorate bastard you were paired off with might help,” Ryker said.
Elysia’s eyes widened comically. “Unless I get a mission to rid Malhaven of his debauched ways, I see no reason to do so.”
“If The Dragon got his power after he met his Protectorate match…” Ryker shrugged. “It might quicken The Calling for you, too.”
“Or it might be my undoing.” She scrunched up her small nose. “I’d rather go after one of those snakes.”
“Fantastic.” I stretched my open palm toward Ryker. “Did you bring it?”
Without hesitating, he handed me a leather bound book, thin as the vein pulsing on his forehead right now. The thick, crusty skin on the cover was raised at the edges, parched with time. Centuries had passed since creatures with such scales had roamed the continent. No matter how fearsome these Serpent monsters were, their ancestors had been worse. “If anybody knows how to defeat huge reptiles, it’s the survivors of the Cold Blooded War.”
“ Were there survivors?” Elysia asked hesitantly.
“Someone must’ve written this book.”
I thumbed the scales. The enchantment on these pages was so strong, it thrummed through the cover. I nodded to Ryker as a thank you. For trekking all the way to Soryn, even with his ungodly speed. For this book. For everything else he’d done on his mission.
Ryker nodded back. “Soryn vouches for the information inside. Said he almost got his liver stolen for it.”
“Let’s hope that’s a good omen for finding these reptiles’ soft spots. See where you can stick your poisons in them, Viper.” I handed the book to Elysia, who took it greedily in her small hands, smiling like a cat that finally caught its prey.
She giggled. “Hopefully right between their beady–”
A great big wail rattled the tent.
The perimeter had been breached.
My ancestral sword, which had been hanging behind me from the traditional bone arch, glided into my outstretched palm. I was out of the tent before the first alarm had finished blaring, Ryker and Elysia to my right and left.
The sight in the distance chilled me to the bone.
Right next to the perimeter fence, two great snakes twisted high into the air, gaping jaws unclenched. The biggest of them thudded on the ground, hard enough to shake the entire camp.
“How the fuck did they get this close?” Ryker growled.
“Treason,” I uttered the word which struck the fear of old gods into the members of the Blood Brotherhood.
Our Clan–our army –should have been impervious to betrayal.
If one of my own had betrayed us to the Serpents, who knew what fresh horrors had taken root back in the Capital and Phoenix Peak.
Where Evie was.
Rage coursed through me.
“Dragon,” a gruff, amused voice which had been magicked to boom shook the camp. “I came here to parley, not to battle. Let’s settle this without bloodshed.”