Chapter 2 #4
“I suspect gathering that sort of information will be easier said than done.”
“Aye, Commander, but it’s still worth contemplating. The Mareritt must know where they live, given they’ve obviously been trading with them, so maybe we need to deploy a special task force to find out.”
“I doubt it’s something regular Mareritten soldiers would know.”
“I agree, but their masters of trade surely would.”
“Snaring a master of trade means sneaking into K’Anor, and given they’re now on a war footing, that won’t be easy.” Hell, it wouldn’t have been an easy task even before they’d sharpened their defenses.
“But worth at least assigning a couple of tacticians to explore our options.”
“It definitely can’t hurt to do that.” I paused. “Which reminds me, can you ask Harris if he’s familiar with a ship’s flag that’s blue and white with a yellow sun in the middle? We saw it docked at K’Anor when we did that flyover, and it’s not one I’m familiar with.”
“Nor I,” he said with a frown. “You’re thinking they could come from the same region as our riders?”
“We can’t discount the possibility, given the Mareritt have obviously been trading with the riders for quite some time.”
“I’ll send a missive to Harris immediately.”
“Brilliant—thanks.” I half turned, then stopped. “Has Kele reported back yet?”
He nodded. “She’s resting up, as ordered. Communications with outpost five are now up and running.”
“Excellent. Inform Kele we head out at dawn.”
“At once,” he said, then added, “Anything else?”
A question that made me think there should be something else.
Paranoia, perhaps, but in truth, leading a kingdom was far different to leading a scouting squad, and it certainly wasn’t something I’d ever been trained for.
I’d grown up knowing I’d be raising future Zephrine kings rather than leading Esan.
“Nothing I can immediately think of. Call me if anything happens.”
He nodded again, and I left, winding my way through the various desks and then taking the stairs two at a time. At the top, I turned right, heading toward my suite, a shivery mix of anticipation and fear rolling through me, when a sharp voice said, “Bryn Silva, we need to talk.”
I felt like snapping, It’s now Queen Bryn Silva, thank you very much , but restrained the urge, well aware it came more from the prospect of yet another delay than any true annoyance at the woman behind the demand.
I turned and smiled, though the latter felt as fake as it probably looked.
The Prioress—a tall woman with weather-worn features, short silvery hair, and sharp green eyes that glimmered with bloody starlight—strode toward me, looking very much like a strict schoolmarm rather than one of the most powerful blood witches in Arleeon.
From the little I’d gathered from both Damon’s comments and hers, she’d been the one who’d trained him in the craft.
She and three of her fellow witches had come from Angola—the largest of the floating islands in the Black Claw Sea near Zephrine—at his behest to help perform the blood ceremonies that were binding fire witches to drakkon.
More were now coming, but it was a long journey from their island to Esan.
“What can I do for you, Prioress?” If she had a real name, I didn’t know it. Even Damon called her the Prioress, though Angola itself was a place of teaching, not religion.
“You could organize warmer weather, but that is by the by. Thought you’d like to know that your father-in-law and his entourage have arrived.”
“Yes, I was infor?—”
“Were you also informed that they have an enforcer with them?”
I blinked. “What the hell is an enforcer?”
“Think Gayl, but several times more powerful. She can read minds and force obedience.”
Alarm ran through me. Jarin appeared to be free of any outward influence, but that didn’t mean others in that room—or indeed, anyone else they had met since arriving—was.
“And has she already tried to do that?”
“Oh, I dare say she would have employed her skills on your commanders had I not been in the room.”
Relief stirred, though there was no guarantee she hadn’t influenced regular soldiers on the way in. “You can counter her with magic?”
“Indeed, I can, but in all honesty, it would be easier to render her permanently unconscious. It takes any problem she might cause going forward off the table.” She half shrugged.
“What Aric can’t gain by subterfuge, he’ll take by mental force.
It has always been so, which is why my presence here has vexed him greatly. ”
“And you didn’t knock this woman out because?—”
“She gave me no reason.”
“I think that in this case, any action you took would surely be considered ‘protective.’”
“Perhaps, but I am the Prioress, and I must act in full accordance with our rules, even if I might wish otherwise.”
“And is this woman the reason Damon went missing?” I asked sharply.
Her answering chuckle held a decidedly wicked edge. “Luckily for us all, Damon is of the Zephrine bloodline, and therefore immune to her ‘wiles.’ You, however, are not. Do you still wear the bracelet he gave you?”
“Yes—”
“Good. If it burns, then she is in your mind. Or attempting to be. Good luck.”
With that, she turned and marched away.
I blinked. “Wait?—”
“No time,” she snapped. “We have new drakkons to be ready for, remember.”
I swore softly and ran after her, lightly grabbing her arm to stop her. She turned and, with surprising strength, peeled my fingers away. “Do not?—”
“What of the guards at the door?” I said softly. Urgently. “Are they free of her influence?”
She glanced past me for a second. “I do not feel her presence in any of those who stand on this level. It is likely they wait until they have you under their control.”
With that, she continued on. I stood there, staring after her for several seconds, then shook my head and turned, making my way back across to my end of this floor.
There were a total of fourteen Esan guards in the corridor between my suite and the thermae at the far end of the hall.
Two of our guards stood on either side of my suite’s door, staring fixedly at the six Zephrine soldiers who lined the wooden balustrade on the other side.
Three Esan guards stood to the left and right of this line.
It would have been funny had it not been for the tension so evident in the air.
All the soldiers straightened and saluted as I approached.
I crisply replied, then hesitated despite the desperate need to see my husband beating through my veins, and glanced at the guard standing on the left side of my door.
Lenny was a bull of a man with thick brown hair tied up in a tail at the back of his head and dark green eyes.
He’d been my parents’ door guard for as long as I could remember, and was now mine.
“How did Rodkin fair with his first taste of battle, Lenny?”
Rodkin was his oldest son and a raw recruit who wouldn’t have seen any true action on the wall, as all first- and second-year enrollees were sent to the weapon stores to help with the restocking of quivers and the provision of swords or spears as needed, or assigned to other tasks such as carrying the injured and the dead to the healers or morgues once they were stretchered off the wall.
The most recent battle would have been a truly brutal introduction to the realities of war for all of them.
“Ah, he was frightened, as you’d expect, and overwhelmed by the sight and sounds of death, but he did his job, and that’s all a man can ask.”
“It’s all any commander can ask,” I commented. “Sounds like he’s going to be a worthy soldier, Lenny.”
“I’ll tell him that, Lady— Queen —Bryn. He’ll appreciate it.”
He opened the door for me, then stepped aside so I could enter.
My hesitation was brief but nevertheless there, and my heart raced so hard in my chest that it actually hurt.
Which was yet further confirmation of just how far—how hard —I’d fallen for the man I’d married, despite all of my best intentions.
I forced myself through the doorway, my gaze sweeping the room as the door was closed behind me. The bubble of magic was still active, which surprised me, but it was the group of four people lounging in the seating area that caught my attention.
One was Aric—a tall, ruggedly handsome man in his mid-years with dark skin, blue eyes, and bald head—obviously, and with him was a woman who was indeed a younger version of Gayl, and a stout, dark-skinned man I’d never seen before but who exuded an odd energy and a sense of danger.
Then there was Damon.
And he... well, he was divine.
In the warm light being cast by standing light tubes, a faint shadow of dark hair ghosting his usually closely shaven head.
His new-looking leather jacket was undone, and though his undershirt was tightly laced, I knew the body underneath well enough, had played my fingers across his muscular chest and stomach, and followed the happy trail of hair with touch and tongue down his stomach to his impressive crotch multiple times.
I really, really , wanted nothing more than to get rid of our audience and do exactly that right now.
My gaze skimmed upwards to the sharp but pleasing lines of his face, and met the glorious blue of his eyes...
Only to discover a stranger.