Chapter 7 #2
We’d handed them several packs stuffed with the bits and pieces of armor we’d retrieved from the Mareritten dead at Hopetown well over a week ago now, and while I was aware it could take some time to develop such a weapon, time was the one thing we were running short on.
“They’re currently working with alchemists on recreating a version of the acid using the sample we have and adding a liquid fire accelerant to increase volume and flammability,” Jarin said. “They hope to have something workable within the next day or so.”
“Because making an unstable liquid even more unstable doesn’t sound dangerous at all ,” I said wryly.
Garran cast me a brief but amused glance. “Where’d they get the acid sample from?”
“We pilfered it from a supply station up near the Beak before we destroyed it,” Damon said.
“But wouldn’t the riders’ armor be immune to the acid? There’d have to be instances where they’re forced to fly through its backwash.”
“A backwash is very different to a concentrated spray,” I commented. “It’s like us with the backwash of drakkon fire—we feel it, but it doesn’t affect us.”
It may well affect our coats and clothes, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
Garran grunted, though whether that meant he agreed it was the same sort of thing, I couldn’t say.
“Is it possible to capture and question one of the riders?” Neera asked. “About where the riders come from, I mean.”
“We have,” I said. “That’s how we know they come from the northeast.”
“Yes, but your methods were no doubt a lot cruder than what we could employ here,” she said. “A mind cipher could pluck details from a prisoner no matter how uncooperative he otherwise is, simply by being in his mind when questions were asked.”
“Mind ciphering is dangerous,” Garran commented.
“Any magic that allows one mind to slip into another is dangerous,” I said. “There are more than a few tales of animal stregas becoming forever mind lost and broken by going too deep.”
“Which is why all ciphers have an empiric on hand to ensure safe retrieval if things go wrong,” Neera said.
Empiric basically being a fancy name for a man or woman magically connected to the cipher who could pull him out if his mind became too enmeshed with that of his subject.
“What are the chances of you getting a rider alive?” Garran asked me.
“Zero to none. Drakkons don’t believe in captives.”
Can’t hurt if dead , Kaia commented.
“A point I really can’t argue with, given what they’ve gone through. But if the option arises, do try.”
Or not , Kaia said.
“Which brings us back to the rodent run,” Garran continued. “Have we a scouting team free to accompany our mage and Damon?”
“Kerryn’s group,” Jarin said. “They’ve worked with the prince?—”
“I’m no prince. Just call me Damon.”
“—before and are familiar with his magic and methods,” Jarin finished with a smile.
“Have them advised they will be moving out on foot in the morning.” Garran switched his gaze to me. “Can you leave the aerie without being spotted by either the Mareritt or the riders?”
“By the Mareritt, yes, but the riders have a watch station set up here”—I leaned forward and pointed to an area beyond the Beak—“and if it’s not fog bound, they will report our presence, given it’s rather hard to conceal six large drakkons.”
“Six?” Garran frowned. “I thought there were eight?”
“There are, but I’ll order Miri and Halka to remain here and do a sweep across the peaks in the morning, as usual. Hopefully that’ll stop the Mareritt thinking anything is out of the ordinary.”
“Can drakkons fly in foul weather?”
“Yes but?—”
“Jarin,” he said, “contact the air mages. Tell them I want the mother of all storms sitting on those peaks by dawn.”
“Thanks in advance, cousin, for making the morning flight an absolutely miserable one.”
“Better miserable than dead.” He motioned to the two of us. “Go get some rest. You both head out at dawn.”
“Can you send a message to Kele?” I asked. “Get her to roust the team for a pre-dawn journey up the mountain.”
Garran glanced at Neera, who immediately walked over to the nearest scribe tablet to send the message to the barrack commander. “Now, as I said, go rest.”
I saluted crisply, grinned at his pained expression, then turned and followed Damon from the room.
Once we were through the mess of people and desks, Damon caught my hand to pull me closer, then wrapped an arm around my waist as we walked up the stairs.
“You still stink,” I said, amused.
“I plan a bath.”
“I’m pleased. Breakfast cannot be had until all utensils are clean.”
He laughed and we continued on to our room.
Once Janis had resumed her position in the corridor, Damon continued on to the bathing area while I unstrapped my knife and took a moment to admire my husband.
His every movement was filled with grace and understated power, and it struck me then that his brother, for all that they looked almost identical, hadn’t moved with the same sort of litheness.
“When did you become your brother’s double?” I asked curiously. “Was it something that happened over time, or was there a reason?”
He half shrugged. “A bit of both, but I stepped fully into his military shoes when I was twenty-two. Damon was seriously injured in a scouting mission that went wrong, and our father decided he could not risk losing his eldest son to the Mareritt.”
“But he has Tayte?—”
Hot water spluttered into the tub, somewhat smothering his contemptuous snort. “Tayte is a ninnyhammer. We should both be very thankful he went out of his way to avoid marrying you.”
I hung up my knife harness, then moved over to the scribe to order our breakfast to be delivered in a couple of hours. “Did your father force you into replacing your brother?”
“Initially, no, because he used the bait of moving my mother and sisters into palace quarters?—”
“Where were they initially?”
“Servant quarters.” He grimaced. “But he and my mother also had an ‘arrangement’—she would share his bed whenever he desired, and he would provide the appropriate training for me and whatever children she bred of him.”
“Did he do that for all his lovers?”
“No.”
Did that mean he had, in his own strange way, cared for Damon’s mother? I couldn’t imagine it, given what I knew of the man, but there had to be something there for him to treat her illegitimate children differently to all the others.
I placed the quill pen back in its holder, then walked across to the bathing area. “So, it was your mother he came to think had spelled him, rather than his wife?”
“If he had believed that of my mother, he would have had her killed and my sisters would not have been born. His wife—Lara—was a gifted reader and could often change someone’s opinion simply by understanding the thought processes behind them.
I believe my father came to believe it was a manipulative magic, and, thanks to the cooling of the trade relationship between her people and Zephrine, concluded he had been coerced into the marriage.
” He grimaced. “He wasn’t, of course, because that was not part of her skill set.
She was a kind soul who did not deserve his scorn or his hatred. ”
“Does that mean theirs was an arranged marriage?”
“Only in the sense that it was part of the price paid for the trade deal he was seeking.”
“So, just like our marriage, he was after the trade benefits that came with the woman, not the woman herself.”
“And bedded her out of duty, not emotion.” His wicked smile flashed and did evil things to my pulse rate. “Not a problem our marriage faces, that is for certain.”
No, even though I had, for the longest time, feared that might be the case. As Damon had said, thank Vahree Tayte was a ninnyhammer and Aric had come to the bargaining table intent on his plots and schemes.
I skirted around the bath and continued on to the hole Makki had made in the wall.
It sat in the shadows at the base of the shelving holding the towels, soapweeds, and other bathing paraphernalia, and was little more than a foot-square crawl space.
I had to wonder how either man had squeezed through it without me hearing, given most men’s shoulders tended to be at least sixteen inches wide, and both Makki and Prince Damon had a good few inches on that.
But then, I hadn’t heard the stone being remodeled, either, so maybe whatever they’d put in the shamoke had been strong enough to hold me in sleep for at least a couple of hours.
Thank Vahree I hadn’t consumed it all, or he would have forced himself on my unwaking body.
Not , Kaia said. Would have burned.
I blinked. Meaning you can force my flames to life?
Share what see, why not flames?
Why not, indeed. And at least if Aric or Prince Damon did decide to retaliate in some manner, I would be protected, unconscious or not.
While I didn’t think they would do anything now that their plans had been fully revealed, it never paid to underestimate the enemy.
Still, with Aric being sent home in the morning, that was one less problem we had to worry about for now.
I dropped onto my stomach and cast a small ball of fire into the hole. A rodent squeaked indignantly and skittered away to my left, but there was no other indication of life between the two walls.
“This is a somewhat ominous sign,” Damon drawled. “I take it you have no immediate plans to share my bath?”
“Oh, I most certainly do, but with that coat of grime you’re wearing, it’ll take a good ten minutes or so for you to reach a satisfactorily eatable state.
” I scooted forward a little and warily stuck my head through the gap.
“Ten minutes should give me enough time to satiate one desire so I can spend more time on the others.”
“This is going to be a pattern in our marriage, isn’t it?”
I glanced at him. “What is?”
“You chasing after curiosity rather than desire.”
I laughed. “There is plenty of time for desire yet. Dawn’s fingers won’t creep across the sky for at least another couple of hours.”