Chapter 7 #4
He still hadn’t moved from the bed, though he was at least sitting up. “Be careful flying out there this morning, Bryn. The fact that they allowed the watch tower at Crooked Thumb to see their movements before closing the peak down with fog really does suggest a trap to me.”
“Probably, but it’s one we’re nevertheless going to have to spring.” I scooped some pottage—a thick, honey sweetened soup made from various grains boiled in milk—into a bowl. “I hope you’re not expecting me to deliver breakfast in bed.”
“I believe that was delivered last night, and quite brilliantly I might add.”
I picked up a piece of fruit and tossed it at him.
He caught it with a laugh and bit into it.
“I know Garran’s asked the air witches to arrange the mother of all storms to hit the peaks, but it still might be better if you do a long loop around them and come in from Mareritten’s side of the continent rather than Esan.
You’ve more hope of catching them unaware. ”
“I was planning to. But speaking of being careful—” I rose and walked over to where my packs were hanging and dug out one of the trackers. “You’d best take this tracker with you, just in case you get stuck in the wall and I need to rescue you.”
He caught the tracker as easily as the fruit and placed it on the pillow beside him. “I’m not going to get stuck, because I’ll have an earth mage with me, remember?”
“Yes, but I have this cozy connection with trouble, and after last night, it may well have rubbed off on you.” I returned to the table to finish my pottage. “I’ll fly easier knowing you can be found if something happens under that mountain.”
“Presuming the area we’re in isn’t too deep for the signal,” he replied dryly.
“Partial cover is better than none.” I drained my shamoke, picked up a couple of pastries, then walked over to my packs and weapons. “I will see you this evening, husband.”
“What, no loving kiss goodbye? I am bereft.”
“You and I both know a loving kiss will lead to deeper explorations that we do not have the time for this morning.”
No, do not came Kaia’s comment. Must fly. Wind calls.
Have you hunted yet?
Will. Gria hungry.
Gria is always hungry.
Trait you share.
I laughed out loud, earning a raised eyebrow from Damon. “I take it Kaia is awake and commenting again?”
“She’s equating how hungry Gria is with how hungry I always am.”
He grinned. “Well, she’s not wrong.”
Am queen , she said. Queens always right.
Even when they’re wrong.
Is true.
I shook my head in amusement, slung the last pack over my shoulder, then blew Damon a kiss and headed out the door.
The frantic activity that had filled the war room only hours earlier had calmed to a soft murmur, but I nevertheless headed in to get a report.
Neither Garran nor Jarin were present, which at least suggested the attack at the wall had not escalated.
Neera glanced around, surprise flickering briefly through her expression. “Commander Bryn, what can I do for you?”
“Just after an update before we fly out.”
She motioned to the troop movement board in front of her. “Nothing has really changed. The Mareritt continue to attack the wall in a halfhearted manner, and there’s been no sighting of the gilded riders.”
“And the trebuchets?”
“In position but haven’t yet been brought in to the attack.”
“It really sounds as if they’re waiting for something or someone.” Likely whoever or whatever was hidden under the fog bleeding down from the Ghost Forest. “And the scout teams?”
“Ona’s team is tracking the movement of the fog, and Luka’s is skirting around the Black Glass foothills in an effort to get behind the Mareritt’s current position without being seen.”
The latter was not without its dangers, given the unstable nature of that part of the mountains had led to not only multiple earth slips but also ground that could sometimes drop from underneath you without warning. Another reason we’d rarely ridden in a single file formation.
“There has been some evidence of ground alterations,” she added. “We believe the Mareritten mages might be creating earth shelters for their soldiers.”
No doubt in the hope it would protect them from the worst of the drakkon fire—and it probably would, unless the drakkons attacked the entrances and flung fire deep within. Then the shelters would become their tombs.
“Any word yet from Hopetown on Reydia?”
“There’s been no response. Hopetown has redirected a trading vessel and hopes to have a report within the next couple of hours. I have emphasized the urgency of the matter.”
“Ask Jarin to chase it up if you’ve received no missive by noon. Reydia’s within flying and sailing distance of Ezu and Hopetown, and troop ships could dock far easier there than any of the much smaller Jakarran ports.”
“If Reydia was overrun, surely we would have heard reports about it by now. It is a major trade port.”
“Maybe they’re not overrun. Maybe something else is going on.” I shrugged. “As Jarin said earlier, it’s not as if the riders are playing by any known rules.”
“Commander Neera,” one of the women manning the local scribe tablets said, “message coming in from the barracks commander.”
“I’ll let you get that,” I said. “Thanks for the update, Commander.”
I returned her salute, then headed out of the war room and the palace.
Thunder rumbled into the pre-dawn darkness, and the peaks that loomed high above Esan were shrouded in long cloaks of gray and the occasional flash of lightning.
It was going to be very unpleasant to fly through.
Thankfully, the storm hadn’t reached this far down the mountain yet, but the air still danced with drizzle, and it was bitterly cold.
I hastily did up my jacket and tugged on my hood, shivering a little as I made my way across the wet and glistening cobblestones to the side entry gate.
The guards saluted and opened it; the whole team waited on the other side.
Kele, I couldn’t help but note, was practically bouncing with excitement.
Our three newest recruits—Rayka and Beth, kin to Aarvi and Cansu, who were rare egg sisters, and Jassy, who was kin to Taitia, our third burnished gold drakkon and the only one who’d come from Kaia’s original aerie—immediately snapped to attention and saluted.
I smiled. “We don’t stand on formalities here, ladies.”
“No, but when the Queen or Commander Bryn gives an order,” Hannity said, “it’s best you obey it to the letter . I almost lost Rua because we didn’t, and trust me, you do not want to go through that hell.”
I glanced at her. Like Rua, she had definitely lost weight after the blood heat caused by the bonding ceremony had ravaged both their bodies, and maybe it was foolish to be pushing them into action this soon….
Not came Kaia’s thought. Is strong. Need fly.
“Indeed,” I said, in response to Hannity’s statement rather than Kaia’s. “And had we not been so short on experienced flyers for today’s mission, neither Hannity nor Rua would be on assignment today.”
“What is today’s mission, Commander?” Miri asked. She was kin to Lura, one of our younger reds.
“Let’s get to the aerie first. Halka, take the lead.”
Halka—kin to Kiko, another red—immediately did so. The others fell in behind her, with Hannity in front of me and Kele behind.
As we began the long climb up the mountain, I glanced over my shoulder and said, “Okay, my friend, whatever it is you’re holding back, spit it out.”
“What make you think I have something to tell you?”
“Because I know you too well, and you had this ‘oh, do I have some juicy gossip for you’ expression happening when I walked through the gate.”
Kele laughed. “Oh, I surely do. Guess what happened last night?”
“A company of King Aric’s men were confined to their military barracks.”
“No. I mean, yes, but it’s better than that.”
“What could be better than that?”
The path steepened, but we kept up a good pace. We’d made this journey so often now that my muscles no longer ached at the mere thought of the arduous climb that still lay ahead.
“Wills asked me to marry him.”
I stopped so abruptly, she almost ran into me. “What?”
“I know, right?”
“And what did you say?”
“I think ‘say’ is the wrong word to use,” came Hannity’s dry remark. “Because she didn’t merely say, she screamed. In joy, we all presume, rather than horror, given what happened later.”
“I did not scream,” Kele retorted.
“Yeah, you did,” Beth commented from farther up the line. “We’re three bunkhouses away from yours, and we heard you. Then and after.”
“It’ll be a miracle if we don’t all fall asleep on our drakkons today,” Hannity added with a half laugh.
I grinned. “I take it, then, that you said yes?”
“To the contrary, I said I’ll consider it.”
“What?” I repeated. “Are you insane?”
“The common consensus amongst the rest of us is yes, she is,” Hannity remarked again.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Kele said, “I do love the man, but there is Bree to consider.”
I turned and continued on. “You’ve spent the last five years bitching about the lack of a marriage proposal coming from either of them, and now, when you get one, you’re on the fence about it?”
“Insane, as you duly noted, Commander,” Hannity said cheerfully.
Kele laughed. “Maybe, but it hit me when he proposed that I really do love them both, and I don’t think I can actually choose between one or the other.”
“Then don’t. Live with them both.”
“In the barracks? That’ll go down well.”
“If last night’s noise is anything to go by, it definitely will not ,” Beth commented.
“In the married quarters,” I said. “That’s what they’re meant for. They have better soundproofing, for a start.”
“Will they allow the three of us to share, do you think?”
I glanced over my shoulder at her. “Are you seriously saying that, after all our soulful conversations over a jug or three of mead, you never ever considered the possibility? I do believe I mentioned it at least once or twice.”