Chapter 55 Trew #2
Until Kira caught my eye and strode toward us, her red hair a slash of color against her dark tunic. Her death adder coiled around her forearm, her blood-red scales drinking in the light, head raised to taste the air.
Kira’s gaze locked on my hand linked with Isi’s, and a muscle in her jaw jumped.
“If you have a moment, Your Majesty,” she said, her voice as tight as strung wire. “It’s quite urgent.” Her eyes darted between Isi and me, and I saw the exact moment she realized what had changed, that Isi wasn’t just a warrior I was toying with. That this woman at my side wasn’t going anywhere.
“Speak,” I said.
“This is sensitive information.” Her face florid, Kira could barely contain her jealousy. She pointedly ignored Isi, as if by refusing to acknowledge her, she could will her away.
“I told you to speak.” The tone of my voice left no room for argument. I slid my arm around Isi’s waist, pulling her flush against my side in a clear, public claim.
The look Kira gave me could’ve severed my head from my shoulders. Cold, venomous rage spiked through her eyes.
I did not care. Let her see exactly where my loyalties lay. Her, and the rest of my court as well.
For a long second, she just stared, her face a mask of disbelief and rage. Finally, she seemed to remember her duty. She forced the words out, each one churning with resentment. “Scouts report Skathes massing at the edge of the wasteland. They’re moving toward Silverstream.”
A border village full of families, farmers, and merchants.
Like at the ball, the quiet peace of the day shattered.
I released Isi, the king taking over, the warrior rising to the surface. “How many?”
“Hundreds,” Kira spat. “More than we’ve seen in one place.”
Fuck. “How long until they reach the village?”
“At their current pace, by morning. I tried to find you earlier, naturally, but you didn’t tell anyone where you’d gone.”
Anyone meaning her.
A king could never truly leave his duties behind, could he?
There was no time for planning or strategy. Only time for blood and battle.
“I have to go,” I told Isi, facing her. Her eyes had gone wide, the fire in them mixed with fear for me and my people.
Her chin lifted. “I’m coming with you.”
“No.” The word was an iron command. “You’re not.”
“I can fight, Trew. I want to fight. For the love of all the fates, I will not let you go to a slaughter alone.”
I cupped her face, sliding my thumb across her jaw. The thought of her being hurt made my blood freeze. “It’s a tide of teeth and hunger. I can’t bear to lose you.”
“And the trials weren’t dangerous? Almost half the recruits died.”
“It’s not the same thing.”
“We’re being trained to fight the Skathes. Let us do our jobs.”
“I can’t. Don’t you see?”
“So you’ll go alone?”
“With a full force,” Kira said with a sharp twist of her mouth. “He’s not fighting them all by himself.”
Isi’s hands covered mine, her grip fierce. “They’re my people, too. The children I saw today, those living in every village scattered across this court. All of them. I will not hide in a castle while you fight for us.”
The raw courage in her eyes nearly broke me. It was the same fire that had drawn me to her from the very start, when she stood on that platform, delicately trying to defy her father.
But that same fire would get her killed.
Kira shifted, a smug witness to our conflict.
“I need to know you’re safe here,” I said, my voice dropping lower, going more intense. I leaned in, resting my forehead against hers, desperate to make her understand. “Please. I can’t bear for you to be in danger.”
“I don’t—”
I kissed her hard, a promise pressed against her lips. It was a kiss that said I will come back to you. A kiss that said live.
“Guard the kingdom,” I whispered against her mouth.
She clung to me, her fingers digging into my arms. “If you don’t come back to me, Trewyn, I will follow you into the next life and drag you back myself.”
A fierce, brutal grin tore across my face. “I’m counting on it, Minx.”
I let her go. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done. But I’d rather die protecting her than live in a world where she wasn’t safe.
Turning away from her was like tearing my soul in half.
“You’re with me, Kira,” I barked.
Duty snapped her to attention. She shot Isi a sneer before spinning on her heel and striding down the hall beside me while I willed myself to focus on this task.
“Has the village been cleared?” I asked.
“Of all but those who want to fight.”
“Good. We ride as soon as possible. I want two full battalions with us and two more as backup. See to it and meet me in the valley below the aerie. Now.”
She bowed and rushed down a second corridor, already shouting orders that echoed through the castle.
I sprinted back toward the back of the castle, every step carrying me further from Isi. I didn’t dare look back. If I saw her watching, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to leave.
The cool night air hit me with a slap as I burst from the castle. The path to the aerie blurred under my feet. My mind stormed with logistics and fear. Silverstream. Skathes massing on the border. And Isi, alone with a crown she wasn’t ready to wear.
Inside the aerie, the familiar scent of beasts and scorched sand filled my lungs. Helena and two other stable workers met me in the hall, their faces grim. They’d already heard the summons.
“I’ll take Lakast,” I said, aiming for the weapons room.
They hurried to the tack room to gather his battle armor.
I kicked the door to the weapons room shut and shucked my regular leathers, grabbing those reinforced for battle from the closet.
Made of viscalar hide, they were black and scarred, but they’d been molded to my body through many skirmishes.
Each strap I buckled, each plate I cinched into place, reinforced my responsibility to my people.
Strapping a sword to my spine, I cinched it snug.
I slid multiple throwing knives into the sheaths on my thighs and arms, and secured longer blades to my waist. I’d battle with magic as well, but the easiest and least tiring way to kill Skathes was to hack off their heads.
Then they dropped to the ground and dissolved into ashes.
I wasn’t only arming for battle. I was girding myself to survive, because for the first time in a very long time, I had someone to come home to.
I strode down the hall and entered Lakast’s stall. Helena and the others almost had him ready, having secured his saddle, eye, belly, and throat protection.
Lakast was a flying mountain of liquid gold, bigger than Kyreth and broader in the chest than his mate.
He swung his head toward me, his eyes locking on mine.
A low rumble vibrated through his chest, a promise of devastation for our enemies.
He could feel the urgency, the rage, and the fear for what we must do.
“Thank you.” I patted Helena’s shoulder, nodding to the others who’d helped.
“Fly true and return safely, Your Majesty,” she said, the others murmuring the same.
When I tapped his left forearm, Lakast dropped to the sand, and I climbed up, settling in the saddle.
Helena and the others backed against the wall as Lakast scrambled toward the opening to the valley at my command. He burst out, his wings snapping free.
As he drifted higher, I looked back toward the castle.
Somewhere in those stone walls, Isi was waiting. Worrying.
Tipping his head back, Lakast released a growl that ended with a blast of flames into the sky.
“Feeling frisky, are you?” I called out, leaning forward to pat the side of his neck. “Hold that eagerness for the Skathes, little one.”
He was no longer little, but that had been his nickname since he’d hatched from his egg into my hands and looked up at me and released a squeak. I’d raised him myself, feeding him treats and showing him how gentle I could be. He’d rewarded me with his loyalty, his strength, and all of his heart.
Gavelle cried out from my right and soared over to land on my shoulder.
“In for the battle, are you?” I asked.
As if I’d be anywhere else? he pretty much said with one look.
Kira and my officers flew from the aerie on dragonback, fully armed, their faces set in stone. The jealousy had fled Kira’s eyes, leaving only the cold, sharp focus of a warrior. We were a unit now, a single blade aimed at the heart of the threat.
The rest of my army joined us from other aeries and followed, a formation of shadows and scaled fury streaking south across the night sky.
The flight was a blur of roaring wind and cold adrenaline. The world below, a quilt of forest, plains, and villages. Through the night, I went through battle plans, calculating angles of attack and where I’d position both those on the ground and those fighting from dragonback.
I pushed the image of Isi’s face from my mind, locking it in a box in my heart. I couldn’t afford the distraction. I couldn’t afford the pain.
We flew all night. As dawn crested the horizon, Silverstream finally loomed ahead. I was grateful not to see smoke.
Though the village held almost two hundred people, it looked fragile and small from above. I swept my gaze past the settlement to the long stretch of plain beyond, bordering the encroaching wasteland.
And my blood turned solid.
Gavelle released a low, mournful cry.
We would face a flood. A living, breathing ocean of nightmares pouring out from the corrupted lands.
They lumbered slowly, though they’d pick up speed when they smelled prey.
They were a tide of mindless hunger that swallowed every bit of ground they crossed.
Hundreds of them, a mass of death that stretched further than I liked.
Even at this height, I could hear their low, guttural chittering.
They were hungry, but at least we’d had warning and had evacuated the village.
It was hard to strategize what you’d do against a tidal wave. You could only hope to survive.
Those who’d chosen to stay stood outside their homes, fully armed and with rage burning across their souls.
At my command, Lakast banked hard and flew above the village to the cheers of my people.
We’d wipe every single one of them out, and I could only pray that most of my army and the villagers would make it through what was coming.
We’d do the same at the next village they attacked. The one after that.
We were a few cups of water against a raging fire, but we would never stop.
Not until every single one of them and whoever controlled them was dead.