Chapter 56 Isi #2
“The king’s force took the primary mounts,” Helena said, studying the group massing in the hallway. “But there are two other aeries on the eastern ridge, dragons for the scouts and reserves. One of us can take the rest of your group and help them mount.”
“Thank you.”
She gave me a nod.
“Divide up,” I called out. “Lexie, take a two-thirds of the fighters and follow Helena.”
“I, um,” Lexie patted Levar, her badger companion sitting on her shoulder. “He’ll shift.”
That was right. Levar’s beast form was a dragon.
I leaned close to her, lowering my voice. “Is he comfortable riding into battle?”
“He can’t wait.”
Levar chirped, his whiskers twitching.
“Derren can ride with me,” she added.
Helena directed the rest of the group to the other aeries.
“Kerralyn?” I said. “You’re with me. We’ll take mounts from here.”
I grabbed a saddle and strode to Kyreth’s stall. Helena walked beside me, quickly telling me how to control Kyreth once I’d mounted her back.
Even the dragon must sense my need, because she lowered her head, a soft chuff vibrating through her chest.
Helena helped me saddle the dragon and secure the straps snugly beneath her belly.
“Don’t forget the commands,” she said before leaving the stall. “Fly to an open field far enough from the village but within striking distance. I wouldn’t recommend you fly into battle on Kyreth. One dart in a direction you don’t anticipate, and you’ll be the one flying—without wings.”
“Will do,” I said.
As soon as Helena had left the stall to prepare her own mount, I turned to Kerralyn, a wild, reckless smile on my lips. “We’re stealing this dragon.”
“Technically, we’re borrowing her,” Kerralyn said. The corner of her mouth twitched. “Or committing treason, which I heartily agree with.”
Pherin trilled from my shoulder, and I sensed agreement. Even my minxpip knew some rules were meant to be burned.
Before I could mount Kyreth, Naveah strode into the stall. The master of the armory’s expression was as stern and unyielding as the plate armor she now wore. Her fluffy gray cat companion draped across her shoulders, its tail swishing lazily as if it were observing a mildly interesting mouse hunt.
She stopped at Kyreth’s shoulder and dipped her head with the respect of one warrior to another. Turning toward me, her gaze traveled over the leathers I’d donned this morning, the dinged-up daggers sheathed at my sides.
“This won’t do,” she growled.
For a moment, I thought she was going to drag me to the tack room and lock me inside. Instead, she held out a matched pair of blades. Long and slightly curved, the magnificent blades had intricately carved hilts.
“Oh, I couldn’t—”
She urged them toward me. “Do you know how to use them?”
“Yes,” I said slowly.
“Then take them and wear them well.”
I took them from her gently, twisting them this way and that, admiring their superior craftsmanship.
Commander Thorne had shown me blades like this once. Only a master could create weapons as lovely and deadly as these.
They felt like they’d been forged for my hands.
“Whoever leads this charge needs better weapons than battle-worn steel from the training hall,” Naveah said dryly.
I stared at the blades, then at her face, my heart swelling with gratitude so fierce I could not suck in a breath. This was more than a gift of weapons. It was a show of trust.
“Thank you,” I breathed.
“Thanks are not needed.” Her gaze met mine. “This is a promise. Kill as many of those bastards as you can.” A ghost of a smile touched her lips. “I’ll be watching.”
“You’re coming with us?”
“Nothing in this world or the next could make me stay behind. We ride as one.” She held out her forearm, and I clasped it.
With a soft laugh, she pulled me into a hard hug before she stepped back and left.
I stared after her, securing the blades at my sides.
“I’m amazed,” Kerralyn said, her journal open, her pencil scribbling. “And I’m writing this down. We ride as one. Got it.”
We loaded the few dragons we had, two or three riders to a saddle, more clinging to harnesses meant for cargo. I climbed onto Kyreth’s back with Kerralyn settling behind me, her arms wrapped around my waist, the journal secure in the pouch on her back.
As Kyreth shifted toward the opening, preparing for flight, I closed my eyes, reaching for the power that simmered beneath my skin. I didn’t push it away. I didn’t fear it. I pulled. The wind answered my call, swirling through the stall. It wrapped around us in a whisper of support.
For the first time, my magic felt like a gift instead of a burden. My power was not a weakness to be hidden but a weapon I could wield to protect those I loved.
With the proper nudge of my heel, I urged Kyreth forward.
She scrambled toward the opening, her strong hind legs digging into the sand.
We burst from the stone wall into biting air.
The dragon’s massive wings caught the wind, the first downstroke a jarring lurch that threw Kerralyn against my spine.
“Sorry, sorry,” she called out. “I’ll hold on better. That…was interesting, right? Amazing, actually. I’ve never ridden a dragon before. Look at all the trees!”
Pherin burrowed into my hair, her tiny, warm body pressing against my skin.
We waited above the valley until our fleet was ready, then turned our mounts south, aiming for Silverstream.
Every wingbeat carried me closer to Trew and closer to the battle, where I belonged. The wind whipped through my hair, and my magic hummed along with my determination.
I was born to stand beside Trew. Not behind him, not waiting in safety, but with him, facing whatever might come our way.
Through the night, our ragtag fleet of dragons clawed its way across the sky. Over a hundred of us, from new warriors who’d barely survived the recent Rite to grizzled fighters like Naveah, all clinging to saddles and cargo harnesses, their faces grim.
Let the advisors call it treason. Let them say I was much too reckless. History would remember a woman who fought for her people, not a princess who hid in a tower.
Finally, dawn arrived, and the world lit up, a tapestry of every imaginable color stretching as far as the eye could see.
“We’re getting close,” Kerralyn shouted over the roar of the wind, pointing with her pencil.
I leaned forward, trying to see past Kyreth’s powerful neck. Then we cleared a high ridge, and the world fell away.
My blood stopped flowing.
Silverstream lay ahead, a spread of stone and wooden buildings that looked impossibly tiny from this far above.
Skathes massed in the plain beyond, a roiling, living sea of nightmares pouring from the wasteland. Hundreds of them, a tide of gaunt bodies, clicking fangs, and mindless, ravenous hunger, commanded now to move as one.
We landed hard in a field above the village. Before Kyreth could fold her wings, scouts in dark leathers emerged from the forest with drawn weapons, surrounding us.
“By the fates, what’s this?” one of them hissed, his gaze raking over our overloaded dragons and the sea of warriors dismounting around us.
I slid from Kyreth’s back, my boots landing hard on the soft earth. Naveah strode over to stand beside me, her expression unyielding.
“Reinforcements,” I said, my voice leaving no room for argument.
“We don’t have time to babysit you,” the scout snarled.
“Then you’ll be grateful we brought a few seasoned killers as well,” Naveah said, her voice grinding stone. Her hand rested on the hilt of her sword.
The scout’s eyes widened as he recognized the master of the armory.
He gave her a curt, reluctant nod before directing his attention at me.
“The king is on the ridge, planning the counterassault, and I’m taking you to him.
He’ll tell you to head home.” His voice lifted.
“The rest of you, stay with your mounts. Do not get in the way.”
He turned, leading the way up a gentle slope. I fell into step behind him, Pherin silent on my shoulder.
The low, guttural chittering of the Skathe horde was louder here, a constant, sickening hum that vibrated through my bones. It was the sound of our death.
We crested the ridge, and my breath caught.
A war council had gathered around a massive map spread over a flat-topped boulder.
Gavelle circled above, no doubt reporting the situation.
Kira stood among the group, her red hair a slash of blood, as well as Trew’s Aunt Coralee, her face pinched as she pointed to a place on the map.
And Trew of course. He stood at the center of the war council like an ancient battle god come to life, his black leather molding every muscled line of his body. He wore weapons strapped to his spine and thighs like deadly accessories. His dark hair caught the light, and when he turned—
I forgot how to breathe. This wasn’t the man who’d held me gently in his arms not long ago. This was a king who could conquer worlds, a warrior who could level mountains.
He was absolutely devastating. And absolutely mine.
His golden gaze locked onto me, and the expression that crossed his face showed pure shock, followed by anger. Terror. And underneath it all, something that looked very much like pride.
Gavelle landed beside him, ruffling his feathers, his head cocking this way and that.
Leaving the others, Trew stalked toward me, ignoring the stunned silence of his commanders, his gaze pinning me in place. The chittering of the Skathes and the tension in the air faded to nothing.
The scout smirked and strode away.
Then there was only him.
“You impossible, brilliant, reckless woman,” he breathed when he stopped in front of me, his voice a low, furious rumble. “Why are you here?”
“You left me behind,” I said simply.
Pherin peeped.
He scowled. “I left you behind to keep you safe.” His furious gaze swept past me to the mass of fighters and dragons waiting in the field above the village. “Is that an army of new recruits?”
“No, it’s an army of warriors who refuse to hide while their king rides in their defense.”
His jaw worked, the muscle ticking violently. “This is not a trial, Isi. This could be a slaughter.”
“Then we’ll face it together.”
His eyes blazed with so much fear it stole the air from my lungs. He was looking at me, but I’d bet anything he was seeing my body torn apart by Skathes.
“We will fight together to keep each other safe,” I said softly. “Nothing less.”
Before he could answer, a blood-freezing roar echoed from the plains. The whole seething mass of Skathes surged forward, a black tide rushing toward the fragile buildings of Silverstream.
“They’re charging,” a scout screamed from where she stood on the edge of the ridge between us and the Skathes.
Trew spun, barking orders. “Archers, first volley. Vanguard, to the front line. Kira, you take the left flank. Coralee, the right.”
Warriors and commanders scattered, running for their positions. Dragons soon took flight, armed soldiers mounted on their spines.
The air soon filled with the thrum of bowstrings and the shrieks of dying monsters.
Pherin left my shoulder and flew to the ground, landing beside Gavelle, looking up at him like a child would an idol.
Trew turned back to me and grabbed my arms, his grip bruising.
“I can’t believe you’re here. That you came.” Wonder threaded through the anger as his eyes searched mine.
“Did you think I’d let you face this alone?”
“I hoped you’d stay where you were safe.”
“I am where I’ll be safe.” I stroked his jaw, the rough stubble scratching my palm. “Because I’m with you.”
The warrior king vanished, leaving only a man whose eyes held the certainty that he could lose me. Then his mouth was on mine, and the world narrowed to his lips, his hands, his heart beating a furious rhythm.
Our last moment of peace before war.
It wasn’t a gentle kiss, but a desperate, frantic one, a brutal claiming tinged with the taste of fear. His hands tangled in my hair, holding my head as if he could pour all of his strength, all of his will to live, directly into me.
This was a goodbye.
It was an I will find you in the next life.
A prayer and a curse and the most honest thing I’d ever felt.
He lifted his head, leaving me breathless and aching.
For a heartbeat, his forehead rested against mine before he stepped away, drawing the broadsword from the sheath on his spine. He pivoted and stalked toward the battle.
“Go,” he growled over his shoulder. His hand shook where it clutched his sword.
The king of this realm, the terror of his enemies, trembling for me.
“Get on that dragon,” he growled. “And fly out of here. Now.”