Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
THE COMMANDER
T his time, I stopped my mad dash a healthy distance away from the entrance of the fortress, hidden in the shadows of the fir trees.
Pain ripped at my strained body. I had to call on my power to soothe the ache and help guide my bones back into their place, which only exhausted me more. I smacked my back against one of the firs, chest falling and rising rapidly, as my entire being mended itself after my run.
Most Blood Brotherhood members feared The Calling, when they were summoned into the sacred mountains to learn the secret of their powers. The process was painful and long and too many had died bleeding on the sacred stones as magic had finally coursed through their veins, unforgiving.
But it was nothing–a mere stab wound rubbed with nettle–compared to the pain the sacred Solkar’s Reach ritual inflicted.
The only outsider who’d gone through the ritual and survived had been Zandyr. Which is why the crater didn’t accept just anybody to do it.
But those of us who survived, well, they could break nature’s laws themselves.
With my breathing now in control, I kicked myself away from the tree, and marched to the entrance, a cascade of snow and the ghost of the shrill hum behind me.
The warriors stationed at the main doors bowed their heads my way.
“Pen and paper. Now,” I said instead of a greeting.
I pushed the double doors open and stepped through.
Instantly, Nadya and Geryll were in front of me. They always did this, like they had some internal clock telling them the precise moment I’d return and rushed to greet me, with twin childish glee in their eyes.
I wrapped an arm around each and brought them into my chest, despite their surprise and squirming. I hadn’t hugged them in public in years. But the blood on the shards had shaken me more than I wanted to admit.
Our enemies were getting bolder and I wanted to feel them safe in my arms.
They were the closest thing to family I still had left and I didn’t care who saw this small display.
I let them go a second later and began walking, the two of them right on my heels. Warriors hurried around me as I marched through the halls. A pen and a paper found their way in my hands in the ruckus and I instantly began writing.
“What happened?” Nadya said, out of breath from trying to match my stride. I usually slowed and waited, but this could not.
“Nothing.” Yet. “I need to send an urgent message to the Capital.”
“Weren’t you just there?” Geryll asked.
“Some things are better delivered in writing.” Such as a Clan-wide threat on the Northern border. “How was your day?”
I didn’t miss the smile in Geryll’s voice, even as I focused on the pen rapidly scratching the paper. “The Huntress taught me a proper firing stance. She also humbled Nadya.”
I didn’t miss the way warmth spread in my chest at the mere mention of her, but I didn’t fight it. I never won, anyway.
The Huntress was inescapable, strutting in my dreams and waking moments with that stubborn air of hers.
“Hey!” Nadya nudged him. “I just helped her show you a perfect archery trick. You should be thanking me.”
“What did she do this time?”
“She curved an arrow in mid air,” Geryll said, awestruck. “It just fired from the bow, went around Nadya, and hit the target behind her.”
I raised my brows, not stopping. “That is impressive.”
I’d heard of the technique, but never saw it with my own eyes. Leave it to The Huntress to defy the laws of nature.
“I’m still not convinced she didn’t use magic,” Nadya grumbled and quickened her steps, trying to look over my shoulder. “What are you writing there?”
“A love letter to our great ruling dynasty.” I signed the letter with a flourish, drops of ink splattering on my fingers, and folded the paper before she got a peek. This was only for my eyes and Zandyr’s, nobody else’s.
A few feet away from my door, I turned to both of them. They might have looked like warriors, but the creases in their brows betrayed their concern.
I sighed and forced a smile on my face. “It’s nothing you need to worry about. Only logistics. The Serpents are snapping their jaws too loud for my peace of mind.”
Geryll nodded. Nadya narrowed her eyes, unconvinced.
“Did you drink your tea already?” I asked. Whenever I had the opportunity–which was less and less nowadays–I spared the hour to drink my night tea with them and just listen to whatever crossed their minds.
Another thing this wretched situation had disrupted in my life.
“Mrs. Thornbrew gave us honey milk tonight.” Geryll smiled.
“Good,” I said, swallowing my disappointment. “Now go to bed, you have sparring practice tomorrow.”
Nadya grinned and Geryll sighed before we muttered our good nights. As soon as they rushed down the stairs, I bolted in my room and locked the door behind me.
I barely got a chance to click my tongue against the roof of my mouth to call Sylvester when a wave of distress washed over me.
My senses instantly on alert, I looked straight at the door separating my room from hers .
No tremors of terror or shouts of an attack. But she was pacing, her small feet flitting over the carpet, and muttering under her breath, words I had no clue of hearing, even with my senses.
She was in no danger, but she worried–about what?
I didn’t flatter myself it was because of me. The Huntress was too grand and ambitious to fret over a kiss like I had.
At least she was doing something other than wallowing. It was a step in the right direction.
I strangled my curiosity and clicked my tongue again, louder this time. Sylvester was in a mood if he hadn’t come instantly.
He’d been mad at me that I hadn’t brought him to the Capital; stealing fish from the fishermen was one of his greatest joys. But he was getting too old to sustain the trip at my speed and refused to admit it.
I also needed someone to watch over The Huntress in my absence, even for one day.
An impatient groan resounded from the other side of the door.
My nostrils flared with my sigh. She truly did want to kill me with each sound she made.
Mercifully, Sylvester deigned to land on the windowsill, shiny beak raised high in the air and refusing to look at me.
“I’m sorry I didn’t take you to the Capital today,” I said.
He turned around, fluffing his tail at me.
I rolled my eyes. I’d never met a bird with more of an attitude. “Thank you for staying behind and looking after her for me.”
He squealed. It sounded very much like he’d told me to go to Xamor.
“Fine, then I won’t tell you the good news,” I said, approaching the window.
Another squawk, this time more curious. He finally granted me the honor of looking my way.
“You get to go to the Capital all by yourself.” I stopped an arm’s length away from him and showed him the letter. “This needs to get to Zandyr and Zandyr alone. It’s urgent.”
Sylvester looked at me for a few seconds before turning his head away from me again. But he did raise his left leg my way.
The sounds in The Huntress’ room grew louder. She was stomping and sighing as if she wanted to crumble the entire fortress. She was usually suspiciously quiet–she must not have realized I’d returned.
“Why, thank you, oh-great-winged one, for doing me this favor.” I wrapped the paper around his leg with a thread of enchanted red string, which would protect him and the message. “Take all the time you want in the Capital. And avoid the mountains.”
His head turned back to me fast.
“Promise me,” I stressed. I knew Sylvester had lived on this continent longer than me and could handle opponents ten times his size, but I didn’t want him risking it. “Fly high over the plains and stay out of sight.”
As a reply, he flapped his wings, as if insulted that I couldn’t tell he would be careful. Obviously.
Just as he tensed his wings to fly away, I opened the heavy satchel which had smacked against my right leg all the way back from the Capital. “I brought you something.”
I took out a great big fish, head and all, and threw it his way. Sylvester greedily caught it in his talons and chirped at me before flying away. He’d liked the offering. Forgiveness granted, from the pettiest god I’d ever known.
As I watched his dark feathers blend in between the stars, I released a long breath.
I’d sent dozens, hundreds of messages to the Capital–but none as important as this.
This day had tired too much of me. But all thoughts of sleep had vanished the second I’d heard The Huntress.
This woman had already haunted and disrupted so many of my days by just existing, what was one more night?
I’d resigned myself to toss and turn in my bed, but then one of her sighs cut. That one didn’t sound annoyed–it sounded pained.
I was in front of the door before I’d even realized I’d moved, arm raised to open it.
But I’d told her I wouldn’t step into her room without being invited and it was a promise I had to keep above all else. She was already in a foreign place with foreign people from a foreign Clan. She needed to feel like some space was hers and hers alone, even if it was a single room.
The Huntress had come here with trust issues oozing out of her in every hard movement and sharp word–the ordeal with Orion couldn’t have helped.
I wasn’t about to worsen them.
I gritted my teeth hard enough to hurt and fisted and unfisted my palm too many times, trying to regain control.
Instead of breaking down the door and taking all her worries away like I desperately craved to, I swallowed my urges and, in my own fortress, I fucking knocked .