Chapter 24
Vorik and Jhiton returned to the cave as the storm abated outside and people inside started to wake from their drugged slumber. Jhiton didn’t say anything about Vorik attacking him, only reporting to Chieftess Shi that Syla had gotten away.
“I’m surprised she slipped past you.” Shi eyed Jhiton’s wet clothing. “Hardly anything ever does.”
Her gaze shifted to Vorik, and he wondered if she’d somehow gotten the gist or guessed what had happened. Had a scout been out there who’d witnessed the fight and reported to her?
“I am not infallible,” Jhiton said without looking at Vorik.
Vorik didn’t regret helping Syla get away, but he hated that he so often had to feel guilty now. No, dishonorable. That was the word that kept coming to mind. His feelings for Syla were putting him in conflict with his people, and he didn’t like it.
“What matters is that we know the location of another shielder,” Jhiton said as General Amalia joined their group.
“Bogberry Island can soon be ours, especially if the Kingdom troops haven’t pulled the weapons platform off the bottom of the river yet.
” Jhiton looked at Vorik, as if he had insight into how quickly that might be done.
“I sank it and the ship it was on, and it’s a tangled mess under the water. I’m sure they’ll figure out how to get it out eventually, but we might have a day or two.”
“It would have been better if it had sunk out at sea where the water is deep enough that they would never retrieve it,” Shi said.
Vorik wanted to grind his teeth and glare at her but made himself smile and bow instead.
He didn’t need to make an enemy of the leader of his tribe, and she already had reasons to doubt him.
“My apologies, Chieftess. I had limited resources at my disposal. Captain Lesva was busy with her own mission.”
“Captain Lesva accomplished her mission.” Shi looked at Jhiton. For confirmation?
He nodded. “According to our dragon allies, Lesva has Lady Abrya and is hiding out in the bogs, waiting for us.”
Vorik was tempted to say that he’d accomplished his mission too, but the Kingdom troops could have already fished the platform off the river bottom. And nobody had wanted him to kidnap Syla, though it had proven fruitful.
“I asked Zandelek, our dragon ally with the longest telepathic range,” Jhiton said, “to send word to Harvest Island to the dragons there to see if any can swiftly fly to Bogberry and intercept the queen, but the orange dragon she rides is young and fast and might be able to avoid them.”
Vorik kept his face neutral, but he hoped Igliana avoided the other dragons. After all he’d fought for, he didn’t want Syla to die out at sea to an enemy she didn’t even know.
“We should assume, however,” Jhiton continued, “that the queen will return in time to warn her people that we know about the shielder’s location.
It would behoove us to move as quickly as possible to invade and take it before they have time to position a great number of forces to block us—especially since we won’t have our dragon allies until we can lower the barrier. ”
“Moving quickly will be important, but we should also gather more troops than we have here.” Amalia waved to indicate the fighters in the cave.
“Many more troops. All those on Harvest Island will join in, but, as you pointed out, our dragons won’t be able to help.
We’d better contact the tribes that aren’t too distant so we can get more soldiers and riders to help with the attack. ”
“We do already have many ships in the area, poised for this very opportunity.” Jhiton surprised Vorik by looking at him.
“You’ve come to know these people—and their queen—better than the rest of us.
Would you suggest attacking as soon as possible with the troops near the area or taking a few days to gather everyone we can? ”
“We don’t need his opinion on their military tactics,” Shi said. “Especially not based on what he knows about the woman he’s having sex with.”
“She is their ruler and will have a say in the military matters, especially since she’ll likely remain on that island if she knows we’re coming.” Jhiton smiled faintly.
What, did he approve that Syla would keep herself in danger?
Vorik did respect that about her, but he also wished she would go back to her comfortable throne on Castle Island and leave the defense of the Kingdom to her soldiers.
Then he wouldn’t have any qualms about joining an invasion force going after the Bogberry shielder.
Well, not many qualms. That niggling part of him that worried about the fate some of his leaders wanted for the Kingdom subjects made him hesitate to throw his heart into this.
“She’s not going to command troop movements, I assure you,” Shi said, glancing at Amalia.
The general hesitated, but then nodded at her. “I wouldn’t think so, no. She’s a healer with no military experience.”
Jhiton looked thoughtfully at Vorik again.
“I… wouldn’t underestimate her.” Vorik didn’t know what else to say.
Especially in front of Shi, he didn’t want to mention that Syla had gotten the best of him more than once.
As he reflected on the past couple of days, he wondered, not for the first time, if Syla had let him kidnap her so that she could do exactly what she’d done: retrieve her shielder components.
After all, she’d come prepared with that sleeping drug.
Her only miscalculation had been that they had drugs as well and had been capable of fishing information out of her.
“No,” Jhiton said softly. “And they’ll be working to get the weapons platform out of the river.”
“Yes.” Vorik nodded.
“We’ll gather all the troops we can,” Amalia said, “but it sounds like we should attack as swiftly as possible too.”
Shi nodded. “And I order you to do so, generals. Take the battle swiftly to them so that we have the element of surprise and can catch them unprepared.”
After Amalia and Jhiton agreed to the command, the women departed.
“They’re not going to be surprised as long as Syla gets there first,” Vorik said when he and his brother were alone.
“Agreed,” Jhiton said. “We’ll have to be crafty.”
Did he already have a plan for that? Vorik wouldn’t be surprised. He didn’t know whether to hope Syla and her people came up with something equally crafty or not.
“Abrya is gone,” Lord Oyenar said as soon as Syla walked into what the soldiers had dubbed the war room, a spacious office in a barracks near the palace grounds. Unlike most of the military installations in the city, it had survived the stormer attacks unscathed.
“Gone?” Syla looked at Fel and Aunt Tibby, who’d accompanied her, along with several Royal Protectors.
“Gone,” Oyenar said. “That terrifying woman with the silver hair returned and got Abrya. The last I saw, she’s alive, but I don’t know for how long.”
“Until the stormers have gained access to the shielder chamber.” Fel waved to the back of Syla’s moon-marked hand.
“They don’t know where the shielder chamber is though. What good would Abrya be to them, unless…” Oyenar’s shoulders slumped. “Storm-cursed bastards, they’re going to interrogate her. Of course. She knows the location.”
It occurred to Syla that it might not matter that she’d told Jhiton where to find the shielder.
The stormers might already know. Of course, the gods-gift usually granted a degree of mental fortitude that made those with moon-marks better than average at resisting blurting secrets during interrogation.
She hoped Abrya could endure Lesva’s questions, as Syla herself had when she’d been the woman’s prisoner.
An officer in uniform came up to Oyenar and drew him aside.
He was one of many high-ranking officers standing or sitting around a huge table made from a single slab of wood.
A younger soldier was tacking maps of the island to the wall while a bespectacled man with a pen had a tally going labeled Dragons and Their Last Known Locations.
As strange as it seemed, the dragons might be the least of their problems. Syla rubbed the back of her neck, tired and wondering when the last time was that she’d slept, other than briefly dozing on Igliana’s back on the way across the Sea of Storms. She’d been worried about pursuit, but exhaustion had forced a few short naps upon her.
As Oyenar conferred with his officer, the dread that had been lurking in Syla’s belly all day remained.
She hadn’t yet informed him that she’d told the stormers about the shielder, and she didn’t look forward to it.
Thus far, only Tibby and Fel knew, and they’d been grim since they’d received the news.
It had been a struggle to pull Tibby away from assisting with setting up machinery to retrieve the weapons platform, but since she’d once done work in the mine, she might have useful input during this meeting.
“She hasn’t been found yet,” Oyenar said, turning back to Syla as his officer joined the others at the table. “We’ve got search parties out, but… it’s a big island.”
“I’m hoping the stormers won’t interrogate her. They… don’t technically need to.” Syla would have preferred not to explain why she knew that, but she couldn’t withhold crucial information. “They already know the location of the shielder.”
“What? How?” Oyenar blinked slowly. “Oh. My men said you were captured. I’ve been so distraught and sending troops all over the island to search for my wife that I… I didn’t forget, Your Majesty, but I didn’t think there was anything we could do to help you.”
“There wasn’t.”
“Did they interrogate you?”
“General Jhiton did, unfortunately, yes. Unbeknownst to me, he’d gotten his hands on hydra-scale powder, a drug that lowers your inhibitions and leaves you inclined to answer questions.
” She pushed up her sleeve, though the needle had slipped in and out without leaving a mark.
She almost wished it had marked her so Oyenar would be more sympathetic.