4. Clash of Stone and Steel
Clash of Stone and Steel
Samhail
Samhail wasn’t surprised to find Axenus in Bressen’s study when he entered. The merman met with Bressen regularly before lunch to update him on Cyra’s progress in their magic lessons, and he was often still there when Samhail arrived to give his own updates.
“Axe,” was all Samhail said by way of greeting as he sat down in the other chair across the desk from Bressen.
“Sam,” Axenus answered, and Samhail growled. He didn’t do nicknames, but Axenus knew that.
Bressen rolled his eyes and sighed. “The two of you have Cyra so confused. She can’t tell if you’re enemies or best friends.”
Samhail and Axenus glanced at each other.
“Enemies,” they said together.
Bressen snorted.
In truth, Samhail liked and respected Axenus. He’d just never tell him so in a million years. Doing so would be too…familiar.
He and Bressen had met Axenus when Bressen had been sent to Sedonia by his father during the war to secure Queen Clarice’s alliance for Thasia.
Unfortunately, Bressen had discovered Clarice was keeping Axenus as a slave, forcing him to serve her in bed when he wasn’t being kept in a tank of water just barely big enough to hold him.
Bressen had risked everything to save Axenus, and he’d paid dearly for doing so.
It was Samhail that Bressen had called to aid in Axenus’s escape, and Samhail had been happy to help. He was horrified to learn what Axenus had endured for years, but that knowledge came with some awkwardness.
As Samhail had once told Cyra, gargoyles didn’t do caring well, and his unease with showing concern had manifested into the antagonistic friendship he now had with Axenus. It was his way to hold the merman at arm’s length, to not show pity for what had happened to him.
He was sure Axenus preferred the antagonism to pity anyway, so this was how they existed, as friends who seemed like enemies to anyone who didn’t know them.
“Were either of you planning to tell me Cyra can port now?” Samhail asked, glancing between the two men.
“Gods damn me, I forgot about that,” Axenus said, sitting forward in his chair. “I need to make a list of what she’s syphoned. It’s getting too hard to remember everything she can do now.”
“Should we be worried about where she picked it up?” Samhail asked, swallowing down the urge to hassle Axenus about the oversight.
“Not yet,” Bressen said. “She probably came into contact with a priest or priestess at the Priory who had the power. I’ll ask Phaedrus if anyone there can port when I see him later today.
He’s bringing someone over who’s willing to let Cyra syphon their power to create wards. That’s a power she should have.”
“Why not ask Phaedrus for a list of the powers of all the priests and priestesses?” Samhail suggested. “Let Cyra syphon everything she can.”
“I’d be hesitant to do that until we know more about how her powers work,” Axenus said.
“It’s possible she can only hold so many abilities at a time before the other ones she has either go away or weaken.
We don’t know what limitations, if any, she may have, so it’s best to just let her syphon what she needs for now. ”
Samhail frowned. “Do we have any reason to think she might lose some of the powers she already has?”
“Maziren let Cyra syphon her strength at the temple,” Bressen said. “It’s how Cyra broke Sandrian’s wrist and my caronium cuff, but she no longer seems to have that strength now.”
Samhail blinked in surprise. “When the fuck did that happen? And, again, why am I only hearing about this now?”
“I’m the magic instructor,” Axenus said coolly. “When there’s something you need to know about practice swords and straw pads, we’ll let you know.”
Samhail knew Axenus was just trying to rankle him, as was their way, but the comment still stoked his ire, and his answer was sharper than he intended.
“I was going to start incorporating magic into Cyra’s combat training in a few days,” he snapped at the merman.
“It might help to know what she does and doesn’t have at her disposal.
” He fixed his gaze on Axenus. “And anytime you want to train with me, I’d be happy to show you just what I can do with a practice sword and a straw pad. ”
To his credit, Axenus didn’t flinch at the threat in Samhail’s voice. In fact, he just sighed and admitted, “I probably should get back into the training yard at some point now that we’re heading for war.”
“How was your session with Cyra?” Bressen asked Samhail.
“She’s pushing herself too hard,” he said. “She attacked me today when I told her it was time to stop.”
Bressen’s brows shot up. “And how did that work out for her?”
“Not well. Until she remembered she could port,” Samhail said. He looked pointedly at Axenus, who shrugged one shoulder.
“Axenus said much the same thing,” Bressen said with a sigh. “Cyra didn’t attack him, but she’s pushing herself too hard.”
“How is she sleeping?” Samhail asked. “When you let her sleep, that is,” he added, giving his friend a knowing half-grin. It was well-known, even among the staff at Tide’s End, just how much time Bressen and Cyra spent fucking each other.
Bressen started to speak, then stopped to reconsider his words.
“To be honest,” he said finally, “she’s the one keeping me up, which only supports what both of you have been saying. She’s not handling what happened well. She blames herself for Aramis.”
Samhail tensed. “I told her to take the rest of the day off and relax or I’d stop training her,” he said, then looked at Axenus. “I need you to back me on this if she refuses to rest.”
Axenus nodded. “I’m sure that decree went over well.”
Samhail pushed a deep breath out through his nose. “You don’t want to know what I had to do to smooth it over.”
His tone was ominous, but he opened his mind a sliver to show Bressen the image of him hugging Cyra, and the lord pressed his lips together to hide his smile.
“So what do we do?” Axenus asked.
Samhail willed his cock not to harden as he thought about what Bressen’s solution had been the last time Cyra was struggling with something.
Samhail didn’t think he’d be receiving an invitation to Bressen and Cyra’s bed again anytime soon, though.
They’d agreed that the last time had been the last time.
“The deal to buy the vineyard in Solandis went through this morning,” Bressen said.
“I just let Cyra know before Axe arrived, and she looked happier than I’ve seen her in days.
I hope getting back to something she loves will channel her energy into something productive.
If she decides to take a break from training for a while, I’d ask you both to let her. ”
Samhail and Axenus nodded.
“The timing is good anyway,” Samhail said. “I’ll need to start making regular trips to the training camps to see how the soldiers are doing.”
“We’re still getting things set up, but yes,” Bressen answered. “You’ll need to start overseeing things soon.”
“You both remember we won’t be able to fight this like a normal war, right?” Axenus ventured. “Having our men face off across a battlefield with these symbionts seems rather futile.”
Samhail caught Bressen’s eye, but the lord didn’t seem to understand what Axenus was talking about either.
“What do you mean, Axe?” Bressen asked.
Axenus looked between Samhail and Bressen as if he thought they might be joking with him, and Samhail had the urge to shake the merman.
“You said those things can replicate themselves, didn’t you?
” Axenus asked. “If they wound you, whatever that blue substance is can seep inside you and take over your mind? If we send men into battle and they’re wounded, the creatures will start taking over their bodies, and we’ll end up being outnumbered very quickly. ”
Samhail met Bressen’s gaze again, and he saw the same shock he knew must be on his own face. “Fuck me,” he swore. “I forgot about that.”
“Me too,” Bressen admitted. “Three hells. That means every casualty on our side is a potential new enemy.”
They’d only learned recently about the existence of the creatures they now referred to as symbionts.
Bressen and Cyra had found evidence of them at one of the villages that had been attacked in Derridan a few weeks ago, but they hadn’t seen what they looked like until the night before Bressen and Cyra’s wedding.
Cyra and Raina had gone to a gambling den to celebrate when the establishment was attacked by the creatures.
The things were human in shape with dark blue bodies, clawed hands, and glowing yellow eyes.
Their bodies were hard, as if the blue symbiotic shell was an exoskeleton, and normal blades mostly glanced off them.
Only Samhail’s own exceptionally sharp blades had done any real damage, and even then he’d had to put some strength behind driving his sword through them.
The most horrifying thing about the symbionts, though, was that when they wounded someone, the dark blue substance that covered their human hosts could separate off so that part of it seeped into the wound and turned the other person into a new host. As far as they knew, there was no way to separate the creatures from their hosts without killing both.
The idea of facing an army of hard-to-kill creatures with claws and nearly impenetrable skin was daunting enough. That any of their soldiers who were wounded could be turned into symbionts to swell the enemy’s numbers was unthinkable, and Samhail’s stomach twisted at the thought.
“Gods above,” Bressen breathed. “What the fuck are we going to do? He’s right. We can’t just send soldiers into battle like normal.”
The three of them sat in silence for a long moment.
“I’ll…I’ll figure something out,” Samhail said.
He had no idea what, but he felt like he should say something. He was Bressen’s general after all. It was his job to figure this out.
“Would the gargoyles fight?” Bressen asked him. “The symbionts weren’t able to so much as scratch you back at the temple when you changed into your stone form. If we could recruit them…”