29. Chapter 29 #3
I lunged forward, catching her around the waist. I tried to tackle Keera and pin her thrashing limbs beneath me, but she reared back. I overbalanced with the sudden shift of weight, and I crashed down onto my back with her on top of me.
The sudden press of her weight down onto me caused our bond to roar to life, demanding more loudly enough to drown out the shouts of the warriors around us—Keera had managed to bat the ball into the net just as I grabbed her.
I tightened my arms around her waist, keeping her pinned atop me as I desperately tried to suck in a breath.
Both the force of my fall and my desperate need to roll Keera over and pin her beneath me made it hard to take in air.
My madness may have calmed a touch, but it had not cooled my desperate need to lose myself in Keera with it.
She squirmed, I thought to get away, which made my mouth water and the predator in me rise again. Then I realized, as she got her arm free, she was trying to point. She gestured to a dark speck in the sky, black against the blazing orange of the setting sun.
“Is that Zephyr?” she asked, voice still breathless.
“No,” I said automatically. “We left him with Neven.”
“But—”
An eerily familiar screech split the air, and the hair on the back of my neck rose. I sat up, jostling Keera in my lap. The shape wheeled closer, revealing distinctive banded wings that approached at a frightening speed.
Zephyr nearly crashed into us, barely letting me get my arm up in time before he slumped down, having to dig in his talons to avoid falling off. Dust coated his rumpled feathers and he seemed to stagger, as if staying upright was too difficult for him.
“Why—it is too far to fly alone…” Keera started.
“Unless there was no other choice.” My heart sank as I took in the small, rolled piece of paper tied to his leg. It looked just like the desperate messages I had him carry to Keera again and again when we had been separated, to no avail.
This message had reached us, but fear filled me that it did not bring requests for peace but instead was a portent of violence.
As Zephyr swayed, Keera gently untied the paper from his leg. I did not have to see her face to feel the fear filling her as she read the words—it dripped down the tether between us, cold and bitter as their meaning sank in.
“It’s from Lord Koen. He and the other Clans have been under attack by Prince Calix and Viltov.
They have evaded them until now by staying on the move, but they have sustained many injuries in their retreat, and he says he has foreseen a battle that can no longer be avoided.
If you do not return soon, there may be nothing to return to. ”
Cold washed over my body as Keera stood, both from her words and the loss of her proximity. We were out of time. If we could not save the clans from Calix’s attack, then we surely would not be able to retake the city.
Dhara stopped before us, the blood rushing from her face making her tan complexion look gray. The fire in her eyes still burned but now tinged icy with the realities of the message, “We need to return, and with an army in tow.”
Aderyn stopped in front of Keera, stick forgotten and hanging limply at her side. “Neven…” she murmured quietly as she stared at the letter in Keera’s hand, as if she could hear his voice through the paper if she just listened hard enough.
I pushed to my feet beside Keera. “We must ride out to help the other Clans—Otush, Tibel, Vecturna and Jal—who need our aid in the fight against Doran.” I spoke loudly, so that the large crowd of riders gathered around could all hear me clearly.
A rush of whispers, sounding like the hiss of the ocean over the next rise, ran through the onlookers. The sound was full of both apprehension and uncertainty.
“The plan was to retake Kelvadan,” Warrick spoke up. “Would it not be wise to turn our attention toward retaking the city and driving out Viltov while their attention is turned to the other clans?”
My blood heated. I would not sacrifice half the clans to death after I had just convinced the riders of the desert to stand as one.
I opened my mouth to say as much, but Keera stepped forward before anybody could speak.
The fire had not faded from her eyes after the game of kaman, and now it flared hot as the sun.
I did not know how Warrick did not flinch away from it.
Pride swelled in my chest as she lifted her chin—gone was the doubt of a woman who feared she had failed as queen.
She was the high lord—both the wrath and the mercy of the desert embodied in breathtaking beauty.
“We protect all those who call the desert home. We will fight together, or we will die apart.”
Warrick stared at her for a long moment. I did not miss the way the other lords held their breath; they too had misgivings about defending other clans while our true opponent left themselves vulnerable.
But if what Warrick said about Calix and Viltov were true, then there would be no defeating him with anything less than the full might of all nine clans.
Then, Warrick nodded. “It seems once you are in your element, you are no longer so easily manipulated by foreign powers. Doran will fight at your side.”
“How long until your ships can leave?” I asked.
“If we work through the night, then we can leave at dawn.”
I set my lips in a hard line. “Then be prepared for a sleepless night. We leave when the sun rises.”
The time to face our enemy was here.