CHAPTER 35
There is no one on the nine continents I treasure more than my brother.
—Entry from the private diary of Patriol, Dragonbound
ELDRETH
Those fuckers had taken the hidden port. A score of good men and women dead, maybe more.
The next time I saw him, I was going to kill my brother.
It was no more than he deserved, risking the lives of our people over, what? Vanity? Laziness? There was no reason for him to have used the hidden port over Port Drakha. I was looking forward to hearing his excuses, though. I was sick of saving his ass from his own brashness and poor decisions.
A pang of doubt niggled its way through. Had I caused this?
No. I would not accept blame for him.
Only three things mattered now. Serae was safe. Ellán was under guard with Dane. And I had a city to protect.
“Line up the foot ranks,” I told Sellan. “Let’s get them rotating through practice dowsae.”
“And where are you headed?” Sellan asked darkly.
“Peace.” I gripped his shoulder. “Up on the wall to lead the volleys.”
Sellan nodded. “I’ll send Yaego up if I see her.” She was likely up there already. In addition to her scouting skills, her farsight bierla made her an unmatched archer. He turned to the nearest group, “You there, form up!” and continued down the line.
The battlements teemed with archers, runners, and shields. I climbed up, meeting Branye and Praeth at the top. I gripped my friend’s forearm.
“You’re allowed out already?” I asked.
Praeth smirked and turned his warm brown eyes on his wife.
“Don’t tell Branye, she’ll kill me.” The side of his head was shaved, showing a large scar tracing from his temple to the base of his neck.
He had barely recovered from the dragori before my mission to collect my idiot brother earned him a blade to the side.
Branye rolled her eyes, but her smile was back.
It was good to see after the worry lines that had plagued her.
Praeth’s recovery had been hard, but she stood by him unwaveringly.
They were a match in every possible way, and the bond they had was something unique.
It was something I had never thought I’d find for myself until I laid eyes on Serae.
“What news?” I asked.
Their expressions darkened. “There’s something you need to see.”
Praeth led the way to an open crenel halfway up the northeast side. “There,” he said, but I didn’t need his guidance. Silhouetted against the rising sun was the distinct outline of two looming structures. They had brought catapults.
“Our walls have withstood worse.”
“Not in a hundred years, but it gets worse.”
“Eldreth”—Branye touched my shoulder, drawing my attention—“they’ve got at least a full regiment, over a thousand strong.”
“I’ve heard.”
“They’re using bahroi.”
I scanned the horizon as if searching the trees would give me an answer. “Bahroi,” I muttered. “You’re sure?”
“Yes,” they said in unison.
“Send a runner to Dane. He’ll want to know immediately.”
Praeth nodded and left.
Bahroi. That made no sense. This was no Volaachi force. Even Ellán had confirmed the Inraen colors.
“Do you think they’re in league?” she asked.
I shrugged. “That’s Dane’s job to consider. Ours is to uphold the wall. Get me a stone mender and a woodcarver. I have an idea.”
THE FIRST catapult launched. It was a test that fell pathetically short. The most it did was rattle the ground.
Praeth ran along the battlement toward me. “Branye says they’re in place.”
I smiled.
The next boulder smashed into the outer wall and crumbled to pieces.
We ran above the spot of impact. I extended my hand, and Praeth gripped my forearm and braced, allowing me to lean out farther over the edge.
The boulder had cracked in half on impact with the wall, leaving part of it fused into the stone itself.
“Free reinforcements.” I smirked at Praeth.
“Get your ass back over. How much do you weigh?”
I ignored him as I jumped back and jogged over toward the gatehouse. I had a volley to lead.
Up and down at every crenel, longbows notched into grooves in the stone. The Inraen army thought themselves out of range. It was a constant idiocy of their commanders never to learn the range of their opponent’s weapons, and it was one I would take advantage of again and again.
“Pick them apart,” I called down the line. “Wait for a shot you can make. Volleys will start when they’ve cleared the trees.”
I repeated the order as I jogged, but the back of my mind returned to one thing—Serae. I had left her unsatiated and unsettled in the safe rooms with that miserable bird of hers. Great Dragon willing, I would make it up to her tenfold when I returned.
A familiar screech sounded overhead. Ducking behind the nearest merlon, I looked up in time to see the moody beast diving straight at me.
“No,” I said, but it was too late. It landed on my shoulder, an unnecessary flap of its wings clipping my ear.
My heart sank.
“Please tell me she isn’t roaming about.”
The creature cocked its head to the side, then turned away and surveyed the surroundings.
“Right.”
I had to push Serae from my mind. Hundreds of lives would be lost this day, and I needed every last drop of my focus on making sure those lives were all Inraen. Difficult as it was, I needed to trust her.
The catapult on the left jerked, and its arm thudded to the ground. One down. I smiled to myself, knowing the woodcarver had found her mark.
“NOCK,” I called, hearing the command echo down the lines on either side of me.
I took a breath as I heaved my bow into place and slotted the arrow.
“STEADY AIM!”
Bowstrings around me creaked.
“RELEASE.”
SERAE
Mid-Autumn, Beymon 1036
Bale was alive. My mind stuttered to a halt despite being scooped up into his arms. How was he alive? The missive had been signed by Prince Hammon, the king’s brother and head of his army. But here Bale stood, breathing, smiling, and shining with bright green joy.
He gripped my shoulders and shook me. “Serae, how are you here?”
The fragments of my scattered thoughts snapped back together. “How am I here?” I cried. “How are you here?”
We hugged, we laughed, we cried, and we hugged again. It was all too good to be true. Then we rearranged the pillows beside one of the floor tables, sliced up some fruit and cheese, broke into the bread, and settled down for what was sure to be a long chat.
“Where are your glasses?”
I blinked. Since tucking them away in my drawer, I’d barely thought of them. “It’s hard to explain, but I don’t need them anymore.”
I told him of the missive we received about his presumed death and everything that had happened since arriving in the Riht.
I confided in him about Father’s expectation that I return home and marry Tam.
It was such a relief to have the one person I could tell everything to, who would know my heart in this as well as I did.
However, when it came to telling him about Vaya’la, her warning tickled the back of my mind.
“We can trust Bale. He’s my brother!”
“No, Small One. I sense something else in him. This time, you must trust me.”
“You trust all of the Riht, but not my brother?”
“Not all.”
The subject was closed, and even though my heart was screaming to share all that had happened to me, I held back. Bale listened to everything, asking questions at all the right moments. When I was done, he shook his head. “You can’t marry Tam.”
That wasn’t the reaction I expected. “Why not?” I agreed, but I hadn’t expected him to.
“You don’t love him. You never have.”
“It’s more than that.” I hesitated. It was one thing to explain to Bale my confusion over Eldreth and Ellán.
It was another thing altogether to describe this precious thing blossoming inside me when I didn’t even understand it myself.
In such a short time, Wep—Eldreth—had become my rock, my center.
With him, I had the chance to have a partner by my side instead of a lord standing above me.
Bale’s perceptive gold eyes regarded me in that knowing way of his. “Well, I’ll be. My little starling is head over heels for her Rihtlondish prince.”
I shook my head. “He’s not a prince.”
“Semantics.” He waved a hand.
“I’m staying here. I don’t care if Father sends all his forces—I won’t leave.”
“Good for you,” Bale smiled. “Okay, I have to ask about the bird.”
“His name is Sprakt, and he’s a good friend of mine, so watch it.”
He held up his hands, and I laughed again, feeling more carefree than I had in months. “I still don’t understand how you’re here.”
He nodded and laced his fingers behind his head, leaning back against the stack of pillows we’d piled on the floor.
“It’s a confusing tale. One minute, I was on a death mission, our squadron hand-selected for slaughter by the captain of our regiment.
I remember the attack. Volaachi soldiers were everywhere.
They tore through our unit like a knife through paper.
I have no idea how we could have fended them off.
Then, it’s just blank. The next thing I remember, I was on a boat landing a few leagues from the manor.
It was the dead of night, so we made camp on the beach. That’s when the Rihtlonders showed up.”
“Volaachi soldiers?” I asked carefully.
Bale nodded, then sat up and drew in a breath. His head drooped. “The men I was with helped bring me back toward Cavendaffe. The Riht killed them. I watched a…friend of mine…die before my eyes.” He glanced up. “That’s most of the story. I’ve been in a cell ever since, until Drake moved me here.”
“And this Drake?”
“Ah, that’s not his real name.”
“A code name?” I offered, trying to piece it all together.
“Sort of. Anyway, he would visit me every few days. One day, he came in and said he had to move me for my safety. I’ve been down here ever since.”
I nodded. A tall, blond, blue-eyed Riht was hardly distinguishable. The fact that he was fair-skinned helped only a little. The bigger mystery was that he had access to the family safe room. And something Dane said… It couldn’t be, could it?
“What else do you know about him?”
Bale shook his head. “I know nothing about him. He’s visited me often since I’ve been down here, but he, uh, just told me it’s still not safe. What of back home?”
I scowled.
“Whoa, that bad?”
Aside from our current predicament? Merria’s infuriating letters, her betrothal to that dick, Mother’s compliance in all of Father’s plans, the attack on the port, and the demands that followed, to name a few.
There was Gerta, the aftermath of Bale himself disappearing, and even the lies about birth order that I’d forgotten to tell Dane.
It was all swirling around in my head, and it was far too much to go over in one day.
BOOM!
The impact reverberated through the walls, and I sat up straight. The noise had come from above, but I couldn’t make out exactly where.
“Bale,” I gasped, everything finally clicking into place. “They’re here for you.”