Chapter 9
Aella
We made it to the opposite end of Doga, where a large, barren field of red-orange dirt marked the training area.
It had targets for arrows and crossbows on one side and racks of practice weapons against a shed over to my right.
Male and female Andalagar dueled together in the open space, many shouting taunts toward each other. I’d never come to this area before.
While the fae encouraged women to learn fighting skills, once they became mothers, they were expected to stay home and tend to their children. We usually had only a handful of years when we could serve as soldiers. Some were married off before they could even train.
I was shocked by how many older women worked with their weapons in the village, and by Tamasine’s husband choosing to watch the children so she could get time on the practice field.
I never would have guessed that the Andalagar treated their females with more equality.
Not wanting to risk offending anyone, I didn’t express my thoughts out loud.
Instead, I looked up and spotted a mixture of white and gray Pegasi in the sky, flying back and forth erratically. “What’s wrong with them?”
“Oh.” Tamasine gave the majestic, winged horses a worried glance. “They get like that when they sense something bad will happen soon, which is why we’re doing more training than usual. Karganoth will probably turn our way at some point.”
“How soon?”
She shook her head. “It could be weeks or months.”
“Do you think they’re sensing the dark elves invading Zadrya?” I asked, my fingernails digging into my palms.
She nodded. “They’re very tied to the land and sense changes.”
Prince Armin came to stand beside us, carrying a practice sword and covered in sweat from his most recent duel.
He wore a sleeveless black leather tunic and fitted pants that revealed enough of his muscles to prove that he trained hard regularly and didn’t take his royal position for granted.
Usually, his dark blond hair was slicked back, but now it was tousled and just long enough to reach his brows.
He looked at me with tired azure eyes. His exhaustion didn’t surprise me, considering he’d lost his parents yesterday morning, and we still didn’t have word about his sister and her family.
He also had to worry about stopping the dark elf advance and gaining control of his kingdom.
It was a lot for anyone to handle all at once.
“Reports are coming in that Karganoth has invaded multiple areas of Zadrya,” he said.
I had heard about Porrine and Hartoll, but were there more?
“Where?” I asked.
I only knew Darrow ran into trouble with the dark elves when he went to retrieve the princess and her family, but we had no way of knowing if he succeeded in his mission.
I felt sick worrying about whether he and the others were safe or not.
Hopefully, training would help distract me.
I couldn’t help him until he sent word or returned on his own.
“The dark elves are slowly taking over Hartoll from west to east. The latest word we received from Juvarn was that the Karganoth army had invaded their coastline and taken control of it, but that was late last night. No word since. Raumandia is fighting back on their lands nearest the capital and holding up so far, but they’ve suffered many losses.
” He paused and worked his jaw. “It seems that the dark elves committed a large portion of their army to this invasion, and we failed to anticipate it.”
My chest tightened at the thought of how many innocent people they might have killed already, considering dark elves weren’t known for their mercy. “What about Therress and Veronna?”
“Veronna has managed to repel them so far, but Lord Gannon is keen to get your husband back soon,” he said, gaze running to the training field where the warriors slashed their swords at one another.
“I can’t find out anything about Therress since your cousin, Ulmar, hasn’t responded to the sebeska I sent. ”
One thing that made them the most ideal birds to use was that they could find almost anyone alive.
All a sender needed to do was speak the recipient’s name and envision the person in their mind.
With innate magic, sebeskas sensed the sender’s intention and knew where to go from there.
That allowed Prince Armin to send and receive messages without anyone the wiser to his location, though it helped that tracking spells didn’t work on them.
I clenched my fists. “Ulmar could be working with the dark elves.”
“That’s my assumption as well.” Armin’s lips thinned. “We have to assume Therress is compromised, aside from this area that the Andalagar control.”
Had my cousin known what would happen? It would explain why he was quick to sign the treaty with Darrow’s brother, aware that the king would be dead soon and unable to enforce it.
We were blind to what was happening in the rest of the land. Were the people okay? How would the army I’d helped transport countless times react to this news? Most of the soldiers I knew would never agree to work with dark elves, so I didn’t see how Ulmar could convince them.
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you,” I said to the prince. It was time I finally got answers to a question that had been plaguing me since Darrow, and I discussed it.
He lifted his brows. “What is it?”
“The conflict between Veronna and Therress.” I paused and cleared my throat. “How did it start? Or maybe I should ask…who started it?”
Armin gave me a sympathetic look. “Therress rebelled because they didn’t want to pay higher taxes or lend soldiers to fight dark elves, despite being obligated to do so.
They preferred to weaken Veronna. If I can be blunt, I suspect your family has always sympathized with Karganoth.
Nearly five centuries ago, they divided the land in the hope of weakening your husband’s family so that they would fall. ”
“How did I not know any of this?” I asked, shaking my head.
Tamasine put a hand on my arm. “We’ve always known the truth here, but they made it difficult to prove.
The men in your family are quite good at concealing their activities, only telling those they trust. It says something that they never told you any of it.
Those who don’t deploy deception often are less likely to suspect it with others, and there’s nothing wrong with that. ”
I appreciated her kind words, but she didn’t know me that well.
“Maybe I’d agree with you if I hadn’t spent years deceiving my uncle.
I hid the depth of my powers from him, traveled the realm without him knowing, and I purposely designed my garden so it could protect me from anyone who might harm me.
The whole time I felt guilty, even as I did it anyway. ”
The prince chuckled.
Tamasine gave me a wry smile. “Just because you didn’t suspect the breadth of your family’s treachery didn’t mean your instincts weren’t working. You knew you needed to protect yourself, even if you didn’t have all the information for why. That isn’t treachery—it’s self-preservation.”
I rubbed my head, trying to rearrange my worldview amid everything that had happened in recent days.
The evidence was all there now. I had thought that the dark elves invading Radoumar at the same time that my uncle attacked couldn’t be a coincidence.
His anger at me for thwarting his plans made sense if he had allied with them.
“I feel like a blind fool,” I said.
Tamasine lifted her brows. “You can’t change the past, but you can change how you handle yourself going forward.”
“You’re right, of course.”
“I usually am.” She grabbed my left upper arm. “Now, you’re not going to fix the problems of the realm by standing here talking. Let’s get out there and train so you’ll be ready when something can be done.”
“I should get back to it as well,” the prince said, tapping his practice sword against his leg.
We went over to the weapons rack and grabbed our own with dulled edges and blunt tips. While Armin paired off with one of the Andalagar warriors, Tamasine insisted I practice with her. She barely gave me a chance to position myself before going on the offense.
I swung my blade up to block the forceful attack.
It came down like a battering ram. My muscles jolted from the force of her strike, and I had to take a step back to avoid falling.
There was a feral, yet amused look in her eyes.
She withdrew and came at me again, with slashes and thrusts I could barely counter in time.
The woman had no mercy. She had to be the strongest and fastest female I’d ever dueled.
After a couple of minutes, I heaved for breath and failed to block in time. The sword caught me in the side hard enough to make me cry out from the bruising pain. Finally, she lowered her weapon and shook her head.
“You’re out of shape and need practice.”
I clutched my ribs, taking short breaths.
“After being stabbed with a knife and cut with a sword, my uncle threw me into his dungeon. He had his men beat me repeatedly, breaking more of my bones than I can count, and I was denied any water and food. They also put iron shackles on me so I couldn’t heal properly.
This went on for three days before Darrow rescued me the night before last. Of course, I’m still weak right now. ”
Just yesterday morning, I struggled to walk without pain, but Tamasine wouldn’t know that.
“Ah, now the full story comes out,” she said, looking me up and down. “We heard Lord Morgunn confined you to the dungeon after your garden battle, but none of the other details. I suppose you’re doing rather well under those circumstances.”
How magnanimous of her. “Does this mean you’ll go lighter on me?”