The Enemy's Triumph

by Kristen Banet

  “Thank you.” She knew he had been reporting to her about those she cared about. It was habit at this point for a male of hers to tell her where her other ones may be if they knew. Dave and Zayden thrown in didn’t shock her either. As long as they were accounted for, she wasn’t concerned.

  They walked inside together and stopped at Mave’s favorite place, a wall away from the table. Mat stood closer to the action, but she had no use for the maps. She just waited to be told where she needed to go to kill someone.

  Luykas walked in with Alchan, already talking in hushed voices. He looked up and smiled at Mave, but it didn’t reach his eyes. She could feel his physical anxiety through the bond.

  It’s not good news. He probably already knows.

  “Thank you all for getting here so quickly,” Alchan said, moving to his place at the head of the table. “Before we left for Kerit, Senri worked with Seanev and Leria to establish guard points along the Dragon Spine. One of them reported tonight, off their schedule.”

  Mave looked around the room and caught sight of her brother, standing across from her, hidden behind some of the unit captains. Why he didn’t step forward, she didn’t know, but he stayed in the shadows.

  “What was the word?” Senri asked.

  “They found the staging grounds for Lothen’s army,” Alchan said without any inflection. “It’s practically directly south of us. A week’s flight for us. With ten thousand men, it would take him three weeks to get to us.”

  Mave moved off the wall slowly.

  “How?” she asked softly, as others started talking loudly. “How?” she demanded with more of a snarl. Luykas was the one who looked at her, his eyes shadowed in the dim firelight.

  “We think he was able to triangulate roughly where our position is based on the attacks we’ve already made, specifically last summer. Between freeing the slaves and rescuing Sen, he knew a good region between those points to look for us. It’s a guess, but it’s the best I can think of. After that, he had to guess.”

  “He got lucky,” Alchan growled. “It happens. The position he picked is a good place for an army his size, though there are several other locations he could have chosen. It means we need to accelerate. As of this moment, the spring festival is canceled for those living in the Dragon Spine. For males who want to go on a Hunt, there will be rules and a schedule put in place. No single males will be allowed the privilege because we can’t spare the men and leave ourselves defenseless.”

  Many of those Mave knew from Olost nodded. Seanev stepped forward now, confusion on his face.

  “And those north of the Spine?”

  “You can do as you please,” Alchan answered. “Tell Leria she’s to go on as if nothing is happening and continue the trade routes and supply lines. Are you still intending on taking several of our more untrained men for better training up north?”

  “If you’ll allow it. I think it’s a better allocation of resources,” Seanev replied. Mave had known Leria wouldn’t be in the valley when they returned from Kerit, but she hadn’t known Seanev planned to leave. “How many will I be taking?”

  “I’m considering four hundred need extensive training from the basics work, all under one thousand and born in the Empire. The others just need time to brush up their skills, and that can be done here with other warriors.”

  “Of course. I can take them off your hands. The earliest I might be able to send any back won’t be until autumn. Remember, Leria is also sending out Andinna as we speak. Crafters and the like to help establish the second village.”

  “That’s fine. We can make do with what we have here, and we’re grateful for more Andinna. I’ll have a list for you tomorrow, and I want you to head out in a week. Dismissed.”

  “Yes, sir.” Seanev turned on his heel and walked out, never passing a glance Mave’s way. She was unexpectedly hurt, but after their last discussion, she didn’t feel the need to go after him. She had made her opinion clear, and they all had to live with it.

  “Captains, come tomorrow morning, I want everyone on two a day training regimens—”

  “Some are going to cry about it,” one of them said, growling. “Not that I disagree with you, Your Majesty, but some…”

  “Who?” Mave asked. “I’ll sort them out.”

  “No one you need to worry about, Champion. Males.”

  “I’ll handle them,” Luykas said, sighing. “Since you don’t want a female to beat on them.”

  “Thank you, sir.” The captain stepped back. Mave snorted, looking at her husband, who shrugged.

  “I can handle it,” he promised. He turned away again, his fingers drumming the table.

  “Matesh, I want you working with Nevyn and Varon on training our more specialized units. We’re hoping to have some top squads ready for trickier missions by the end of summer.”

  “What if Lothen moves on us before then?” Nevyn asked. “Alchan, we’re not ready for a ten-thousand-man army. We don’t have nearly enough numbers to drive him back from that location.”

  “We make do. We stop him from locating the valley. We kill his scouts. We track his movements. This might be a preliminary stop.”

  “Or it could be his base of operations,” Nevyn fired back.

  Mave looked at the markers placed on the map. The village was on the northern edge of the Dragon Spine, in a valley large enough to house as many Andinna as they could. Its southern edge was well guarded by sheer cliffs, the very ones the Company lived on. Further south, there was a half valley, a small inlet where the mountains jutted out of the southern edge, and Lothen had picked that as his base. Drawn on the map were paths and small roads the guards had reported over the last several months recon.

  “He’s going to use these, won’t he?” she pointed to them.

  “Yes. We’re going to focus our efforts on blocking his ways into the mountains from his current location. I’m hopeful we can ruin his location, even if we can’t do damage to his numbers.” Alchan put down more markers over the path. “We station more Andinna down here to hit his scouts in ambushes. We’re fortunate the mountains are where we are meant to be.”

  “What do we know about his army?”

  “Nothing, yet,” Luykas answered. “Would know more, but…”

  Mave heard the accusation and turned slowly on her husband, snarling.

  “Try that again,” she ordered.

  “If I could have used my resource while we were on our way back, we might have had the chance to send people there and ruin the viability of the location he chose. Now, we’re too late,” he snapped, suddenly unleashing an annoyance she should have seen coming.

  “One day. You couldn’t give me one day before finding a way to make this my fault,” she growled. “And I’ll remind you that you have this source without clearing it with fucking anyone. You put yourself in fucking danger without telling your wife or your brother or any one of the males you share a home with.”

  “I made a call.”

  “A selfish one,” she fired back.

  “Take it outside,” Alchan snarled at both of them.

  Mave stormed out, knowing Luykas was hot on her heels.

  “I can’t fucking believe you!” she growled, turning on him the moment the door closed them out of the building. “In front of the entire Company?”

  “I didn’t phrase it right, and I’m—” He lifted his hands, obviously trying to sue for peace right at the beginning of this argument, and she promptly shoved them aside.

  “Let me phrase something for you so that it sticks,” she snapped. “I am pissed because you went behind my back. I’m pissed because you think you know everything and the chance of you being caught or seen could have—”

  “There’s nothing they could have done to me—”

  “So, you were fine with getting her killed!” Mave roared. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is you didn’t communicate with me at all. You just decided.” Mave let out an angry breath, turning away from him again.


  “I’m used to deciding,” he said softly. “For most of my life, I’ve only had to answer to Alchan—”

  “But not your entire life,” she reminded him. “You used to answer to my father. You used to answer to the rest of your family. I’m not asking you to answer to me. I’m not trying to control your life, Luykas. You just…you took a risk without even telling me you were taking it, and I got scared.”

  Luykas stepped back, sighing.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She reached out and touched both sides of his face—and knew the truth.

  “No, you’re not,” she whispered. “You would do it again. I’m amazed you haven’t yet.”

  His gold eyes were unrepentant.

  “You think our lack of information is my fault,” she continued as his hands grabbed her wrists. “You still love me, but you’re angry with me now.” She let him go and let him pull her hands away slowly. There was no force in it, but there was a message. He didn’t appreciate what she had just done, but he didn’t break the contact either. Their emotions were still warring between them.

  “Let’s not lie to each other. I asked you for the trip home. You think I shouldn’t have. You think I should have just gotten over it for the better of the rebellion. And I was so close. Tomorrow, you could have asked me if you could go see her again, and I would have said yes, but that I wanted to be in the room. So I could see you. So I could help you when you came back.” She nodded a few times to herself, looking over his face as she yanked her wrists out of his hands. “Apparently, even that was too much to ask of you. You can stay at your home and do whatever fucking magic you want.”

  His gold eyes went wide.

  “Mave—”

  She walked back in and slammed the door on him. She met Alchan’s eyes.

  “You’ll have your spy,” she snapped, then turned and went toward another exit as Luykas came inside.

  “Mave!” he yelled across the room. She was out the door before anyone thought to stop her and took off. She considered going to Senri’s home and hiding there long enough to push down her anger and hurt but decided against it. Mave’s home was the center of her domain, and she felt like she needed to be there. It was the one place where she knew Luykas wouldn’t try her. It was the place where Matesh and Bryn would step out of her way and let her be angry. It wasn't a sanctuary like Senri offered.

  So, she went home. She ignored Zayden as she came in, slamming doors and stomping around as she kicked off her boots and put her things away. He stepped out of her way but waited to the side if she needed anything.

  “Ask Mat,” she said to him before shutting herself in her room. She stood there for a moment before picking up a random object, throwing it as she screamed at the walls. When her initial anger was expelled, she fell into her furs and curled up, trying to ignore the slicing pain of Luykas’ attitude and closed her eyes.

  That night, Mave dreamed of that blasted wingless Andinna. She tried to take out her anger on her dreamscape opponent and failed. Lying in the clearing, with a sword raised over her, the wingless Andinna spoke for the first time.

  “The heart is still too weak,” she said before driving her morok downward.

  19

  Mave

  Mave trained hard. Up before dawn, she stormed out of the house every day for a week and found herself in front of Nevyn, hoping to work the edge off.

  Today was no different. Nevyn was panting as he held up a hand for a break. Mave’s chest rose and fell from exertion, but she wanted to keep going. She knew not to force it, though.

  “Mave, you’re going to kill me,” he said, sighing. “Love, can you—”

  A cloth was thrown from the side, and Nevyn barely caught it before it smacked him in the face. Kian chuckled, and Mave turned to him, eyeing him until he stopped.

  “Do you want to spar?” she asked, hoping he would say yes. He hadn’t been a spectator for the first few days, but once he started showing, Mave took advantage of his presence.

  “Not today. I have training duty,” he answered.

  Nevyn walked away from her and sat between his friend and his lover, panting hard and groaning as he stretched out his legs.

  “Maybe I should get Alchan to train with you now,” Nevyn commented, rubbing his thighs. “The last two weeks have been brutal on me. I’m not as young as I used to be.”

  Varon very clearly rolled his eyes.

  “You are young enough to still be in your prime. You’re just finding you aren’t the best anymore. Don’t whine.”

  Kian started to laugh at Varon’s comment. Mave looked down at her sword and bounced on the balls of her feet.

  “I’m not done,” she said, not sure what to do now. “I need more.”

  “Going to have to find it somewhere else,” Nevyn said, shrugging. “Sorry but—”

  Varon stood up and grabbed his sword from where he had left it propped up on a log.

  “Varon, you can’t beat her!” Kian called, throwing up his hands as Varon ignored him and stepped in front of her.

  “Are you sure?” she asked, frowning. She had sparred against Varon once or twice and had seen him fighting on numerous occasions, but Nevyn was better, and she was beating him consistently now.

  Varon nodded.

  Mave launched into an attack. Varon was fast and agile, his body moving like a blade of grass in the wind. He didn’t have the hard movements and rough attacks and blocks of many other warriors. He was smooth, flowing between attacking, parrying, and blocking, making it seem like a dance. He made no attempt to end the fight quickly, though she knew it was what he preferred. He just made her work, stretching out her muscles, wearing her down.

  Mave knew the tactic and had employed it herself many times. Her own temper made her stupid enough to fall for it now.

  She stumbled, her legs growing tired after several rounds with Nevyn and pushing herself too hard. Varon took advantage and sliced open her thigh, which was enough to send her into the dirt.

  “Shit,” Kian gasped.

  “Well. I should have figured that would happen,” Nevyn mumbled, his steps drawing closer. “You okay down there?”

  “Yeah,” she groaned. “Varon is better than we give him credit for.”

  “No, he isn’t. You were fighting stupid,” Nevyn retorted.

  Mave groaned and rolled over, looking down at her thigh. The breeches would need to be sewn up, but the cut was clean.

  “I have some water to wipe it off, and we can throw a quick bandage on it,” Kian said, also coming closer. He smiled sadly down at her as he tipped the waterskin. It stung, but she didn’t react, sitting up slowly. “You want me to talk to him? You can’t do this to yourself every day.”

  “No. He’ll come to me, or he won’t,” she growled. “I went to him last time, ready to forgive him. This time he can come to me.”

  “I understand why you’re angry, but Lothen is going to be at his camp any day. Training is fine, but this isn’t training. Bryn leaves tomorrow with his scouting group to set up a stronger watch. Have you even spoken to those two about this? Mat and Bryn?”

  “Why should I?” she snapped. “They agree with him.” She pushed the waterskin away and got up. “They think I overreacted when it came to him astral projecting to fucking Elliar to meet a woman he’s never spoken two words to. I get she’s his sister, but I think I have the right to be pissed that one of my males decided to risk himself without telling anyone in the family. Then I’m the villain for not letting him do it again while we were on the road with a war group armed to the teeth with Andinna I don’t trust.” She snorted. “No. I’m not fucking talking to any of them about this.”

  “Don’t hurt me, but it was your request that led us to possibly missing important intel,” Nevyn said gently. “Mave—”

  “I know!” she roared, throwing her sword to the ground. “I know, Skies damn it!”

  Varon stepped in front of her, holding up his hands. She paused for him, but he only reached ou
t and touched her cheeks for a moment, frowning at her. Whatever his thoughts were, she didn’t know. Varon could act funny sometimes, and since he was a mute, it was easy for him to keep his own secrets.

  When he pulled his hands away, he began signing.

  “I agree with you.”

  “Varon—” Nevyn seemed insulted.

  Varon snapped his fingers in his husband’s face to silence him.

  “Luykas has a strong case for doing what he wants to do, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it, but he needs to recognize he’s your male now. He has to recognize he did you wrong by jeopardizing himself.”

  “What has he been saying?” she asked, crossing her arms. She didn’t see him at meetings because Alchan and the rest of the Company were careful to make sure they didn’t run into each other. It wasn’t hard. With the blood bond, Mave and Luykas knew where they were in regard to each other, and they didn’t want to see each other.

  “Nothing. But there’s a lot that can be said without a single word. He’s been talking to her, that much is certain, gathering more intel. Such as the location south of us is one of two locations Lothen is deciding to split his ten thousand men between. When asked about you, he growls and walks away.”

  “I know.” She felt it. One night a few days ago, he had faded from her, and it took everything in her not to go look for him.

  “Mave,” Nevyn tried to cut in, but she held up a hand.

  “I don’t…” She reached down and picked up her sword, wincing at the flash of pain in her leg. Looking at it, she saw blood and water running from the wound and soaking her pants. “I need to get this treated. Thanks for the sparring.”

  “Don’t move,” someone snapped from the side of their little clearing. Mave turned to see Senri and sighed as she stormed over. “Kian has been disappearing the last few mornings, and I was wondering what he was up to. Are you three trying to convince her to forgive that idiotic husband of hers?”

  “I was,” Nevyn admitted. “Senri—”

  “No. He hid from the mayara, he did something dangerous, and he’s expecting his wife to live and let live. He’ll take the punishment she gives him, and he’ll take it with pleasure if he knows what’s fucking good for him,” she growled. “Males. Kian, I expected better of you. You’re her father now.”