The Enemy's Triumph

by Kristen Banet

  “Am I your family?” he asked, frowning.

  “You might be one day, but right now, you are my ally,” she answered pragmatically. “Of all people, you should know family is those you keep close. Don’t let blood determine who should be worthy of your love and affection. You can’t choose who is in your blood, but you can choose who is your family. Now, you should let me know when you intend to kill Lothen. I can arrange for Fenoth to die around the same time. It would be a crushing blow to her. Thank you for explaining the spell. That’s not something I was taught.”

  “The idea of blood is important to the Andinna,” he said softly, looking back at the spell. “It’s sometimes used in sorcery but not commonly. It’s considered dirty and dark, but Andinna, we know how powerful blood truly is.”

  “Hmm.” She didn’t seem impressed, but her eyes betrayed a curiosity he recognized in himself.

  “I’m blood bonded with my wife,” he explained. “We know how to fool even the gods when it comes to our bonds and relations. She’s formally adopted, and therefore, exchanged blood with two of the parents of her new family. Not even the gods would deny that. My blood bond with her allows us to know each other’s hearts and feelings, both emotional and physical. Blood is the carrier of the life force, a great source of power. Andinna are naturals. We use it to bless the land, pouring our own energy into it instead of taking from it. That’s why lots of sorcery doesn’t work unless it’s done on Anden soil. Our blood’s power naturally repels other forces. If you ever have more questions or want to practice using your blood to focus on someone else, try astral projecting to me. You’ll be stopped by the mountains, but if you feel that, then you know you’ve succeeded.”

  She nodded, pondering. Every time he spoke to her, he saw this side of her—an intelligent, cunning, and fearsome woman who lived in secret by hiding in plain sight. Like Mave, but different. Like Mave, Nyria did what she had to because survival and her own goals were important to her.

  “You should go,” she finally said. “I’ll consider this new information. Andinna blood magic is understudied and banned in the Empire. If my mother has learned some tricks from it, it’s about time I figured them out.”

  “Have at it,” he said, shrugging. “Sleep well.”

  She was already distracted by the book on the table and waved him away. He nearly laughed as he left and let the call of his own body take him home.

  When he opened his eyes, Alchan was waiting.

  “She gave me information,” he said, staggering as he tried to stand. It always exhausted him to do this. “Lots…”

  “Tell me in the morning,” Alchan said gently, helping him stand. “Rest and turn your thoughts to happier days. Tomorrow, we can finalize our plans to kill your brother.”

  “Not family,” Luykas whispered. “She reminded me that…he’s not…”

  “Luykas?” Alchan seemed distant. Luykas wasn’t sure how his feet were moving. Maybe they weren’t.

  “You…family,” he mumbled before his eyes closed, and he couldn’t say anything else.

  35

  Mave

  Mave walked in a wide circle around the near forty Andinna in the clearing. She was impressed, but she knew she couldn’t show it, not yet.

  “We leave in four days!” she roared over the groans of pain from the warriors. “If I see anyone I feel will slow the rest of us down, I’m pulling you from the mission! This is your final test! Don’t let down those who have taken a chance on you!”

  She was the last of the Company to approve the lot in the field. Of the Company, everyone but Alchan, Luykas, and Varon were assigned to the mission. She, Mat, and Bryn were Team One with twenty of the warriors. Zayden, Kian, and Nevyn were team two with the others. They would attack in waves, following Rain.

  But first, she needed the warriors chosen to prove they were ready. They were, but she was glad to see them working harder for her eyes than they had for any of her males and friends, as if they felt the need to push themselves beyond their limits just for her.

  “How are they, Champion?” Alchan asked, coming up beside her.

  “I’m pleasantly surprised. They’ll do, I think.” She smiled at him fiercely. “The Elvasi won’t know what hit them.”

  “Good. I’m glad they all pass your inspection. Now, you’ve had them out here for half the day with all of us waiting on you. I’m going to take over.”

  “Of course.” She waved for him to step up and look over the males she had been running into the ground. “Attention for the king!” she roared over the sound of clashing steel as the Andinna sparred against each other. They all stopped, moving to stand straight and wait for Alchan’s words.

  “You will all go home and spend time with your friends and family for tonight and tomorrow night,” he said loudly. “This mission will be dangerous, and I want all of you to look at your loved ones and decide if you wish to be on this mission. You have two nights to make the decision to stay home. You are dismissed.”

  Mave raised an eyebrow but didn’t question Alchan’s proclamation. She was too riled up to ever decide she wouldn’t be on this mission, but could see why some of the younger males with a new female, or older males like Kian with potential babies on the way, might suddenly decide they couldn’t.

  “I’m going to go camping tonight,” he said, sighing as he turned back to her. “And think. I need to get away and think.”

  “You just went a little while ago,” she pointed out, frowning as she realized Alchan went camping a lot.

  “I don’t like how crowded everything is here. I can never clear my head, and I need to, or my temper begins to act up, and this mission, it’s very easy for me to get stressed. No one likes me when I’m stressed,” he explained, giving her a tight smile.

  When she had met him, he’d been a prime example of an asshole, thanks to the stress of the mission to free Matesh, Rainev, and her. She would never forget her first impression and their words to each other. She didn’t want to repeat them.

  “I’m going to entrust everything with Luykas, so he’ll be busy for the evening. Sorry about that.”

  “It’s fine,” she said, shrugging finally. “Will you let him know?”

  “I told him before coming over. Someone had to stop you from beating those males into the ground.” He chuckled and walked away. She watched him as he went to Rainev and spoke softly, too low for her to hear, then they both launched into the air. Once they were gone, she went to her males and the rest of the Company.

  “Tomorrow, you’ll come to my place and spend the evening with your mother,” Kian said, pointing at her.

  “I will,” she promised. “Let me figure out the schedule. It seems like there’s going to be a lot going on over the next few days before we leave.”

  “I’ll send Willem over before dinner tonight to find out when you want to come over,” Kian said, nodding, then launched into the air. Nevyn took Varon’s hand and left with him, and Mave was grateful. Since the last mission she was on, they had been acting strangely with her, not as close or fun as they once were. Varon was still rehabilitating his arm and gave her odd looks. Nevyn was just confused and cranky, and he had reason to be. She had nearly killed herself the last time she met Lothen in a fight, then unexplainable things had happened she refused to talk about to anyone.

  “Love,” Mat whispered to her. “Do you want to spend the night with all of us and tomorrow night with only Luykas?”

  “That would be good. I’ll spend the day with Senri, then head to Luykas.”

  “We were also thinking…” Mat looked to the side, and she followed, seeing Zayden standing there, looking somewhat out of place and nervous. Bryn was standing next to him and gently pushed the much larger male forward. Zayden shot her rogue a dirty look, then looked back at her.

  “I would like to spend the rest of the day with you,” he said, looking at Mat, who nodded. “We can go out and have dinner under the stars, something just between us. It’s been so busy, but
I would like to before we go on this mission. Then you can have the night with Mat and Bryn.”

  “I would really love that,” she agreed. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They went home and had lunch before Zayden packed a bag for them. Once he was done, she left the cliffside home with him, waving at Trevan, Emerian, and Dave outside as they played with Vahn. They were trying to get the gryphon to rebuild its strength, and getting it to exercise in play was the best idea anyone had.

  “Where do you want to go?” she asked.

  “I figured we could walk the trails for a little while and talk. I know this side of the valley and what’s beyond it, so maybe we go to an area neither of us has seen. Something different.”

  “Okay.” She was down for anything as long as she got the oftentimes grouchy male to relent and have some fun with her. Since he invited her, she hoped that meant they were in for a fun afternoon and evening together. “I haven’t done any exploring near Alchan’s home. He and Luykas have claimed that rim and everything beyond it, but I don’t think he’ll mind if we wander around it tonight.”

  “Agreed. We’re allowed over there, but respecting his privacy is really important. We did the same thing in Olost, and he never minded us as long as we weren’t frequently in his space.”

  They jumped into the air and flew toward one area of the valley Mave didn’t know well. They landed at the top of Alchan and Luykas’ cliff then headed away from the valley, going into the trees beyond. Mave found a game trail and pointed it out to Zayden, who nodded silently. They followed it deeper into the wilds. These mountains were larger and wilder than the ones in Olost, the forests were thicker, the cliffs steeper and taller. And the game? Mave thought she had seen some big deer in Olost, but the ones in the Dragon Spine were massive with big antlers, and there were several kinds. Wolves did well in the Spine, but there were other predators as well. Everything seemed so much more alive.

  “I love it here,” she finally said as they walked.

  “Anden is a good place,” he said softly, looking around at the trees around them. “I’m glad you got to see it. Maybe one day, you’ll see a proper city.”

  “I’ve seen Kerit,” she reminded him.

  “Kerit isn’t a proper Andinna city. An Andinna city…” He sighed. “They’re massive like our capital, Lariant, where Alchan’s family once ruled from and where the throne hopefully still sits. It’s built into a mountain. From base to peak, there are levels of homes on the mountain, ending with the palace at the peak. I saw it once when I was younger. Mat and I had decided to go visit, just to see. There are other cities, a little smaller but with the same idea, but the capital was built out of the rock of the mountain it rested on. Courtyards made to survive the different altitudes going up. It overlooked a lake that rested in the center of the valley, and on the coldest days of winter, everyone would play on it. In the summer, you could catch hundreds of Andinna playing in the water. The land wasn’t used for farming or hunting. The palace preferred that done just outside the valley, so the land was for Andinna to walk, think, or anything else.”

  “Sounds wonderful,” she said, watching his face as he talked, the light in his eyes brightening as he lost himself to memories of better times.

  “It was,” he said, smiling at her. “One day, you’ll see it. There were five major cities spread out over Anden—Kerit, Larie, Krisir, Amonir, and Lariant.”

  “Wait.” Mave noticed a trend in the city names. “Were they all named after…”

  “The three female dragons? Yes,” Zayden answered, chuckling. “We’re not the most original people.”

  “And no one thought to name anything after the…male dragons? There’re four, right? The elementals.” She wasn’t sure why no one ever spoke about them.

  “It’s said the males were wild and uncontrollable until Lariana brought them to heel and made them her husbands. They are nature, the very forces of it, and that power needed to be focused on building the world we live in now. It’s not that they were mindless, but they were driven by instinct until she showed them purpose. Then she brought life to their creation. Kristanya finished the cycle by bringing death. Amonora gave both her sisters meaning by adding love and beauty, things worth living and dying for. Once satisfied with their land and after the humans began to encroach, they created the Andinna and the wyverns.”

  She didn’t say anything, staring at him for a moment until he laughed.

  “So, no, nothing big is named for the males. Smaller cities, villages, certainly, but nothing large. We’re uncontrollable things, driven by instinct. You rein us in, give us life, and lead us to our deaths. You give us beauty and love, things worth living and dying for.”

  “I don’t think you’re only driven by instincts,” she whispered, reaching to touch his free hand. “I don’t think…”

  “It’s an old way of thinking,” he said, smiling. “It’s not the complete truth, but it reminds us of our places in its own way. And we are, Mave. A male will do anything to achieve two things in life—breed and protect the products of breeding. We want to seed a female, have young, and die for that female and young. It’s our most basic instinct and why we all avoid other families while their females are going through her fertile time…” He trailed off, sighing.

  “Zayden?”

  “I never got to experience that,” he said softly. “A female Andinna in her fertile time. I know you still haven’t had yours, and I’m not trying to make it sound as if it’s something I’m looking for. I just never got to experience it because Summer was Ziran, a clan member. I do, however, understand the rest from personal experience. I would kill for Rain. I would die for him. He’s my legacy. He’s what I will leave on this earth, my bloodline moving forward.”

  “Mat and Bryn don’t…”

  “Kian understands,” he said softly. “You’ve seen the shadows over their family more than most. A male who has failed to protect his young is a male who feels as if he’s failed in his only task. Those males will do anything to have another with Senri because she’s their female and the one they wish to bring new life into the world with.”

  “She thinks she’s pregnant,” Mave said suddenly. “She thinks it…stuck.”

  “And she’s sending Kian on a mission? I can’t say I blame her,” Zayden said, chuckling. “We’re fierce protectors over pregnant females. We have to be. She’s vulnerable, and the pregnancy is long and painful.”

  “You know so much more than my other males,” she said, almost mystified.

  “Not more, just different,” he countered.

  “Fine,” she said, smiling.

  They walked deeper into the woods until Zayden heard something.

  “Is that a stream?” he asked, tilting his head. “Let’s go. I have an idea.”

  “What?” She gave his back a confused look as he started to jog toward the sound of water. She had to run to catch up and nearly bumped into him when he stopped. Looking around him, she saw the wide, deep river and noticed he was looking downstream. “What’s your idea?”

  “Follow me,” he said quickly. “Trust me.”

  “Okay.” She didn’t know what he was thinking, but he seemed excited.

  They walked along the river’s edge for most of the afternoon and evening was upon them as they began to hear a loud crashing.

  “A waterfall,” she whispered, running past him to the edge of the cliff and looking down. It was beautiful.

  “The trees are out of the way for us to see the stars when the sun goes down,” he explained. “That’s what I was hoping for.”

  “I like your ideas,” she said, smiling back at him, then looking back out on the view—the waterfall below her and the sunset before her over the tops of mountains. A hand touched her back.

  “Come sit down, and we’ll eat. Then maybe we can explore the falls. Normally, the water will cause little caverns to form as chunks of the cliffside fall. Have you ever seen that before?”

  “No,” she an
swered. “I can’t wait.”

  He smiled brightly and pulled a small blanket out of the bag she hadn’t realized he had packed. Settling on it, she tentatively grabbed his tail with hers, prompting him to reach out and pull her closer, so they sat right next to each other, their shoulders and wings touching.

  “You know…” He handed her a sandwich. “I never thought I would fall for you. I never thought…”

  “What?” She never thought she would fall for him either, but here they were.

  “Summer wasn’t Andinna. You are. You’re everything I could ever dream of now that you’ve settled into our culture. I’m sorry you’re getting damaged, secondhand goods with me, but I’m glad you’ll have me. For years no one interested me, no matter how pretty they were or how much they respected me, or I respected them. None of them made me want.”

  “And I make you want?” she asked, her heart pounding.

  “Thinking about you, seeing you, talking with you. Every time we touch…” He leaned closer to her. “I think about you—a lot. You make me feel like a complete, unbroken male. And I’m a little broken, Mave, by grief, by stress, by being a warrior.”

  “You’re just not the male you used to be,” she reminded him. “One day, we’ll all be different from today.”

  “We will be, but I hope that different is something that still works together,” he said.

  She made the first move, ignoring the sandwich in her hand. She leaned in the rest of the way and gave him a slow kiss, tentative and unsure for a moment before putting more dominance in it. He groaned against her lips and leaned back, letting her take charge. When it was over, the food was discarded, and she was nearly straddling him.