by Jack Whitney
Aydra was not looking forward to having to explain things to Draven.
He was standing at the edge of the clearing, his arms crossed over his chest, when the three appeared through the trees. Draven’s jaw tightened, and she could see the veins in his arms bulging.
“I thought you were taking care of this,” he said in a low voice, eyes never leaving Ash’s.
“Is that how you would treat a guest in your home?” Ash asked in a mocking tone.
Aydra grasped his arm and twisted it backwards, causing Ash to double-over. “Speak out of turn again, and I’ll make sure he feeds you to the sea serpent when we reach the reef.”
She released him with force, causing him to stumble backwards and trip over a root. He landed with a thud and cursed the air. “Here I was thinking you’d be happy to see a familiar face,” he muttered. “Didn’t realize I was meeting with the royal bitch instead of the usual—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence. Lex stepped forward and kicked him square in the face. Ash cried out, holding his bleeding nose as his eyes darted between them.
Aydra almost laughed. “The royal bitch…” she huffed sadistically and shook her head. “No, I am PISSED, Ash,” she finally shouted. “You come riding into the realm of your enemy as though you are welcome here, as though you are some great salvation to myself and my Second. Rhaif had no business sending you. If I treat you with hostility, it is because you are not wanted here.”
Ash pushed himself to his elbows, and then he stood, dusting the dirt off himself.
A quiet smirk rose on Draven’s lips, and he gave Ash a once over. “You can stay in the building with Nadir’s men,” Draven told him.
The crooked smile that placed itself on Nadir’s face made a chill run down Aydra’s spine. “Now that’s an idea.” He stepped forward and held out a hand to Ash, pulling him up from the ground. “Come on, savior. Meet the other bastards you’ll be rooming with this night.”
“What’s wrong, Sun Queen?” asked Nadir as he joined Aydra on Draven’s balcony soon after their encounter with Ash. “Not used to your brother—”
“Who does he think he is?” she heard herself spit out. “Ordering them to follow me, obey his orders instead of mine… I am their queen. I am their security commander.” A wild terror ran through her. “I have just as much right to command them as he does. I am queen—”
“Yes, we’ve established that,” Nadir mumbled lazily.
“I am—”
“She can be quite adorable when she gets like this,” Lex mused with a delighted smile, leaning beside Nadir on the deck.
“—as much in charge as he. It is my birthright—”
Nadir snorted.
Aydra’s feet stopped moving and she stared at him. “Something you’d like to add, commander?”
Nadir paused a moment to consider her. “You’ve been handed everything your entire life. You’ve known no more terror or fight than the Infi who infiltrated your towns only a few months back.—”
“I wouldn’t—” interjected Lex.
“What makes you think you’ll stand any chance with us against these strangers coming on our shore?” Nadir finished.
Aydra’s arms crossed over her chest. “I—”
“Because if she dies, then we’ll have done her brother a great deal of services she dare not gift him herself,” came Draven’s voice as he joined them. “A reason to go to war with us. Ridding him of the pest that annoys him on a daily basis. Shall I keep going?”
Aydra’s nostrils flared. “What did you do with the captain?”
“Killed him,” Draven replied nonchalantly. “That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
“Where have you been my entire life?” Lex said dreamily.
Aydra ignored her and glared at Draven. “Be serious, Draven. What did you do with him?”
“He’s fine. Balandria will take care of him,” he said with a wink towards Nadir.
Aydra sighed heavily and stepped onto the balcony once more. Her eyes darted around the camp, watching as the Hunters’ all gathered and sharpened their weapons.
“What is the plan?” she asked after a few minutes.
“Someone is anxious to die,” Nadir muttered.
“You sent word about a ship. I assumed it was nearly here,” she said.
“They are,” Nadir said.
She stared at him. “They… are?”
“Set up camp a week ago. Three more ships have arrived since.”
“So why are we sitting here?” she asked.
Nadir’s eyes flickered towards Draven. “Because someone wanted to wait for the backup we weren’t sure was even coming.”
Draven’s lips pursed, and he glared at his friend. “We leave at midnight for the shores. On foot. No horses. I don’t want to give any inclination of our coming.”
“How did you attack last time?” Lex asked.
“Last time, we didn’t know what we were up against. I lost a great deal more men than I’d have liked to,” said Nadir. He hugged his arms against his chest. “We have the element of surprise on our side. My company is preparing arrows. We’ll take them before dawn.”
Nadir only stayed in the tree a few minutes after the last of their exchange. He told them he needed to make sure his people were prepared for battle, and so he left them upstairs, but not before Lex insisted she would join him to learn more about his people.
Aydra felt herself fumbling with the hem of her dress as she sat in the chair across from Draven at the familiar table, sipping on the wine he’d given her.
“You should get some sleep,” he said shortly, tapping his cup on the table. “We’ll be leaving soon.”
Aydra hugged her chest. “You saw the letter you thought I wrote, and yet you made him wait on me anyway,” Aydra said. “Why?”
He paused tapping the cup, and stared at the table. “Because you know protecting your own means more than just the people of your kingdom,” he said softly. “And you’re the only one of your kind to have ever thought it.”
She stared at him, her eyes narrowing at his words.
“And—” he stood from the table and finally looked at her “—I didn’t want to think you’d abandoned your promise.”
“You knew I didn’t write the letter?” she asked.
“I said I didn’t want to think,” he corrected. He took his and her cup from the table and started out the room again. “Take my bed. Get some sleep. The sun has nearly set. I’ll tell Lex where you are and find her somewhere she can stay as well.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
NO MATTER HOW many times Draven told her she needed to rest before they set out, she couldn’t. She paced around his room by the candlelight, After a while, she decided she would get dressed. She pulled her leather pants, black long sleeve tunic, and leather vest from her bags. She was just strapping on her sword belt when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs again.
“Don’t worry, I’m up. I’m ready, I’m—” her words ceased at the sight of Draven’s face standing there.
Black paints were smeared around his eyes, making the sage color stand stark against the darkness. It was as if they’d painted the color in every shadow of his face—his cheekbones, beneath his jaw, making his features stand stark and fearsome in the light of the candles. His walnut streaked hair was down. Someone had woven two small braids in it over his left ear. It was displayed as his own battle armor was, the fervor mane of the Forest King. The black leather vest he wore pressed against his torso, two belts wrapped criss-cross across his chest and shoulders, and she could see the two blades sticking out from over his shoulders. She felt a brow raise slightly on her face.
“The true form of the Venari King… I wondered where you’d been hiding him,” she mused.
His jaw clenched, and he walked over to the dresser, the echo of his black boots on the wood sounding in the quiet room. He grabbed his leather wrist braces and avoided her gaze. “Do something with that mane of your
s,” he said in a low voice. “You’ll have us found in the darkness by the sight of it.”
She looked down at her hair, but said nothing as she pulled it up messily and tied it up with a fabric she tore from his sheet. He stopped moving and stared at her.
“Did you just rip by bedsheets?” he asked.
“You told me to tame my mane,” she said. “It was the first stray fabric I saw.”
“I can still see it,” he said, looking at her loose stark ginger ringlets. “You look like fire against the moonslight.”
“What do you suggest I do?” she asked haughtily.
His jaw clenched, and he grabbed a black scarf from inside the top drawer. The fabric was tossed at her face. “Wrap that around you.”
She balked. “You wish me to fight, covered up like—”
“I wish you to do nothing,” he argued. “You’ll have no one there to save you tonight if you get yourself in trouble.”
“Promise?” she muttered beneath her breath.
“On my life,” he answered.
Her jaw tightened, and she pushed the anger swelling through her to the back of her mind. He turned and left from the room then, leaving her to deal with the long black fabric. She took her hair down and tied it in a braid on her neck instead, then reluctantly wrapped the scarf around her head and neck.
The breeze from Lovi’s waters blasted her face the closer they reached to his shores.
Nadir’s people met them at the edge of the forest. They paused at the edge, waiting on their scouts to return. Aydra had sent the raven off earlier in the day to look ahead at what was waiting on them.
Draven and Nadir were pouring over a map when she caught up with them at the front. Aydra stepped up to them, her eyes flickering and narrowing to the bag dangling on Draven’s side, horns sticking out of the top of it. She pushed it from mind and focused her mind on the task at hand.
“My raven says there are ten ships now,” Aydra interjected into their conversation. “She says—”
“Your raven?” Nadir repeated, a frown across his face.
“She speaks to creatures,” Draven said without looking away from the map.
“Like…” Nadir crossed his arms over his chest and gazed wearily down at her. “Like you talk to animals?”
“Yes,” Aydra replied firmly.
“As in…. All animals? Like you speak rabbit?” he continued to ask.
Aydra’s jaw tightened. “You make me sound like some fated princess, Storn.”
“But aren’t you?” Nadir asked mockingly.
“Actually—” Draven straightened up and frowned at Nadir “—did you know about this? About Arbina’s daughters being able to speak with creatures?”
Nadir’s gaze stroked over Aydra, and he contemplated his answer a moment. “I’ve heard stories of them able to speak to certain ones. Not all of them.”
“She can connect with their cores,” Draven further explained.
Brows raised on Nadir’s face. “Really? That is—”
“Okay, we can talk more about the enigmatic freak that I am on another date,” Aydra cut in. “I believe we have ships to take care of?”
A small smile broke on Nadir’s face, and he scoffed under his breath. “What else did your precious raven say?”
She told them about the shelters and tents the strangers had erected, as well as the large sharpened wooden spikes they’d planted in the sand.
“Fire,” said one of the Honest women behind Nadir. “The darkness continues to surround us. We should wake them with fire.”
“Why wake them when we could slip in their tents and slit their throats?” Balandria asked.
“They have centuries patrolling the dunes,” Aydra cut in.
Nadir’s gaze met one of his men’s. “How many did you see when you scouted?” he asked him.
“Easily twenty,” the man answered.
“We are stealth,” came Dunthorne’s voice. “We can take care of the centuries without a problem.”
“You’ll be taken down again,” the Honest woman argued.
Aydra stared between them. “How exactly is it you two came up with a cohesive battle plan the last time? Was there this much division?”
Nadir straightened and crossed his arms over his chest. “Last time it was daylight. We relied on our weapons to do the fighting.”
“And how did that work out for you?” she smarted.
Nadir’s jaw tightened, and he exchanged a glance with Draven.
“All right, Sun Queen,” Draven began in a low voice. “What do you suggest?”
She felt a soft smile rise on her lips as her mind began to work. “Using what you were born with instead of relying on the same weapons they will be using.”
Draven and Nadir exchanged another look, their fingers tightening on their arms. Draven’s weight then shifted, and he gave her a full once over.
“Explain.”
“—It’s all right! I’m here! I found my way!”
The noise of Ash’s voice cutting through the silent crowd made Aydra’s nostrils flare. She’d hoped to leave him behind so that she would not have to deal with him that day. Aydra met Lex’s eyes over her shoulder and raised a short brow.
Lex gave her a nod. “Yes ma’am.”
Ash pushed his way through the people, and as soon as his feet hit the edge of the crowd, Lex grabbed his throat in her hand.
“—what—” Ash’s hands grabbed hers, and he struggled for air.
“Does the darkness around us mean nothing to you?” Lex hissed. “Do you think we walked all this way beneath moons so that we could be given away by some idiot Dreamer captain?”
His feet lifted off the ground.
“You will keep your mouth shut unless spoken to today,” Lex continued. “Do you understand?”
Ash’s head nodded voraciously. And Lex released him at an instant.
His knees hit the dirt. He started coughing and holding his throat, recovering from the ordeal. Lex straightened her shirt and turned back to the others.
“Your plan, my Queen,” she said to Aydra.
Aydra wrapped her arms around her chest and turned back to the raised brow faces of Nadir and Draven. She stepped closer to them and began pointing at the map as she spoke.
“Nadir, your people will go around this side beneath the waters, ambushing them from the ships side. You’ll take their boats first. They’ve weapons on them. You’ll need to make sure they are not manned by the time the Venari ambush on shore. Balandria, you’ll lead a stealth company to take out the centuries. Draven, your wind can discombobulate the guards, throw them off so that they are confused about what is happening—”
“And what will you do?” Balandria said, cutting her off.
Aydra met her eyes, and the raven landed on her shoulder.
“The sun breaks in less than an hour,” Aydra continued. “We should get going.”
Nadir took two slow steps towards her. “If my men die because of your plan, I’m taking your castle.”
“If your men die, it is because they do not know how to handle their weapons, not because of my plan,” she replied. “And you don’t have to threaten me to take the castle. It’s not mine.”
A quirk of a smile rose on his lips, and he clapped her shoulder upon passing her. “All right, you heard the Sun Queen,” he called to his people. “Take your side of the dunes. Come in from the reef. Pluck the bastards out of our waters one at a time—” he paused and leaned back down to her “Are we keeping the ships?” he asked in her ear.
“Yes, let’s keep the ships—”
“Why would you keep the ships?” interjected Ash.
Aydra paused to stare at him a moment. “Weapons. Supplies. We need to know what these people are capable of.”
Ash shifted the weight on his feet, but said nothing more. Nadir said something else to his people that Aydra didn’t catch. They started to move out all around them. The Venari people remained, still watching Aydra and Draven.
Draven’s jaw was taut as he stared at her. Balandria leaned in and whispered in his ear, to which Draven gave a nod.
“My company come with me,” Balandria said to them. She paused and gave Aydra a full once over. “The rest of you stay with your king.”
The Venari people all moved then, embracing each other as they separated into their companies. Aydra gave Draven’s silent figure a once over and then turned away from him. “We will meet you on the hill,” she muttered before walking away from them.
Lex and Ash followed Aydra through the forest to the hill at the edge of the tree line. The moons light was bright enough she could see the forest floor, but she had the raven fly in front of them anyway. She could just see fires down below on the beach, the silhouettes of men walking up and across the high dunes.
“Wait for my signal,” Aydra told Lex as she stared down at their true enemy. “Charge with the Venari company.”
“What will you do?” asked Ash.
Aydra’s jaw tightened. “Don’t bother yourself with what I will do, Captain,” she said with a sigh. “I can take care of myself.”
Ash’s hand touched her arm gently. “I will not allow my Queen to be without a guard. I will stay here with you. Fight for you.”
A brow raised on Aydra’s face and she looked past him at Lex. “Do you see my Second Sun behind you? Turn around. Look at her,” she asked Ash. “She is the only person on this land capable of taking care of me. So when I tell her to wait and charge with the Venari and not behind me, I mean you as well.”
“But—”
“Wait with Lex for my signal,” Aydra demanded again. “That’s an order from your Queen.”
Ash’s jaw tightened, but he gave her a slow nod nonetheless. “Yes, ma’am.”
The pair disappeared down the hill then, and Aydra hugged her arms over her chest. Her heart was beginning to beat harder in her chest as the sky began to lighten. Her fist clenched and unclenched at her side, one hand around her bow. She closed her eyes and felt for the cores of the creatures around her, of all the birds she knew had followed her through the woods that morning.