The captain nodded to Stormbreaker first, then let his eyes move immediately to Dari.
Stormbreaker sheathed his weapons and spoke calming words to his snorting bull talon, then leaned forward in his saddle and bowed. All the Stone Brothers followed his lead.
“Lord Westin, Cobb of Cobb.” Stormbreaker made his formal address to the dynast lord who held more physical territory than any other in Eyrie. “Once more in my life, you arrive at a moment of great need. I am surprised, but most grateful, to see you here.”
Lord Cobb continued to gaze at Dari, but when he spoke, his words were to Stormbreaker. “It’s good to see you again, too. What has it been since you last visited Cobb? Three years?”
“Four, Chi,” Stormbreaker corrected, using the formal honorific for a dynast lord and keeping his gaze averted despite Lord Cobb’s friendly familiarity.
“Four.” Lord Cobb nodded. “I remember now. During Lady Vagrat’s last visit. I’m glad I reached you in time. Some promise-brothers called on dav’ha and asked that I see Stone and Stone’s Harvest prizes safely back to Triune. We’ve set up supply lines across Cobb lands to help those trapped in other dynasts, and we have riders searching Altar, Mab, and Vagrat for parties in distress. Lord Ross—” He broke off, finally looking away from Dari, to her great relief. “Lord Ross is assisting the Stone parties in his dynast.”
Stormbreaker didn’t respond, and Dari didn’t dare speak a word. Zeller remained rigid on his mount, like a soldier at full attention who had not been given leave to relax. Windblown seemed too shocked to make a sound, and Zed and Aron were both sitting, wagon-side and talon-back respectively, openmouthed. Dari would have laid odds that Zed had never been so close to a dynast lord.
Lord Cobb gestured to the horses. “I know it will be a hardship, but you must abandon your livestock, wagons, and supplies. My soldiers will see to getting the accused and any infirm safely to Stone, but the rest, all who can ride, should move out now. I have torchbearers at the ready to accompany you, along with my personal regimen.”
Stormbreaker bowed so low his head neared the neck of his bull talon. When he rose again, he shifted in his saddle until he could look directly at Zeller. “This man is Dolf Zeller, Chi. A Dynast Guard veteran, and the elder of a nearby village those Brailing soldiers attempted to raid. Can some of your men clear his path home, and help him to claim our supplies? I’m hopeful the food and clothing and livestock might make their winter easier, and give them some excess to fall back on should the soldiers return later to scavenge.”
Lord Cobb immediately gave orders to a man on his right, and the man barked out a set of names. They rode out of formation and surrounded Zeller like an honor guard. The older man barely managed to return Zed’s dagger and express his thanks to Stormbreaker before they swept him away.
The next moments were a whirl of activity as Stone Brothers exchanged wagons and oxen and mules for mounts, loaded Harvest prizes into the saddles with them, and readied themselves to depart and ride hard for Triune across the night.
In the chaos, Lord Cobb managed to steer his mount close to Dari, who was now on foot, stroking the nose of the horse who had come out of the pack at her quick mental call.
The horse’s name was Toronado, and she didn’t think anyone but her had ever been able to ride the stallion. Unlike all the other mounts, this horse wasn’t saddled, and he had only a lead rope and halter—how most Dyn Cobb soldiers trained, and the way Dari had always preferred to ride.
“The beast has missed you,” Lord Cobb said beneath the din and clamor. “As do others, who act almost as beastly when their hearts are wounded.”
Dari met the man’s warm brown eyes for a moment, then looked away to find Aron’s gaze fixed on her, like she was a puzzle he was struggling to piece together. There was worry on the boy’s face, and something like fear.
He’s afraid I’m going to leave him. He doesn’t want me to go.
And what did she want?
Dari knew she could part company with the Stone Brothers now, head for Can Lanyard, the massive Rope City on the plains of Can Cobb, under the dynast lord’s protection. That might be a safer place for her to pass the war, certainly a more stately and comfortable location, and Lord Cobb might be able to smuggle her home after she found her sister.
But finding Kate…
And now there was Aron, too, and Stormbreaker. Two Fae, bound to her by promise.
She sighed and pressed her face into Toronado’s neck. The horse gave a snort and whinny, and she knew the creature meant it as a greeting.
Lord Cobb shifted close to her again. “Of all people to have taken up with a group of Fae—Stone Brothers at that—I wouldn’t have thought it would be you.” He shook his head. “Now I know for certain you’ll do anything for your sister. Everything isn’t your responsibility, child. She’s not your responsibility.”
“Who will help Kate, then? My cousin Platt?” Dari took her face from the horse’s neck. “He’ll have her hunted and killed.”
Lord Cobb’s expression flickered between sternness and pity. “Kate has always posed a danger to your people, but Platt hasn’t moved against her out of respect for your wishes. And his own mercy.”
Dari chose not to respond to his statement. She was as loyal to her people, as protective of their separation from Eyrie, their secrecy, as anyone—but Kate’s right to live had been settled long ago. If necessary, Dari would defend it with sword and claw and tooth, with her own breath and life. Her grandfather would defend it with all his armies, if it came to that.
“Tell my grandfather… tell him I love him very much.” She swallowed hard, having trouble with a tightening lump in her throat. Being around this man, thinking so much about her family—it made her feel like a little girl again. “And tell him that I’m sorry for losing Kate, and I’m sorry I haven’t found her yet.”
“He doesn’t blame you.” Lord Cobb’s expression went soft, like Dari remembered from so many times in her childhood, and that feeling of being a vulnerable little girl doubled, then tripled. “A moment’s lapse—it could have happened to any of us. Your grandfather isn’t angry over you coming north to look for Kate, though he’s beside himself with concern for both of you. I fear there’s little time left for searching. Platt has sent representatives in your grandfather’s dynast, and they’ve already begun their own hunt for your sister.”
The world flew back from Dari. She tried to grab for her own maturity, but she was still lost in that small-child sensation. She couldn’t get her bearings. She lost track of her surroundings, the soldiers, the Stone Brothers, the horses—everything. Heat raced along her muscles, tearing and pushing, and her blood blazed so hot sweat broke across every inch of her skin. The horse she was soothing yanked his head against her firm grip on his rope, his eyes rolling back, showing white terror as he stamped the ground beside her.
“Curse him,” she snarled, not caring that she was speaking ill of her own cousin, the man who was her Stregan regent, and the leader of her people in exile. The resonance in her voice was almost enough to overcome the noise around them. “You tell Platt that if anyone harms Kate, that someone will answer to me.”
Lord Cobb didn’t shy back from her, but the black and ruby essence of his graal flared brightly about his shoulders.
Don’t shift. Don’t change. His directed thought rushed across her mind, as if from great distance, speaking to that animal part of her as those with the Cobb legacy could do so well. Not here, little one. All would be lost.
But her muscles were already growing. Expanding. Pain stabbed at her back and jaws and neck. She was changing, and there was nothing for it. Even Lord Cobb’s successful attempt at animal-speaking couldn’t ease her instincts or stifle her rage over the implied threat to her sister. It was species-deep, instinctual, flowing through her like a molten river.
Dari knew she was getting taller.
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to force herself to remain in fully human form.
Her breathing wouldn’t slow. Her heart wouldn’t stop its pounding beat in her temples, and she was still growing. Claws formed on her fingertips. Horses close to her began to twitch and whinny.
In moments, everyone would notice.
Dari swore to herself and tried again to keep a grip on rational thought, to hold her form—and failed. She was changing. She was—
Stop!
The command blasted through her awareness, seemingly from nowhere, so firm and loud Dari staggered against the panicked Toronado. The stallion reared, and she barely managed to keep hold of him, to bring him down before he trampled her. Images fired into her mind, of herself, looking normal and calm. She drank in the urgency of those thought-pictures, letting it flow over her intense wish to protect Kate. She couldn’t have fought against the images even if she wished to. They were absolutely true, those pictures. Undeniable. Right.
The flaming agony of her transformation ceased abruptly, leaving her cold and still, teeth chattering, fighting to regain mental purchase and an understanding of what had just happened.
The first thing she noticed was Lord Cobb looking shocked instead of worried.
Dari turned to follow his gaze and blinked against the sapphire blaze of Aron’s full Brailing graal. The color quickly muted and shifted to a dull dollop of blue, allowing Dari to see the concern etched across the boy’s face. Aron’s eyes were wide, and his fists clenched Tek’s reins. The little talon stood frozen beneath him, as if caught by the same command that had stilled Dari’s angry shift to her Stregan form.
Aron’s eyes got wider.
He looked almost as scared and frozen as his talon.
Stormbreaker edged his big bull closer to Aron. “Is all well in this quarter?” he asked, his voice quiet but firm.
Aron looked even more horrified, and Dari understood that the boy didn’t know if he had done right or wrong in her eyes. He also didn’t know if later, when apprised, Stormbreaker would approve of his decision.
“All is well,” she said, looking at Aron, hoping he grasped her meaning.
“As well as it can be,” Lord Cobb amended. He gave Aron another measured stare, then guided his mount away from Dari before any further trouble ensued from their contact.
Before Dari had quite recovered from seeing her grandfather’s best friend, from giving up a chance to return to familiar territory and familiar people at his side, and from almost revealing her true nature to hundreds of Stone Brothers and soldiers, the traveling column was preparing to move out again.
This time, there was nothing to slow them. There would be no thoughts of night or shelters or dangers along the road.
As the soldiers escorting Zeller herded livestock into a circle and began to push southwest toward the town, Lord Cobb galloped forward, hesitated to allow his torchbearers to form ranks around the travelers, then shouted, “Triune!”
“Triune!” his soldiers echoed, and Zed, and many of the Stone Brothers, too.
Dari noticed Aron remained silent at Stormbreaker’s side. The boy kept glancing at her, and she resolved to thank him properly at her first opportunity. Perhaps that would help him understand that he had used his mind-talent well this time, that he had saved her and perhaps her sister, too, not to mention protected the anonymity of her people.
Lord Cobb led them forward, trotting at first, then quickly shifting to a gallop.
Dari wrapped her fingers into Toronado’s mane and tried not to let herself feel the weight of a day that had already been too long and far too eventful. She let her thoughts flow into the movement of the horse as the stallion tensed, then bolted forward.
As the cold night wind hit her full in the face, as her eyes began to water and her skin began to chill, Dari allowed herself only one thought beyond keeping her own body in rhythm with Toronado’s gait and shifts.
Let us find safety before the sun is full in tomorrow’s sky—and let me find a way to search for Kate before it’s too late.
CHAPTER TWENTY
ARON
The small hours passed outside Aron’s awareness, and dawn came only at the fringes of his perceptions.
Had the torchbearers doused their flames?
Yes.
He could see better. More shapes than moonslit darkness or gray mysteries. Still, villages blurred into woods into hills into rocks as they passed. He no longer even took the effort to look at them. The packed dirt byway was wide now, and mostly empty but for their traveling column.
How long had they been riding at this streaking-arrow pace?
Hours.
But it seemed more than days.
All he could hear was the thunder of hooves and the thump of clawfeet. All he could taste was dust. His arms and hands and fingers had gone numb, along with his feet. He wished his legs and belly and back would deaden, too, and leave him in peace. Perhaps he should tie himself to Tek’s neck, as Stormbreaker had done during his Harvest, just to be certain he didn’t slip from his saddle and get crushed to death by other talons and horses.
Tek’s scales were so lathered from her fatigue that the oozing, smelly oil dripped on his cramping legs, and her battle ring kept flipping upward. Over and over again, he reached up to stroke her neck and restore her focus, which got harder as his own slipped away.
Beside him, Stormbreaker and Windblown kept their eyes forward, expressions flat and determined as they thundered toward Triune. Soldiers on horseback surged up and back, sometimes ringing them, sometimes falling away to leave the talons clear ground to run. Aron clenched his jaw as he twisted his burning neck and checked behind him. Zed and Dari were riding close at his flank. Neither were shouting complaints from the backs of their horses, and nor would Aron. Even if his thighs bled. Even if his back broke.
“Halt!” came a cry from the front of their column.
At first, Aron wasn’t certain he heard it, but the motion ahead began to settle into stillness.
Others picked up the call, and bit by bit, the traveling column slowed.
He tried to haul back on Tek’s reins. At first his arms wouldn’t respond, but Aron managed to put his weight into the pull and get the little talon’s attention. She came to a restless halt beside Stormbreaker’s bull, her sides heaving, oil sliding from her scales and spattering against the well-trampled ground.
“Come with me.” Stormbreaker glanced at Aron and Dari as he steered his talon forward, into the ranks of lathered mounts and drooping heads.
Aron pressed his heels into Tek’s sides.
The talon squeaked, but didn’t move.
He nudged her again, and she let out a hiss—but she stumbled forward, making her way behind the bull. The clop-clop of Dari’s stallion’s hooves let Aron know she was following, too. He hadn’t had time to wonder at how effortlessly she rode, and without saddle or bridle, but he was growing accustomed to the endless stores of mysteries related to Dari.
On they went, weaving through exhausted riders, until they reached Cobb’s standard-bearers and the front of the traveling column. Lord Cobb had moved his mount to the edge of the rise, and he had his helmet off, gazing into what Aron assumed would be the vale or gorge below. The dynast lord’s horse didn’t move at all as the talons approached, and Aron figured the creature had been through much training and many mock battles. It probably wouldn’t shy from a falling boulder or flee a spiraling arrow unless its rider directed it to do so.
The sight of such a well-trained animal chased away some of Aron’s fatigue. One day, I’ll be able to train Tek like that, and other talons, and horses, too.
“Here.” Stormbreaker gestured to a spot on the rise beside him. “Come and look, boy.”
Aron’s muscles tensed. After all they had seen and been through since his Harvest, his mind shrank back from more surprises, more chaos and destruction—but he made himself hold his head level. At the nudge of his heels, Tek moved forward.
Dari moved her stallion until it drew even with Aron and Tek as he gazed over the e
dge of the rise.
“Oh,” Dari said, but Aron couldn’t say anything at all.
In the far distance, yellow sands that had to be from the Barrens reached toward bare rock and gravel Aron recognized as Outlands from hunting excursions with his father. Both formed the upper boundary of a green valley crisscrossed by bright blue rivers and streams. The valley’s southern edge was obscured by columns of blue-gray mists.
I’m looking at the Deadfall for the first time.
His blood seemed to hesitate in his veins, then grow cold at the thought of the horrors slithering through those mists. Daylight or moonslight, it didn’t matter in the Deadfall. Manes walked those poisoned lands at all hours.
But even that realization paled inside Aron, lost to his awe at the castle filling the habitable portion of the valley.
It was magnificent. Scarcely believable.
“Triune is larger than Can Lanyard in my dynast,” Lord Cobb said. “It’s as self-sufficient as any great city—any dynast, even. And an absolute marvel of construction. There has never been a successful breach of Stone, from without or from within. I doubt any army could successfully lay siege to that fortress, even if they were foolish enough to try.”
“Stone never makes war or joins it, Chi,” Stormbreaker said, “so no one makes war on us—except errant Brailing soldiers on the road. Look there, Aron.” He pointed to the right corner. “That’s the main gate and keep, where we’ll enter.”
Aron tried to take in the magnitude of the keep, but failed. Instead, he fell to counting the outer structures beside the main gate and keep, the tall stone buildings connected by what looked like a massive wall. The structures seemed too plentiful, as if his eyes were playing tricks on his mind.
“How many towers?” he asked, after losing count for the third time.
“I’ve been trying to count,” Dari murmured, and to Stormbreaker’s right, Lord Cobb laughed. It was a tired sound, but somehow relaxing and inviting at the same time.
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