Page 71 of Born of Blood and Ash

“I am.”

He exhaled heavily and then nodded. “Okay.”

I smiled at him. “Thank you.”

He gave me a small shake of his head, and I could tell thathe was still concerned about me getting overwhelmed.

“When do you suggest we address the people?” I asked Rhain.

“I would say as soon as possible,” he said, looking betweenAsh and me.

Concern blossomed. “Are people worried they’re not welcome?”

“No,” Rhain was quick to assure me. “There is just somegeneral nervousness. Many have been through a lot, and even those who wereaware of you don’t entirely know what to expect.”

I nodded slowly, thinking it over. “Summoning the Primals is important, but I think assuring the people thatthey are safe and welcome here is a priority. It’s something I doubt Koliswould do.”

“You can count on that being correct,” Bele commented.

Ash shifted in his chair. “How long would it take for theCity Hall to be secured and prepared for such an address?”

Theon looked at his sister. “What do you think? I’ll be inthe Bonelands.”

After a moment, she said, “Tomorrow afternoon would be theearliest. It would be tight, but doable.”

I looked at Ash. “Can we postpone going to Vathi until theday after?”

“We can.”

My stomach twisted and dropped but I pushed past it. “Thenwe’ll address the people of Lethe tomorrow and then speak with Attes.”

“Sounds like we have a plan,” Ash said, glancing across thetable at Rhain. “See to it.”

Exhaling slowly, I nodded as I looked around the table,hoping we—I—were making all the right decisions. I felt it was right when itcame to prioritizing speaking with the people of Lethe, but everything else?Despite my instinct being more aligned with Bele’s strike-first mentality, Idid believe that being cautious was the way to go.

But if I was wrong?

Blood would flow.

“It’s called the Valley of Blood,” Ash said. “The RedRiver used to run through here and, according to my father, was once as wide asan ocean. But long before I was even born, it began to thin out. What you’reseeing is the old riverbed.”

Seated astride Odin, my hand tightened around Ash’s arm. Icould easily see where the valley, nestled between the city of Lethe andanother sweeping wall of shadowstone, had gotten itsname. The land, all but what appeared to be large, jagged outcroppings of shadowstone, was stained red. While that alone wasshocking, it wasn’t what caused my lips to part. Nor was it the snowcappedmountains of Vathi that I could see in the distance. It was what occupied thecrimson valley below.

After the meeting, I’d asked about the Shadowlands’forces—how many we had, how they were trained…

Instead of giving a vague answer as Ash had done in thepast, he’d offered to show me. There was no wild dash through the Dying Woodslike the last time I’d been this close to Lethe. We’d left through the Risegates, joined by Rhain and Lailah, and I saw that the once-bent, crooked treesthat crowded the shadowstone wall had sprouted budsand even small, glossy leaves. As we traveled, I spotted tiny white flowers insome of the burgeoning meadows. There was green everywhere I looked—so muchmore than just a day before.

That was until we neared the Dying Woods. They had remainedas such, heavily shadowed and even more somber. My skin crawled as we skirtedthem, traveling a narrow path along the bluffs. I’d seen the gray, shadowyforms of the Shades moving in and out of the dead trees several times. Eatherhad pressed against my skin upon seeing the souls who refused to pass throughthe Pillars of Asphodel out of fear of judgment for their sins while alive. Itwas almost as if they were tracking us.

Tracking me.

I’d exhaled the moment we cleared the Dying Woods, and theBlack Bay, along with the tall Rise surrounding Lethe, appeared. I wasn’tlooking forward to passing them again, and I wasn’t exactly sure why, beyondthe fact that the Shades were incredibly creepy. But thoughts of Shades fell tothe wayside as the path we traveled diverged from the fortified city, followedthe widening contour of the bluff, and opened to the valley.

Rows of squat, one-story buildings faced the Black Bay,built in a semi-circle. There had to be hundreds of what looked to bedormitories. Towers flanked them, taller than the Rise, and clearly used tokeep an eye on what lay to the south and the east. My gaze shifted northward towhere an utter sea of soldiers dressed in black and red trained. It would behard to pick them out from the environment from a distance, but I saw them. Allof them.

“How many are there?” I asked.

“Approximately forty-two thousand,” Ash answered.

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