Page 39 of Of Steel and Scale

We were about five minutes away from the entrance to the blue vein system when the queen’s presence sharpened in my mind.

You come?

Later. We’ve men missing in a tunnel and need to find them first.

Not eat. Not that hungry yet.

I grinned, though it was such an echo of my earlier conversation with Kele and Damon that I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d been listening in.

Once we find what happened to our people, I’ll come back and finish repairing Gria’s wings.

Good.She paused.Like here.

It was once an old aerie.

Know.

Just as she undoubtedly knew why it was no longer used.

Why men missing? Gilded ones?

I frowned.Gilded ones?

Images flooded my mind, so fast and sharp that I stumbled and would have fallen had Damon somehow not caught me.

His gaze scanned me in concern. “You okay?”

I nodded. “Kaia just sent several images of the birds that attacked them, and I wasn’t expecting it. Hang on for a sec.”

I pulled my arm from his grip but didn’t step away. The birds were about half the size of drakkons, with a shorter wingspan and stubby, powerful necks. Their legs were long, black, and scaly, their talons thick daggers, and their beaks hooked. The metallic feathers cloaked the top of their bodies but not their underbellies, which looked to be regular feathers of a rich, bloody hue.

On top of them, in what very much resembled the type of saddle we used on our coursers—but with girths around the base of each wing and a connecting leash under the barrel—was a short stocky figure wearing what looked to be chain armor made of golden feathers. This covered them from head to foot, and they wore both a helmet and gauntlets—the latter, I couldn’t help but note, five fingered, not six.

The Mareritt weren’t behind any of this.

Which wasn’t much of a relief. At least with the Mareritt we’d have some idea who we were dealing with.

Kaia, when the birds flung their feathers, did new ones slip into their place?

Unsure. Fighting, not looking.

Censure ran through her mental tone. Understandably so.Could your claws penetrate their armor?

Armor?

I sent an image of the golden feathers.

Yes, but hard to get close. Belly better. Unprotected.

What of the rider?

Armed. Killed Ebrus. Flung him.

Ebrus being her male drakkling.The rider? Or Ebrus?

Ripped free. Threw to ground.

My heart began to beat a whole lot faster. If the rider had been fully armored, it was unlikely predators could make an easy meal of him. And that meant, if we could find him, we might finally get some idea of who or what we were fighting. At the very least, if their armor was made out of feathers, we could study and test it for means of destruction.

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