Page 33 of Of Steel and Scale

The guards at the entrance of the war room snapped to attention and saluted. I returned the action and went through the door. The room was full and chaotic, the noise close to deafening.

Something had happened. Somethingbad.

The islands....

I sucked in a breath and released it slowly. Facts first, fear later.

I scanned the room and spotted my parents at the scribe quill whose pair was situated in the ruling council’s offices on Jakarra.

I hurried over. “What’s happened?”

But I knew, even before my father glanced up. One look at Mom’s stricken face told me everything I needed to know.

“We’ve multiple reports of attacks coming in from the smaller islands.” Though my father’s voice was flat, his eyes were bright with barely repressed fury. “They were attacked at dusk, just as the boats were coming in from the day’s fish.”

“Are there many casualties?”

He waved a hand at the nearby desks. “We’re still receiving information, but yes, the numbers are high.”

“And Jakarra?”

Mom glanced up at that. There were tears in her eyes. Tears she was somehow holding in check.

“We’re still trying to raise someone.” She hesitated and blinked rapidly. One lone tear escaped and trickled down her cheek. “But from all reports, it’s been destroyed. Totally and utterly destroyed.”

6

“No!”The denial was torn from me. “That’s not possible.”

“According to the missives we received from Zergon before their scribe went down, the capital was ablaze and none of the fleet made it out of the harbor.”

Zergon was the smallest of the five islands, and the closest to Jakarra. Garran had once told me a decent enough swimmer could get from one island to the other in little over an hour.

And if theyhadn’tbeen able to do that, then Garran and every other person on that island might now be dead.

Just as all the inhabitants of Eastmead were dead.

I scrubbed a hand through my knotted hair and wished I could push back the fear and distress as easily. “But Jakarra has multiple watch stations along her harbor—there is no earthly way anyone should have been able to attack her without the siren being sounded.”

“It would depend on which side of the island they swept in on.” My father’s voice was grim. “Remember, vast tracts of the northern side remain uninhabited.”

“But surely someone could have—”managed to send a warning before the invasion force swept in,but I spotted Mom’s expression and kept the words back and gripped her arm instead. It was a somewhat useless gesture of comfort but all either of them would allow in a public situation such as this.

She smiled—an extremely pale refection of its usual robust self—and added, “Wewillknow soon enough, though.”

“Rescue boats have been sent?”

Rion shook his head. “Six cutters. They should be small enough to escape detection from any enemy patrol that remains aloft. Once we get a full report on the situation there, we can decide our next move.”

I drew in a breath and released it slowly. “Any word from the patrol you sent into the Black Glass Mountains?”

“Not at this point.”

I frowned. “They should have reached the Beak by now, even without using the more direct older caverns.”

The Beak—so named because it rather weirdly resembled a kayin’s slightly hooked beak when viewed from the sea—was one of the smaller peaks in the Black Glass range, but it was the closest to Esan and gave a good line of sight to the Throat. If our enemy had set up camp on that treacherous peak, they should be able to see it. Weather willing, of course.

“I know, and at this point, I’m not willing to risk anyone else going after them.”

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