Page 5 of Of Steel and Scale

The bow of the boat slid onto the sands, and several sailors leapt out to tie her off. My father didn’t wait for the ramp. He simply braced a hand on the gunwale, jumped over the side, and then strode toward me. Damon followed. I couldn’t help noticing he moved with the grace of a high-forest wildcat. My father was bullish in comparison.

I straightened and saluted. He might be my father, but he was also my commander, and I had no idea which I might be facing at this particular moment. “You got my message then, sir?”

“And sent a guard to retrieve Desta. Report, Captain.”

His voice was curt, and relief swept me. Commander mode made it far easier to keep my emotions under control. “The village has been looted and razed, and all within murdered.”

He stopped abruptly, his golden gaze darting to the burned remnants above us. “The destruction isn’t the result of an out-of-control fire, as you’d initially theorized, then?”

“No. It’s very definitely a raid.”

My gaze found Damon’s. His eyes were the rich, clear blue of the ice melt lakes and just as damn cold. He gave me a nod but little else in the way of greeting. Which was damn fine with me. The less I had to do with the man until tomorrow, the better.

My father glanced back to the longboat and snapped his fingers. His personal guard immediately leapt onto the sand and came toward us.

“Jarrod, immediate perimeter search.”

As the tall captain saluted and started assigning his men locations, my father motioned me forward and then fell in step beside me. “Any indication as to who’s responsible?”

“I haven’t had the chance to search the southern end of the settlement as yet, but whoever did this has so far left nothing behind.”

“The Mareritt are very rarely that careful,” Damon commented. His voice was like good ale, so deep and smoky.

He’d fallen into step to my left. Despite the inner need to keep distance, I was nevertheless aware not only of his size, but also the barely restrained power in every movement. He’d certainly changed in the twelve years since I’d last seen him, and for the better. I wished the same could have been said about me, but I’d hit my teenage years tall and lanky, and had never really developed beyond that. According to the whisperers, my lack of “womanly” assets had been one of the reasons for the marriage agreement taking so long to finalize.

“Normally, no,” my father agreed. “But neither has a summer passed without a major assault against either fortress before now.”

“What happened here isn’t their usual mode of operation,” I commented. “Besides, they hate the sea.”

“So do you,” my father growled. “It’s never stopped you boarding a boat when necessary.”

“Yeah, but they live underground for nine months of the year,” I snapped back, then sucked in a breath to regain control.Commander, not father. Act appropriately.“That’s hardly conducive to boat building.”

“Which doesn’t negate the fact that it’s entirely possible,” he replied, “especially given the great magic their mages are capable of.”

If magichadbeen used here, then it wasn’t the type the Mareritt typically used. Why I was so certain of that, I couldn’t say. It wasn’t like I was in any way attuned to it. It was just instinct—a gut feeling.

But the only gut my father trusted was his own—and Mom’s. Everyone else had best provide evidence to back intuition or remain silent.

I turned right and led the two men toward the marketplace, my gaze on the blackened fingers of wood rather than the stomach-churning destruction that lay underneath.

“It wouldn’t be entirely surprising if this was the start of a new direction from them,” Damon said. “Even the Mareritt aren’t foolish enough to keep banging their blunt heads against the same impassable walls year in and year out.”

“And yet they’ve done exactly that for centuries.” My voice held an edge I couldn’t quite conceal. “If they were capable of learning such a lesson, they surely would have done so before now.”

He cast a somewhat scathing look my way. “It never pays to underestimate the enemy.”

“Or indeed so-called friends,” I bit back.

In the fading light of the day, I swear a glint of amusement briefly warmed his eyes. There was no alteration in his stony expression, however, so it was probably just a trick of the light.

“If not the Mareritt, then who else? Arleeon has few other enemies.”

“That we know of,” I said. “But we’re a continent rich in pastoral and mineral wealth; that’s always a lure to those who are less fortunate.”

“If one of our allies were intent on making such a move,” Damon said, “why start with a place as forsaken as this?”

“Perhaps they believed they could more easily traverse—” My father abruptly stopped, his expression dissolving into horror. “In Vahree’s name, who would commit such an atrocity?”

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