Page 68 of Of Steel and Scale

Maybe that was why Mom wasn’t here. Maybe she simply couldn’t confront the reality of losing everyone and everything she had loved growing up. Her immediate family might be safe here, but she came from a large extended family, and many, including my cousin Garran, hadn’t been able to make the journey. Mom was the strongest, most sensible person I knew, but even she could be swamped by a tragedy this large.

And it wouldn’t be the first....

I pushed that thought away determinedly. We would find a way to stop them. We had to. The only other choice was to cede them our lands, and that was never going to happen. Not while any of us had breath left to fight. Not whileIhad breath left.

My father glanced up as I entered, his gaze sweeping me and relief briefly evident. But there was a tension in him, a sadness, that had my skin twitching. Something else had happened.

“Report, Captain Silva.”

I did so, fleshing out the details I’d scribed earlier. When I’d finished, he nodded and said, “I’ll contact our trading partners and see if any of them have had contact with such a race. We’ll also post guards in the blue vein and main tunnel—that will at least give us some forewarning of an attack. What of your drakkons?”

“Protected.”

“Good. Good.” He glanced down at the maps, and tension rippled briefly across his shoulders. When he looked up again, the tension within me increased. He really didn’t want to ask whatever it was he was about to.

“Captain, this is a question rather than an order.... Can your queen fly over the five islands and give us an aerial report?”

Surprise flickered through me. Surprise and concern. “What else has happened?”

“They’ve blocked our harbor,” Harris said. “We drove them off before they could destroy the fleet, but we nevertheless lost two galleons in the attack and a dozen men.”

The fact that wehadbeen able to drive them off was at least something. “And the ship you were sending to pick up the survivors from the cutters?”

“Found fourteen and recovered four bodies. They are on their way to Hopetown.”

Hopetown was a long way from the islands, but in current circumstances, might be the only safe port left in this section of East Arleeon. “How in the wind’s name did they block the harbor?”

“Magic. Blood magic,” my father said heavily. “By the time our earth witches were aware of the spell and tried to counter it, it was too late. They destroyed half the peninsula and dumped all the rubble into the harbor’s mouth.”

“It’s going to take days for our witches to remove it all,” Harris added. “We need to know what the situation is for the survivors over on those islands.”

Presuming those islands hadn’t suffered the complete decimation of their population that Eastmead had, of course. He didn’t say that, but he didn’t have to. We were all thinking it.

Then I frowned. “What time did they attack?”

“Just before dawn,” my father said. “Why?”

“When I saw the armored bird and its rider, it was just after dawn, and the creature had what looked to be some sort of hood over its eyes. It might well mean they’re sunlight sensitive and therefore unable to hunt during the day.”

“Not necessarily,” Jarin said, his voice a low rumble that matched his stout figure. “Hooding is a commonly used procedure on gray hawks to calm them down, especially when they’re young and new to training.”

“Yes, but every attack so far has either been at night or just before dawn. That does suggest some limitations.”

“Meaning a flight over to the island might be safely done during the day.” The glance Vaya cast my father suggested they’d been arguing over that point, and I wasn’t entirely surprised. He might be my commander, but he was also my father, and those two halves would always be at war when it came to ordering me into dangerous situations. “We must risk it, Commander. We have no real choice here.”

“Except the question was not answered.” His voice was flat, but his gaze and his attention was on me. “And I will not make it a command, simply because there is only one person in this room who can command your drakkon. Additional air witches have been called in. It remains possible that by combining their powers they could transport a small scouting force to Jakarra.”

“And it could yet take days for those summoned to arrive,” Jarin said. “Depending on the level of destruction that has happened on those islands, it’s possible those who remain may not have that much time left.”

My father didn’t reply. He just held my gaze, willing me to refuse,wantingme to refuse, even though he utterly agreed with everything being said. Because he knew, without a doubt, that I would not ask Kaia to do this alone. I would go with her, protect her, as much as I could.

“I will ask her when I check on her tomorrow morning. The decision is hers to make, not mine.”

Will, she said. Her mental tones were distant but nevertheless determined.White hair feed Gria?

I briefly closed my eyes. There was a part of me that had wanted her to refuse, because she was risking everything for us, and we so didn’t deserve it.Yes, Kele will ensure Gria is fed.

Good. We fly.

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