Page 3 of Once the Skies Fade

Matthias

Two months, four days, and fourteen hours. That’s how long it had been since I’d slept in my own bed. Not that I was counting or anything. Initially I had delighted at the prospect of getting a break from the irritatingly cute displays of affection between Connor—prince of Emeryn and my closest friend—and his new wife, Lieke, but now I was ready to be home.

While the inns around Emeryn provided adequate drink and hot food, the sleeping accommodations left much to be desired. Stars, when had I become such a pampered, pompous prick? I shook my head. Fuck it. If not wanting to sleep on a lumpy straw mattress night after night and wishing my ass didn’t hurt from riding in a saddle all stars-damned day made me a jackass, a jackass I would be.

I’m getting too old for this shit.

I might not have cared quite so much about the discomfort had we had any success whatsoever. For the third time since the rebel leaders had been killed a year and a half ago, my guards and I had traversed the entire country, stopping in every city and town and hamlet from Holsham to Shoerda in search of the remaining rebels—or any humans, for that matter. Even withLieke, a human as well as their future queen, the mortals had refused to reintegrate into Emeryn society.

“Can I ask you a question, sir?” My second in command, Tanner, rode up alongside me but kept his eyes straight ahead.

“Of course,” I said, side-eyeing the younger fae. He hadn’t served with us in the war, due to being too young. With so many of our force suffering from trauma and injury, it was the younger generation who had stepped up to fill our thinned ranks, and Tanner had quickly set himself apart from the rest with a keen sense of strategy and an unparalleled work ethic.

Tanner dropped his voice low, as if he didn’t want the rest of the guard behind us to overhear. “Why do we keep going on these campaigns? It’s obvious the rebels are gone.”

“Obvious how?” I asked.

“Nearly a year, sir, and no trace of them. No sightings. No scent trails. Nothing. And…” Tanner fidgeted in his seat.

“And what exactly?” Silence. “Spit it out.”

“Well, how do we expect to find them now that they’ve gone dark, when we failed to track them while they were actively attacking our roads? Even with some indication of where they were, we still never found them. Now we have nothing to base our search on, and we blindly fumble about the country.”

My mare, Storm, grumbled and shook her head, as if she were agreeing with Tanner’s assessment. Roughing a hand over my chin, I hummed thoughtfully.

“What happens if we stop, Tanner?” I asked casually.

He scrunched his face in concentration. “Well, we wouldn’t be cold and sore, for one.”

“And would we have any hope of finding the rebels by sitting on our asses back at the palace?”

Tanner shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Enlighten me.”

His earlier discomfort faded away as he straightened up in his saddle with refreshed confidence. “We could utilize local citizens to monitor traffic, or reach out to our counterparts in Arenysen for reinforcements and reconnaissance. What good is an alliance with them if we can’t call on them for aid?”

I glanced at him sidelong again and asked, “What makes you think we haven’t done that already?”

“Have we?”

I nodded solemnly, fixing my gaze forward again.

“And still nothing?”

Shaking my head, I pulled in a long breath of pine-soaked air. “But we don’t give up, not until we’re ordered to stop. Like it or not, Tanner, that is the job. We advise and offer council, yes, but ultimately we live to serve the crown. Like it or not, we are duty-bound to the royal family.”

“Do you ever wish for more?” Tanner’s question might have surprised me if I hadn’t been asked this so often by Connor in his odd attempt to play matchmaker and find me a wife of my own.

“This is the life I signed up for. It’s the only one I know, and the only one I want.” Before Tanner could come back with the same old arguments Connor always had, I gestured ahead of us. “We’re almost to Engle. Let’s hope our contact there actually has something for us this time.”

With that, I spurred Storm gently and rode on ahead.

Leaving the other two guards waiting outside, Tanner and I entered the Garrison Tavern. As expected at this late afternoon hour, it was nearly empty, and the only patron—a male hunched over the bar—quickly slapped two coins on the table and rushed out the door, leaving the barkeep alone with us. Tanner situatedhimself against one of the support beams, his hand resting lightly on the pommel of his sword while I approached.

“Mr. Marstens. It’s good to see you,” I said, but the demi-fae didn’t appear to share my sentiment.

He bristled as I picked up the departed patron’s coin and proceeded to spin it atop the bar. “I told you last time, general, I haven’t seen them.”

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