Page 78 of Wings of Cruelty and Flame

Focus,Mak growled at me, falling into place at the head of the legion’s formation, my friends tense and alert as we raced for the wall. The legion that flew towards the Red Star was three times the size of ours, a fact that made my stomach compact into a tight knot. If I didn’t deescalate the situation, my people could be harmed or killed. My mum could be, or my wife. Sensing the direction of my thoughts, Mak’s body rumbled with a warning growl that matched mine.

“We need to stay calm and handle this with diplomacy,” I told him, trying to keep my own protectiveness in check. But unfamiliar wyverns flying into my kasbah when there was unrest in Ithanys cast fire on every defensive instinct I had until my soul roared.

Mak’s rough exhale showed his unhappiness, but he cut off his growl, and on my right, Aliah’s sleek burgundy followed his example. I’d already run through my rough plan before we hit the skies, so everyone was briefed, but I passed a stare over them all, checking everyone was focused and masking any aggression. It would do us no good if these wyvern really were Kaldic.

I’d wonder how the fuck they’d got hold of our wyverns later, when the rage wouldn’t make me explode.

I slowed as we passed over the tan-stone wall, meeting the eyes of the guard whose wyvern loomed on top of the watchtower, beady orange eyes fixed on the nearing wyverns. They were still a good distance away but flying at such a determined rate that they’d be here in half an hour. Maybe less.

I prayed they were misplaced from Wyfell, seeking refuge. I prayed this was innocent and perfectly safe, not a threat.

“Any clue what house they’re from?” I asked the watchman, slowing Mak. “Any identifying marks or colours?”

“None that I could see,” the grizzled, fifty-something man yelled, as if I was the one hard of hearing. “It looks like black clothes, maybe your friend’s house.”

I glanced at Zaarib on my left. He shrugged. “It’s possible; I don’t know every member of my house. I’ve got family in Daurith I’ve never met.”

Shula snorted on his other side. “Yeah, and I’m a princess. I say we fly out, warn them off, and blast them to charred bones if they refuse.”

“Diplomatic as always, my dear,” Zaarib remarked. “Shall wetryto avoid grilled fae, at least for the time being?”

Saif snapped his sharp jaws in Zaarib’s direction, not liking his tone, and Dahab returned the gesture. I took that moment to nod thanks at the watchman and guide my legion beyond the wall. A shimmer of magic passed over us, the protections around the city amplified. An invisible shield expanded from the highestminaret at the heart of the Red Star, all the way to the walls. No one would catch us unawares.

“Enough,” I snapped when Zaarib’s golden wyvern growled. “We don’t know what we’re facing right now, and you two fighting is not helping anyone.” I addressed the wyverns but didn’t look them in the eyes, mostly because I didn’t want to lose a limb. “We fly out to them as one unit, as we’ve faced everything else. And keep your heads, all of you.”

“As opposed to misplacing them?” Zaarib asked, moving his head side to side, hands checking his neck. “Looks like mine’s pretty stable.” He glanced across me to Aliah and Nabil. “How about you guys?”

Aliah rolled her eyes. I shook my head, amusement hitting my chest for a split second, but I was aware, as we all were, of the empty spot at my back where Fahad usually guarded Mak’s tail. This was the first time we’d flown without him and it felt… wrong. Empty.

But I couldn’t let that distract me, or I’d really lose control and unleash all my protective rage on these riders who may not deserve it.

They could be refugees,I reminded myself as we flew closer to the flight, enough that I could see no silver on their clothes, only black. Not House Kissami then.

“Look at the wyvern’s eyes,” Aliah hissed, throwing me a wide-eyed look. I didn’t let any unease show, only confidence, but when I looked at the eyes of each wyvern in the front row flying towards us, I saw only glossy, inky black from iris to pupil.

“Hold your nerve. We talk our way out of this. Play along with whatever bullshit propaganda they say.” They echoed my words down the line to Nabil and Shula, and we all fell silent.

My heart pounded when we grew close enough to see the riders’ faces, none familiar but all especially… normal. They didn’t look Kaldic, but there were only subtle differencesbetween our clothing, our physical appearances similar thanks to our shared heritage. But I couldn’t take for granted they were Ithanysian, so I pulled Mak to a slower glide until we hovered in the air a few wingbeats in front of them.

“It isn’t safe to be approaching new cities,” I called out to the riders. “Some are hostile to newcomers, and our walls are closed to unfamiliar riders, I’m afraid.”

I didn’t see clergy sigils on their breasts, but that meant nothing. I held myself tight until the broad-shouldered, forty-something man riding at their head responded.

“We came seeking a sky-blue wyvern,” he shouted, deep-voiced and powerful; I felt the magic in his voice. I held myself perfectly still, willing Mak into the same forced calm, refusing to give away anything. If Raheema had endangered us in any way, I was going to… actually, I didn’t know. I couldn’t hurt a wyvern. “No one has seen a sky blue in a century,” he added. “Curious timing.”

Curious, with the three-day storm and the lightning strike. Internally, I seethed, magic roiling, roiling.

Calm down,Mak pushed down the tether towards us, outwardly silent.

I pulled air into my lungs. “I’ve never seen a sky-blue wyvern, we have only sapphires and cobalts in Red Manniston like yours.” I gestured at the sapphire riding at his side. “But I’ll keep an eye on the skies. In times like these, it pays to be careful, and like you said, it’s curious timing.”

The man tilted his head, his skin smooth brown, lacking any weathering or scars I’d expect on a rider his age. Had he taken up riding recently? I smoothed the frown off my face.

I felt tension run through my whole legion, but we didn’t move a single inch, hovering in place by the flutter of wyvern wings.

“We suspect the sky-blue to be the mount of the lightning soul.”

I recoiled, my breath catching, and played up my reaction, letting horror fill my expression. “Thatabominationis why we’ve shut down the kasbah. I don’t want it anywhere near meormy people. If we see it, who should we pass a message to?”

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