Page 89 of The Threadbare Queen

What the Kassian had really been interested in was Cervantes’ position along the border with Venyatu.

And the raids had managed to wear the Cervantes down. Kassia’s numbers were greater, and they preferred to ambush and raid during the night. They avoided skirmishes and battles, and when they had enough children in the camps, they’d used the lives of those children as leverage against the warriors of the Cervantes, blackmailing them into laying down arms so the children weren’t punished in retaliation.

Whole villages had chosen to disappear onto the plains and into the forests, becoming nomads and making it harder for the Kassian military to find the children that remained. But since Luc had freed every child and pushed the Kassians back from Cervantes, his people had begun to drift back to the homes they’d abandoned.

Versai had been one of the first to be repopulated, along with Ta-lin, being as they were in the heart of Cervantes.

A child began wailing, and Luc swung down and led his horse toward the sound.

This was the first sign of life they’d found since Bintinya, and he needed as much information as he could get.

The child’s cry came from inside a small wooden house, and he knocked lightly and then peered inside.

“Luc?”

He went still at the sound of his name, peering into the gloom, and caught a glimpse of a woman leaning over. A lantern bloomed to life, illuminating the gloomy space.

“Sierra?”

She had fought with him in the camps. She was one of Massi’s closest friends.

And she had left the Rising Wave when she fell pregnant, returning home.

Everyone had thought it was the safest thing for her.

Her heart’s choice, Rory, had stayed to fight, and he was back in Fernwell.

Luc was grateful he wasn’t here.

There would be no containing him.

“Your baby is hurt.” That was an understatement. Luc could see blood seeping through a dressing on the child’s shoulder.

“They came out of nowhere, in the early hours.” Sierra spoke with a low voice. “I was up, because Roan was crying and I stepped outside with him, hoping the cool air would soothe him.”

“They attacked a woman with a child?” Luc tried to keep his voice neutral.

“I think I surprised them. They were sneaking into the town, down side streets and along the sides of houses. I don’t know who was more shocked when I came face-to-face with two Jatan soldiers, me or them. One held a sword to my neck to keep me quiet while I was holding Roan against my chest. I don’t know if he wasn’t paying attention or he was nervous, but it slipped. It cut Roan’s shoulder and he started screaming. Then I started screaming.” She smoothed her fingers over her son’s feverish brow. “I fell backward, holding Roan, and they left us because people were coming out to help.”

“Luc?” Rafe’s call gave him an excuse to step away from Sierra for a moment, to try and contain his fury.

He waved to his captain, and then stepped back into Sierra’s home to wait for him.

“They came through here early this morning. About fifty-strong,” Rafe said as he stepped into the room. Luc didn’t turn to look at him, but he felt his captain stiffen at the sight of Sierra and her baby.

“Sierra.” Rafe’s tone conveyed everything. Pain. Shock.

This is why they’d formed the Rising Wave and taken on the Kassians, even after they’d freed themselves from the camps and pushed the Kassian army out of Cervantes.

Because they had known they’d never be left alone while Kassia was still powerful.

And still, after everything; after taking Fernwell itself, their children were not safe.

“The cut is not that deep.” Sierra watched them with eyes that glittered in the lantern light. She lifted the grizzling baby, holding him carefully against her chest. “An infection has set in, though. The blade was not clean, and he is so hot. I need to put him back in a cool bath.”

The baby needed Ava, Luc thought.

She could fix this. She could heal this child.

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