Page 100 of Of Scale and Blood

Thankfully, she was not only awake but sitting on her bunk reading. She glanced up as I entered and, to my relief, looked her normal self aside from the few wisps of pain still haunting her gaze. “Bryn, what on earth are you doing here?”

“I came to see how you were faring.”

“Why? What’s happened?”

I sat down on the edge of the bed and grimaced. “Hannity’s not doing well.”

“Ah fuck, that explains Yara’s comments about Rua.”

“What affects one affects the other,” I said grimly. “If nothing else, this confirms that the spells did bind us to our drakkons.”

“Won’t do either race much good if for every two we bind we lose one.” She put her book down. “Is there anything the medics can do?”

“There’s a specialist healer with her now.”

“Then there is nothing either of us can do except pray. While we wait, you want to grab some grub? I know the mess is not up to palace standards but?—”

I laughed and slapped her leg. “I lived here for more than ten years, remember. It was only after the marriage declaration that I went back.”

And reluctantly at that.

She grinned and bounced to her feet. “Let’s go eat... why are you clutching climbing harnesses?”

“Because we left ours in the cavern, and I think it best we keep them close in case we have to call in the drakkons and mount in a hurry.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Is that instinct speaking or mere caution?”

“Hopefully the latter, but the Mareritt are moving toward us in numbers, and we need to be prepared for anything.”

“Huh.” She stepped into the harness and hauled it on. “When my roommates mock me for wearing it, I shall remind them that I ride a drakkon and they never will.”

I laughed and, after slipping on my own harness, turned around and walked out, Kele close on my heels. I couldn’t help noticing that the air felt thicker, more dangerous, and overhead, the dark skies were ominous and heavy.

“Looks like we’re about to get a drenching,” Kele commented. “Might want to pick up the pace a little, boss.”

“We were told not to strain ourselves, remember,” I said, almost absently, my gaze searching the skies, looking for... I had no idea what. But something was coming. Something bad.

As thunder boomed overhead with enough force to rattle nearby windows, something thick and round trailing fire behind it arced across the sky and exploded in the tier beyond the military zone.

A heartbeat later, the sirens sounded—and it wasn’t just the normal alarm. It was the one that signaledallfighters to the wall.

Esan was under attack... and it wasbig.

CHAPTER12

“Grab your weapons,”I said to Kele, and then ran toward the nearest steps leading up to the top of the battlements.

Another fireball flew overhead, exploding deeper in Esan. Screams now filled the air, almost smothering the broadcasting orders that all noncombatants should retreat to the underground caverns.

I raced up the steps two at a time, one of dozens doing the same. Organized chaos reigned on the wall; orders were being shouted, soldiers lined the wall while others hurried to their stations, and weapon runners raided stores to ready restocks. All the while, arrows and spears sang through the air, hitting stone and flesh with equal force. Soldiers screamed and went down, and medics scurried around, dragging the injured and the dead out of the way of the living.

I pushed toward my station; Sora, Jax, and Kerryn were already there, but there was no sign of the others as yet. I stopped beside Kerryn, leaned over the wall, and gasped.

The valley below was full of Mareritt.

There were at least five hosts of the bastards holding position at the far end of the valley, and they filled the air with arrows and spears, the latter flung using atlatls—a spear-throwing lever that gave greater velocity and distance.

But it was the Mareritt charging the wall that had my heart leaping into my throat. Not because of their numbers, though that was daunting enough, and not because of the multiple siege ladders being carried. We’d dealt with them before and would do so again.

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