Page 149 of Fate and Flame
Still, I backed out and apologized, then wove through tent after scattered tent settled into the desert floor like a temporary village of desperate souls and eager soldiers. I stopped to get Nadra, warned her of my plan, and then we met everyone in the tent we used for meetings. Kai was still bleary-eyed, and if not from the forlorn look on his face, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Fen had found a female in his tent too.
“We’re all here, Tem,” the king said. “Let’s hear it.” He sat down in his usual spot, able to see the door at all times.
“Right.” I pressed my palms into the round table and stood. “I’ve been thinking. Autus’ army is a lot bigger than ours.”
“You called us in here for that?” Kai asked, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
Greeve punched his arm. Kai socked him back. Wren giggled and Gaea snorted. Rhogan flashed his giant smile, and I had to rub my temples to collect my thoughts.
“No. I mean yes. Kind of. Hear me out. Fen, if you could step forward for me.”
“Oh, a show.” Wren clapped her hands.
“Hold your palm out flat and make a small flame. Something about the size of a marble should do.”
He did as I asked, and I nodded to Nadra. She stepped forward and placed her hand on Fen’s forearm. The moment she touched him, the flame tripled in size. She pulled her hand away and again it was small.
“Not everyone here is aware, but Nadra has two magical abilities. Perhaps they are the same, but in a nutshell, she can refill magic by touch, but she can also amplify its power. Imagine if the king has all the humans crammed into a few tents, or even just corralled outside in a group. What if Gaea could take us in the cover of night, assuming most would be asleep then. Wren could keep us invisible, and Nadra and I could do mass healings over the humans? Enough so they could escape, or at the very least, refuse to fight.”
“No.” Greeve stepped forward. “Gaea’s taken enough risks.”
My eyes landed on Gaea. She opened her mouth and shut it again. I could see the war within her.
“Temir,” Ara said. “You realize you’d have to take Nadra close to the king to do this. It’s risky.”
“I told you it was a dangerous plan. But what else do we have? We’ve been going over terrain in the Marsh court, we’ve talked about weather, we’ve talked about funneling the army. No matter where we land, we still come back to the size of his army, and we can’t get past it. And maybe I can’t cure thirty thousand minds, but what if I can cure fifteen thousand? That’s fifteen thousand less innocent lives we have to take.”
The room was absolutely silent. Each crucial member of this makeshift family weighed the pros and cons on their faces as I turned to the king.
“I wasn’t gifted this ability for nothing. I know it’s not ideal. And I know it’s risky. But you have to see it’s the only way we get an advantage. With Wren and Gaea there, we won’t be seen, and we can leave in an instant. The king won’t be mingling with the humans. He won’t be anywhere near them.”
“It’s true,” Gaea said. “Autus has always thought humans were disgusting, lowly creatures. He would sit at a table full of lesser fae and toast to their good health before he got within twenty feet of a human.”
“I’ll open the table right now for anyone else to present a better plan.” Fen gestured to the space in the middle of the room.“Any plan other than that one.”
“Realistically, how many humans do you think you can heal in a single night?” Rhogan asked, his battle face on and wings twitching.
“The human that was here took a single touch and he was healed. The enchantment from the king was gone entirely. It would depend on how the king has the humans camping, but if we walked through their camp invisible, I imagine it would be plenty. Thousands.”
Ara turned to Fen. “Do we have a choice?”
“My king?” Inok’s frantic voice called from outside of the tent.
“Come in, Inok,” he answered.
He walked into the tent, looked around, and bowed his head to Fen. He was the only one who did that.When he lifted his face, sorrow filled his eyes as they flicked to Ara and then to Nadra. “There’s news. Autus massacred the city last night. The aerial scouts claim there were no survivors. Autus is on the move.”
Fen watched his mate, but she was unfazed. A far cry from the reaction she had to the last mass murder. But this time the city had refused to save themselves. Or maybe she was just steeling her heart. Perhaps we all were.
“Everyone but Greeve out,” Fen ordered. “You stay too, Temir.”
Kai stood and cleared his throat. I’d learned in small moments, he was the most tactical, the most observant. His humor was a shield, a façade to the clever fae he was. “The hills are still our best terrain. He is only two days out from that spot now that he has left the city. If this is going to happen, it has to be tonight. If Autus decides to march his army through the next few nights, until he’s on our doorstep, we won’t have time for Temir’s plan at all. We still have to move our army as well.”
With that, he and the others exited the tent, except for Ara.“What?” she asked when Fen looked at her. “You didn’t possibly think I was leaving.”
“Speak your mind,” he told Greeve, jutting his chin to him.
“I don’t like it. You wouldn’t send your mate into the king’s camp, I can’t agree to send my own.”
