Page 106 of Daughter Of The Ninth Line
Surrounding Boellium?
That made no sense.Who?I asked, and he sent me images of an army I didn’t recognize. Dark uniforms shot through with amber, an insignia I didn’t know. How could a foreign invading army get so close without anyone sighting them?
“We’re under attack,” I told Avalon quietly. I had to tell the instructors. I had to tell Master Proxius.
Sirens sounded around the training ring, coming from speakers I couldn’t even see.“Boellium is under attack. Please return inside the walls.”More loud whooping.
What the fuck was happening? Gripping Avalon’s hand, I called all my animal companions to me as I pulled her back toward the atrium. Braxus and Alucius came immediately. I looked down at Braxus. “Until we know what’s happening, you stay with herat all times.You understand? She is your priority.”
They both acknowledged my request. Braxus moved to Avalon’s side, and she buried her fingers in his fur.
Fear like I’d never felt gripped me. Not fear for myself, but fear for her. Because if anything happened to Avalon, I knew I wouldn’t be able to live without her.
chapter sixty-four
Vox
While everyone was out training,I was sitting in Svenna’s gloomy office. The woman in question looked pissed as she paced back and forth. “What exactly did you want me to do about this, Vylan?”
I raised an eyebrow. Very few people would have the balls to speak to me that way. I could count them on one hand, really. “I didn’t wantyouto do anything. If you cast your mind back to fifteen minutes ago, you’ll remember that I asked to speak to Master Proxius.”
She huffed. “Wouldn’t we fucking all like that. Unfortunately, he had urgent business that took him away yesterday. Otherwise, he could deal with your… claims.”
I’d wanted to warn Master Proxius about my father sabotaging the drought relief. I couldn’t in good conscience let him kill hundreds of people over his pride. Hayle had said he’d told Baron Taeme, but that hadn’t gone so well. I needed to warn someone who could speak openly, without it sounding like a political maneuver.
“I can’t let them starve for ego, Svenna. I thought you, of all people, would understand that.”
Defiance flashed in her eyes. “Don’t patronise me, Vylan. I do understand. And just like you, my hands are tied. I can speak to my contacts in the Dawn Army, but what good would that do? Do you know who the army answers to, for all its perceived neutrality?”
The question was rhetorical. We both knew they answered to the Baron of the First Line. The shadow king of this Goddess-forsaken rock we called home.
Appraising her, I watched for tells, for even the hint she’d run and tell my father about this. Because despite the fact that he was the one killing the citizens of Ebrus, I was the one committing treason. “Surely there’s an underground network we can utilize? I’m not an id?—”
A siren sounded, making my heart leap into my throat.Fuck.Had this conversation made it back to my father already?
A soldier ran into the room, his eyes wild. “Where is Master Proxius?” he demanded, and Svenna held back a snarl. Barely.
“Not here. What is it?”
“We’re under attack. There’s an army off the shores of Boemouthe.”
We both stared at him like he’d lost his mind. “The Dawn Army?”
The soldier was whipping his head back and forth so furiously, I was worried it would snap right off. “No. I don’t know the colors or banners. They just appeared out of nowhere.”
How could an invading army just appear from thin air?
Svenna cast me a quick glance, and then I was forgotten. “Use the announcement system to get all the conscripts back inside the walls.Now,Redford!” she snapped.
She rushed to one of the ledgers, hauling it down and opening up a small compartment behind it, pulling out maps. She unfurled one on her desk, and I looked down at an image I’d never seen before. A map in which Ebrus was tiny, surroundedby the ocean to the east, west and south, but with what looked like a giant sheet of permafrost to the north.
That wasn’t the surprising part, though. At the bottom of the map were other land masses, names printed neatly across them which were entirely foreign to me.
Bellineaux.
Ryland.
Ajix.
