Page 36 of House of Embers
“Is it likely we’ll encounter danger?” Hadrian asked.
“Let’s hope not,” Gerrond said. He turned to Kerrigan, who had been standing off to the side, talking with Tieran as they said their goodbyes. He held his hand out. “May we meet again.”
“Clear skies,” she said, shaking his hand once, hard. “I’ll check in with Clover. Keep her as your contact as we go forward.”
Gerrond nodded. “Let’s hope all is well.”
“And, Gerrond,” she said as he turned away.
“Yeah?”
“Good luck.”
Kerrigan looked like she very much doubted it would go well. She pulled Clover and Hadrian in for quick hugs and then let them go, drawing Darby to her to watch as they climbed on to Henrley’s back and Gerrond led them out into the sky. Clover looked back just once to see them waving goodbye. Half of her heart was left behind.
Despite her one dragon flight, Clover was not an easy flier. She’d left half of her stash of loch behind for Amond, just in case. She had some in the city. She just had to get to Thea and the RFA—Rights For All—a pro-human and half-Fae rights organization. But what she wouldn’t give for a cigarette right then to steel her nerves. But she had been waiting until the pain fully came on before she took a smoke. She had too little to have one for anxiety.
The discomfort and monotony of dragon riding took over the fear of it within an hour. Gerrond kept up a steady stream of conversation about the landscape, as if he too had jitters that he needed to dispel. It was hours before the valley of Kinkadia came into view, and by then, her fingers were frozen and her legs stiff.
“There,” Gerrond said, pointing at an outcropping some distance from the city. “We’ll stop there.”
Henrley took them down toward the ground. As they got closer, Clover realized it was an encampment. People were living here, in little tents and shanties. Not in real houses like in the city or inside a hollowed mountain or anything. Just pitched about surrounding campfires near a little stream.
The dragon landed, and Clover fell over as she dismounted, her legs unable to hold her up any longer. She certainly was not trained in combat. Kerrigan’s words about using magic against a stronger force felt certain now, considering Gerrond acted as if the flight had been a leisurely adventure. Hadrian too seemed out of sorts.
“I’m a scholar, not a dragon rider,” he mumbled under his breath as they followed Gerrond toward the encampment.
There were over a hundred people just at a quick glance—cooking, cleaning, laughing around a fire, and children running around playing games with rocks and sticks. Everyone was dressed similarly to Gerrond, in bright colors and patchworked fabric. It was a festive atmosphere, unlike what Clover would expect from anyone this close to the capital, considering the turmoil she had lived in there. Had thisbeen just on the other side of the valley all along? Would she have preferred it?
“This is as close as I can take you to the city,” Gerrond explained. “The drifters set up here in the summer. They’ll move farther south once winter sets in. We caught them at a good time. If all is well, they’ll have a runner set up.”
“A runner?”
“That’d be me,” a female voice said.
Gerrond broke into a smile. “Islay! I didn’t expect you to be this far south already.”
Islay was a brown-skinned Fae with gold eyes and a warm smile. Her dark hair had intricate braids that she held back with a ribbon. She was curvy and sturdy with a bow strapped across her back and wicked-looking knives at her waist. Her boots were thick leather with straps up her calves.
“What have you brought me?” Islay looked them up and down. She sniffed. “City folk?”
Clover held her hand out. “Clover. And this is Hadrian.”
Islay shook and then took Hadrian’s as well. “Soft hands. What’s this about, Gerrond?”
“I have a lot of explaining to do, but I found the half-Fae Kerrigan, and she’s agreed to help the drifters. I’ve allied with her. These are her friends.”
Islay’s smile broadened. “That’s excellent news.”
“They need a way into the city. They need a way to speak to their other allies. I was hoping you’d have a runner.”
“Aye, that’d be me. But Ruen is with me. We might both go to meet these allies if we’re all on the same side now.”
Gerrond gestured to the pair. “How about that? Will that do?”
A man strode up then. He was human with tanned white skin as if he’d spent long days out in the sun. He had thick, dark hair all over his body and tied up much like Gerrond’s bun. He wrapped his arms around Islay and kissed her shoulder. “What’s going on, love?”
Clover brightened at the sight of a human and a Fae together. It must have been commonplace here because no one blinked at the sight. The encampment was still mostly Fae, but there were plenty of humans too. Half-Fae as well.
