Page 50 of Upon Buried Embers
“We lost one person, Aron, to the wild dragon, and a horse and cart.”
“I’ll let his family know.”
“The lava was in another cart, and is being taken to Bellamy as we speak.”
“Good. Asseya?” I turn to the healer.
“We are running low on some plants which I will need to leave to gather. Ester is healing from her cough slowly, but her daughter Ethel…” She looks down and shakes her head. “I couldn’t find the herb with the harshness of this winter. I…”
She didn’t make it.
“She’s to be given a rite with Aron.”
“Of course, Dragonbond. Ester wanted to wait for your return to send her.”
“We shall prepare over the next few days.”
“Of course.” She bows her head.
“Rhett?”
“Scouts are resting tonight before they head out. Meals are being prepared for us and portions are being sorted.”
“For the elf, too?”
“I told them to make less for her.” He shrugs. “She’s tiny.”
My jaw tics. “Which is why she needs the same.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t even know if we have enough, Rohan.”
“Make do.” I dismiss him. “Dorkin?”
“We have traded with Varan for more furs and we provided some saddles. Though it’s less than what we originally expected.”
“The reason?” I ask, back stiffening. Varan has never traded less with us before.
“He says they have no more to offer with their clan growing.”
“That has to be bullshit,” I growl.
Dorkin shrugs. “They seemed far more reluctant to trade with us, but ultimately, they needed the saddles and we needed the furs. So we traded as normal and brought one saddle back with us.”
“Karag’s doing?”
“We can only assume.” Which means it is probably so. “Speaking of Karag, I received a letter that he has summoned a meeting. He wishes to talk about the upcoming Games and The Glade.”
I scowl. “He has never seemed to care about the issues in The Glade before, why is he interested now?”
“Our spies have come up empty so far,” Dorkin replies. “No word has been sent, but they’re due back any day now.”
I sigh and drop my hands, my fingers running over the mask at my hip that shows me as Dragonbond. Drogonah is restless, he won’t like flying to the Graveyard so soon after being in The Pit, but nothing can be done.
A meeting has been called and we all have to be in attendance.
“Then we wait for our spies to return. In the meantime, be vigilant. Rhett saw someone trailing us on the way back, but they managed to evade us.”
“Then it’s worse than we feared if they’re braving the Wilds in this weather,” Asseya says, brows furrowing.
