Page 15 of Of Blood and Fire
“Brilliant—thanks.” I half turned, then stopped. “Has Kele reported back yet?”
He nodded. “She’s resting up, as ordered. Communications with outpost five are now up and running.”
“Excellent. Inform Kele we head out at dawn.”
“At once,” he said, then added, “Anything else?”
A question that made me think thereshouldbe something else. Paranoia, perhaps, but in truth, leading a kingdom was far different to leading a scouting squad, and it certainly wasn’t something I’d ever been trained for. I’d grown up knowing I’d be raising future Zephrine kings rather than leading Esan. “Nothing I can immediately think of. Call me if anything happens.”
He nodded again, and I left, winding my way through the various desks and then taking the stairs two at a time. At the top, I turned right, heading toward my suite, a shivery mix of anticipation and fear rolling through me, when a sharp voice said, “Bryn Silva, we need to talk.”
I felt like snapping,It’s nowQueenBryn Silva, thank you very much, but restrained the urge, well aware it came more from the prospect of yet another delay than any true annoyance at the woman behind the demand.
I turned and smiled, though the latter felt as fake as it probably looked. The Prioress—a tall woman with weather-worn features, short silvery hair, and sharp green eyes that glimmered with bloody starlight—strode toward me, looking very muchlike a strict schoolmarm rather than one of the most powerful blood witches in Arleeon. From the little I’d gathered from both Damon’s comments and hers, she’d been the one who’d trained him in the craft. She and three of her fellow witches had come from Angola—the largest of the floating islands in the Black Claw Sea near Zephrine—at his behest to help perform the blood ceremonies that were binding fire witches to drakkon. More were now coming, but it was a long journey from their island to Esan.
“What can I do for you, Prioress?” If she had a real name, I didn’t know it. Even Damon called her the Prioress, though Angola itself was a place of teaching, not religion.
“You could organize warmer weather, but that is by the by. Thought you’d like to know that your father-in-law and his entourage have arrived.”
“Yes, I was infor?—”
“Were you also informed that they have an enforcer with them?”
I blinked. “What the hell is an enforcer?”
“Think Gayl, but several times more powerful. She can read mindsandforce obedience.”
Alarm ran through me. Jarin appeared to be free of any outward influence, but that didn’t mean others in that room—or indeed, anyone else they had met since arriving—was.
“And has she already tried to do that?”
“Oh, I dare say she would have employed her skills on your commanders had I not been in the room.”
Relief stirred, though there was no guarantee she hadn’t influenced regular soldiers on the way in. “You can counter her with magic?”
“Indeed, I can, but in all honesty, it would be easier to render her permanently unconscious. It takes any problem she might cause going forward off the table.” She half shrugged. “What Ariccan’t gain by subterfuge, he’ll take by mental force. It has always been so, which is why my presence here has vexed him greatly.”
“And you didn’t knock this woman out because?—”
“She gave me no reason.”
“I think that in this case, any action you took would surely be considered ‘protective.’”
“Perhaps, but I am the Prioress, and I must act in full accordance with our rules, even if I might wish otherwise.”
“And is this woman the reason Damon went missing?” I asked sharply.
Her answering chuckle held a decidedly wicked edge. “Luckily for us all, Damon is of the Zephrine bloodline, and therefore immune to her ‘wiles.’ You, however, are not. Do you still wear the bracelet he gave you?”
“Yes—”
“Good. If it burns, then she is in your mind. Or attempting to be. Good luck.”
With that, she turned and marched away.
I blinked. “Wait?—”
“No time,” she snapped. “We have new drakkons to be ready for, remember.”
