Page 65 of Of Blood and Fire
I lightly saluted, and he rolled his eyes. “We’re cousins. You don’t salute.”
“You’re my king and commander?—”
“And you’re our drakkon queen. I think that puts us on the same level.”
I didn’t entirely agree, because protocol did have to be maintained, but let it go for now. “Is this smoke haze witch-enhanced?”
He nodded, his gaze lingering a little on my head. “It was the Prioress’s idea. It reacts against the bird’s gold feathers, stopping them from entering. Can’t be maintained indefinitely, but it allowed us to at least concentrate on repelling the Mareritt at the main wall. Why?”
“Can this end of it be extended upward at all? We need to cover the drakkons’ exit back to the aerie.”
“Let’s go ask her.” He paused. “Will the drakkons be okay here while you’re gone?”
“Halka and Miri are here, and Kaia will behave.”
If must, she sniffed.
I fell in step beside Garran and did my best to ignore the niggling ache rising from my ankle.
Surprisingly, we headed toward the side of the palace, away from the main entry steps. He must have sensed my confusion because he said, “They’re on the roof, doing their thing.”
And the rooftop was only reachable via external stairs that could be destroyed if the second wall was ever breached. “Any news from Damon and the team?”
He nodded. “According to Leto—the earth mage that’s with them—it’s something of a maze under the mountain, though many of the tunnels and tubes are impassible.”
“Do any of them head out into Mareritten?”
“One does. It was partially collapsed, but they cleared that and went on. They’re currently, according to their last report, about twenty minutes out from re-entering that tunnel.”
Meaning they might be home before dawn, if we were lucky. “Did they have any luck uncovering what the fog was hiding?”
“Depends on what you term luck,” came the grim reply. “They weren’t able to get close enough to see what the fog hid, but they survived an encounter with a greater Mareritten forceandmanaged to capture a Rayabar alive.”
Rayabars were basically field commanders blessed with an unusual size, strength, and intelligence, and, when in battle, fought with wildly uncontrolled, almost trance-like ferocity. There were plenty of stories of them taking out an entire squad single-handedly, and I considered myself extremely fortunate never to have come across one in all my years of patrolling Mareritten.
“How the hell did they managed to grab one of those bastards?”
“It seems he and his command were on the way to their screened encampment, and our team managed to catch them by surprise.”
“That still doesn’t explain how they captured him alive.”
“They were light on details, but I’m presuming Damon’s magic was able to restrain him before he could take his own life.”
In truth, that was probably theonlyway they’d have been able to keep him alive. My scouting team, as good, as fast, andas skilled as they were, could not have countered the might of a Rayabar in full berserker modeanda full host of Mareritten. “Any injuries on our side?”
“A couple. They didn’t elaborate.”
Which could well mean that the injuries received were life threatening, but there was no point in mentioning it because no one could come to their rescue out there. Not with the Mareritt at our gates and the riders circling above.
The four of us clattered up the stairs, the metal echoing underneath us, then clambered over the parapet. Garran motioned the guards to remain there, and we made our way through the ashes of buffel weed toward the two witches. The smoke rising from this rooftop came from a tower of weeds situated in the middle of a softly glowing blood circle—something I could see only thanks to the fact it was currently being refreshed by the slender witch who was spelling around it. The Prioress sat several yards away; next to her was a table on which a platter of meats and breads, a jug of mead, and a gently simmering pot of shamoke sat.
The Prioress scanned me leisurely, once again making me feel like I was being judged—probably because I was, though I suspected she greeted everyone in much the same manner, no matter how many times she’d met them previously—before her gaze rose to the burn on my head. “What in Túxn’s name happened there?”
“Got hit by acid.”
“You obviously need to duck more quickly.” Amusement lent a brief warmth to her cool, authoritative tone. “What can I do for you, Bryn?”
“Can you alter the shape of the haze layer, making it rise enough to give the drakkons cover to leave?”
