Page 52 of Of Blood and Fire
“Ask Jarin to chase it up if you’ve received no missive by noon. Reydia’s within flyingandsailing distance of Ezu and Hopetown, and troop ships could dock far easier there than any of the much smaller Jakarran ports.”
“If Reydia was overrun, surely we would have heard reports about it by now. It is a major trade port.”
“Maybe they’re not overrun. Maybe something else is going on.” I shrugged. “As Jarin said earlier, it’s not as if the riders are playing by any known rules.”
“Commander Neera,” one of the women manning the local scribe tablets said, “message coming in from the barracks commander.”
“I’ll let you get that,” I said. “Thanks for the update, Commander.”
I returned her salute, then headed out of the war room and the palace. Thunder rumbled into the pre-dawn darkness, and the peaks that loomed high above Esan were shrouded in long cloaks of gray and the occasional flash of lightning. It was going to be very unpleasant to fly through. Thankfully, the storm hadn’t reached this far down the mountain yet, but the air still danced with drizzle, and it was bitterly cold. I hastily did up my jacket and tugged on my hood, shivering a little as I made my way across the wet and glistening cobblestones to the side entry gate. The guards saluted and opened it; the whole team waited on the other side. Kele, I couldn’t help but note, was practically bouncing with excitement.
Our three newest recruits—Rayka and Beth, kin to Aarvi and Cansu, who were rare egg sisters, and Jassy, who was kin to Taitia, our third burnished gold drakkon and the only one who’d come from Kaia’s original aerie—immediately snapped to attention and saluted.
I smiled. “We don’t stand on formalities here, ladies.”
“No, but when the Queen or Commander Bryn gives an order,” Hannity said, “it’s best you obey it to theletter. I almost lost Rua because we didn’t, and trust me, you do not want to go through that hell.”
I glanced at her. Like Rua, she had definitely lost weight after the blood heat caused by the bonding ceremony had ravaged both their bodies, and maybe it was foolish to be pushing them into action this soon….
Notcame Kaia’s thought.Is strong. Need fly.
“Indeed,” I said, in response to Hannity’s statement rather than Kaia’s. “And had we not been so short on experienced flyers for today’s mission, neither Hannity nor Rua would be on assignment today.”
“What is today’s mission, Commander?” Miri asked. She was kin to Lura, one of our younger reds.
“Let’s get to the aerie first. Halka, take the lead.”
Halka—kin to Kiko, another red—immediately did so. The others fell in behind her, with Hannity in front of me and Kele behind.
As we began the long climb up the mountain, I glanced over my shoulder and said, “Okay, my friend, whatever it is you’re holding back, spit it out.”
“What make you think I have something to tell you?”
“Because I know you too well, and you had this ‘oh, do I have some juicy gossip for you’ expression happening when I walked through the gate.”
Kele laughed. “Oh, I surely do. Guess what happened last night?”
“A company of King Aric’s men were confined to their military barracks.”
“No. I mean, yes, but it’s better than that.”
“What could be better than that?”
The path steepened, but we kept up a good pace. We’d made this journey so often now that my muscles no longer ached at the mere thought of the arduous climb that still lay ahead.
“Wills asked me to marry him.”
I stopped so abruptly, she almost ran into me. “What?”
“I know, right?”
“And what did you say?”
“I think ‘say’ is the wrong word to use,” came Hannity’s dry remark. “Because she didn’t merely say, she screamed. In joy, we all presume, rather than horror, given what happened later.”
“I did not scream,” Kele retorted.
“Yeah, you did,” Beth commented from farther up the line. “We’re three bunkhouses away from yours, and we heard you. Then and after.”
