Page 86 of Of Blood and Fire
“I’d rather?—”
“Rest with your people,” he finished for me. “I get it, but you’ve too much of your father in you, which means you’ll nodoubt take the first and longest shift to allow your people to rest.”
Should stay, Kaia said.We hunt. Aarvi and her kin watch.
And the rest of the kin?
Cook whitefin Yara bring.
In other words, they were doing just fine. The vague guilt over me enjoying more “luxurious” accommodations while they camped out eased at little, even if it didn’t entirely go away.
Don’t forget to get some rest yourself. We’ve still Kinara to check tomorrow before we fly home.
Will.
I returned my attention to Katter. “I’d like to deny that accusation but fear I cannot.”
He smiled and squeezed my shoulder lightly. “Letta will escort you around to the officers’ quarters. We’ll wake you before the sun hits the horizon.”
I nodded. “Thanks, Katter.”
I finished the rest of my meal, then obediently followed Letta from the mess tent.The officers’ quarters were on the same side as the mess and were basically another deep tunnel, this time featuring a series of narrow stone chambers that held little more than a bed and a storage shelf.
Letta swept aside the curtain of a chamber about halfway down and motioned me in. “The privies are down the far end, and there’s a washroom there as well, if you want a quick clean-up. Fresh towels and soapweed are kept on the open shelving there.”
I thanked her, then stripped off my weapons and headed down to the washroom facilities. After using the privy, I stripped off to check my wound—thankfully, while red and puckered, it didn’t look infected—I made my way back to my bunk and, after stripping off my boots, lay down. It felt like my head had barely hit the pillow when I was being woken again.
I bit back my groan and pushed into a sitting position. To say everything ached would be an understatement, but we had a long day ahead of us yet.
Kaia? Everything okay out there?
Been hunting.
You didn’t hunt enough last night?
Am queen. Need more.
I chuckled softly. Being queen was definitely an excuse that covered all things.Ask everyone to get ready and fly up to the mountain.
Will.
I gathered my weapons and my pack and headed out. Letta was waiting at the entrance and handed me a coat. Obviously, Katter had noticed the absence of mine. Once I’d pulled it on, she said, “Commander, please follow me.”
She led me around the walkway to the stairs, then through the wider tunnel to the antechamber. Katter was waiting, along with several soldiers. “I suspect you need to take your own words about needing to get some sleep to heart, Administrator Reed.”
He chuckled and handed me the hessian boot overlays. “Yes, probably. But this might be my only chance to get close to a drakkon, and I wasn’t going to miss it.”
“I thought all you Jakarrans hated drakkons.” They’d long ago wiped out the one aerie that had been located here—and they were hardly alone in that, of course. I dared say that erasure both here and on the mainland remained the major reason why more drakkons had not answered Kaia’s call—demand—for help.
Will,she said with a confidence I just didn’t have.
“Many things were done in the past that we regret today,” Katter was saying. “We can’t change that past, but we can change the future.”
“Then spread the word of what they did here last night and what it cost us to save everyone in the cavern.”
“Oh, that word is well and truly out, as demonstrated by that little show of appreciation in the war room.”
“It’s not soldiers we need to convince. It’s the farmers, the fishermen, and the weavers.” The ordinary folk who still saw drakkons as a threat, in other words.
