House of Shadows (Royal Houses 2)

“Are you okay?” she asked. “Will you be able to use this tomorrow?”

He coughed, wiped sweat from his brow, and then slowly straightened. “I’ve stretched the ability in the last year. I should have at least one jump tomorrow if I need it.”

“Good,” she whispered.

They trekked back through the woods, avoiding the patrols from both sides of the fight, and made it to the tree line. The camp was almost completely silent this late at night.

She glanced at Fordham. “Are you ready for tomorrow?”

He gritted his teeth. “I did everything I could, short of speaking to my father and sister, which would have only resulted in my capture. But I still had to go. I had to try.”

“I know,” she whispered.

“If they will not surrender, then I will be ready. For tomorrow, we go to war.”

57

The River

At dawn, the contingent of Society members formed up in front of Master Trulian. Many of them were still awestruck at the very sight of him. Kerrigan stood in her riding leathers, her sword strapped to her side. Fordham, Audria, and Roake surrounded her with Alura at the head. She was technically still their leader since she had been responsible for them during training. She didn’t seem much pleased by that assessment as she would much rather be on the front lines, then babysitting the new recruits. Not that Kerrigan could blame her. She was a better warrior by far, considering she’d grown up in a war tribe.

Trulian ambled down the line of soldiers, nodding at people and speaking to the other commanders. Then, he stepped back and addressed the whole lot.

“Many of you have never seen real battle before. Many of you are thinking that this will be like the drills you ran. Many of you are walking in, sure that this will be an easy defeat,” Trulian bellowed. “As someone who has fought this battle before, let me tell you, war is not fun or easy. It is hard, grueling work. They have superior numbers and a thousand years of rage.”

The Society members shifted from side to side at his words. It certainly wasn’t the speech Kerrigan had expected from him.

“I say all of this not to scare you or for you to lose your nerve. Quite the opposite. We are the Society. We are dragon bonded. We were chosen for our abilities. Then, we were honed into a razor’s edge. We are the one thing standing between them and the next city they wish to conquer. It could be yours.” He pointed to someone to the right and then the left. “Or yours. It could be any of our homes, our tribes. The people of Lethbridge did nothing to deserve this unprovoked attack, and the consequences of that are clear. We, the Society, will respond in kind.

“You have your assignments. Follow your commanders. Don’t break ranks. Reinforcements will be here as early as tomorrow and troops within the week. Don’t do anything reckless. You are our greatest assets.” Trulian rose his arm into the air. “For the Society!”

Everyone raised their fist. Kerrigan joined them, feeling her blood pump as the adrenaline of the upcoming fight took over. And they shouted as one, “For the Society.”

Alura whipped around as soon as the speech was over. “You lot are with me. We’re to block off their escape routes. In the Great War, they would attack and then retreat back to the mountain when things got bad. We want to make sure that they can’t get back or forward.”

Fordham frowned. “They’re not going to retreat. This isn’t the Great War.”

Alura stomped forward, getting right in his face. “What did you say, soldier? We have one job, and we are going to do it. If you have a problem, take that up with Master Trulian. Otherwise, you do whatever I tell you without any more back talk.”

For a moment, Kerrigan thought he might not back down. He, of course, knew House of Shadows tactics better than anyone. But finally, he nodded and stepped into line.

“Good. Now, call your dragons, and let’s fly,” she snapped as Gemina appeared on the horizon.

Kerrigan gulped. This was the first time she and Tieran would use the bond since getting it into place. They’d tried it out some on the way here, but it was different. This was real battle. She gently tugged on the bond. To her relief, she felt it go all the way across the meadow to the space the dragons had carved for themselves. And Tieran answered in turn. She felt it straight to her tied-off crux bond on her wrist.

She wanted to cry. It was such an emotional moment that she could share with no one else. She hadn’t even told Fordham that she’d figured out a way for it to work. There had been no time with everything going on. But he must have realized something was different because he tilted his head at Tieran heading their direction, even before Netta got the call.