I sent her a quick glance. I hadn’t realized my thoughts had been solid enough for her to make out.
They weren’t,she said.I can smell it on you.
Fuck, I couldn’t keep anything from this woman.
They can, too.She motioned with her gaze, sending her eyes over the Naiads and back to me.
That’s helpful.
What are you afraid of?
I blew a short breath.I’m not fond of this set-up for combat. The trees are too dense, and they have the high ground. We’re likely to get ourselves pinned.
She followed the direction of my thoughts, surveying the snow and trees.Could we lead them away?
Horses appeared ahead, men standing at attention in black Calderian leather, fur shoulder pads sewn into their coats. Not tending fires, not mending holes in their uniforms, not cooking or eating or laughing. Not even talking. They watched us pass, their faces unsmiling and cold, and I knew they felt whatever I did in these mountains.
They’d seen the numbers of the enemy.
They knew what we walked ourselves into.
A chestnut gelding met us before we reached the center, the first friendly face we’d seen riding over its back. Dimas snaked through the Naiads with hesitance as he came to the five of us.
“Be back before sunlight, my ass, you big, rugged bastard,” Leal shot at him, though his voice held the same note of relief that settled in my belly.
“I was caught up helping families evacuate.”
“A likely story,” Leal sniffed.
“Where are the commanders?” I asked, sending Leal an intolerant glance.
“Ahead,” Dimas turned his horse, leading us through the flocks of soldiers.
“Ever heard the termwet blanket, Laurier?”
I swear I witnessed Lady Selena’s lips curve. Normally, I’d toss insults back at Leal, but today I frowned at my friend, not in the mood for whatever jokes he planned to send my way. “No.”
“It means you’re a big bucket of laughs.”
Aalto, lend me patience.
The sky couldn’t decide if it were blue or white, cloudy or clear. Thin shadows passed overhead. Snow dropped in piles from the gnarled ash trees, giants shaking themselves free, watching us as we slipped from under one to the next on our way to the front.
A valley lay ahead. It might have been a meadow in the spring. A place to run through tall grass among bees and grasshoppers. In the winter, it was simply a wasted patch of earth between peaks. But it was the only thing that separated us fromthem.
My breath caught when I saw them. Their scarlet scorpion flags, their rows of horses, the way their size and scale teemed like a swarm of blood-red flies overtaking carrion in a field. On our side. Past the mountain border. In Calder.
Why fight here?Maren asked in my head.Why not go back to the fortress, guard ourselves there? This is as open as it can get.
The fortress at Winterlight was built for the mines, not the army. And there are other ways through these mountains. We’d hole ourselves up there and just let them through to attack towns.I met her midnight eyes, framed by thick waves and the black fur I’d secured over her back.We needed to meet them here and cut them off.
She arched her spine, stretching in her saddle, brows laced tight.
I know,I thought, stifling the groan inside my head. My gaze flitted around for a log to rip in half with my sword.That’s why I wanted you to stay behind.
Well, that was never happening.
If things get messy, the fortress is where I want you to go.
