“We can use the dragons,” she said. “The king won’t expect an attack from the sky.”
A murmur rose around her as everyone exchanged nervous glances.
“If the dragons are on our side,” Asha continued, “so is theOld One. Any draksor in the city still devoted to the old ways will be with us.”
Dax shook his head in disbelief. “You—the girl who’s made it her life’s mission to hunt dragons into extinction—now want torecruitthem? The dragons hate us, Asha. How can you possibly think of bringing them to our side?”
Her eyes fixed on the silver collar resting against Torwin’s collarbone. “I know a way.”
Dax waited, looking skeptical. He was right to look skeptical. Asha didn’t actually know—not for certain. But according to Shadow, the dragons turned on the draksors because they enslaved the skral. So if the draksors set them free...
“You’ll have to prove your motives are true. Prove you’re not just hungry for the throne.”
“And how do I do that?”
Asha’s gaze cut to Torwin. His attention fixed on the bone ring encircling his smallest finger. His hands shook, ever so slightly, as he twisted it back and forth. He must have retrieved it while she slept.
“Break the collars of every skral in this camp,” she said.
Torwin’s gaze lifted to her face.
“And the moment you seize the throne, break the collars off those still in the city. It must be the first thing you do.”
Her brother looked at her as though he no longer recognized her. She didn’t blame him. Not so long ago, she’d thought that if the skral went free, they would finish what they came for.
Asha glanced at Torwin.
She didn’t think that anymore.
The blacksmith spoke up suddenly, her voice ringing like a hammer on an anvil. “I can remove every collar in this camp by nightfall.”
Asha nodded at her, then turned back to her brother. “All I need are riders, and you can count dragons among your arsenal.”
“I’ll find them for you,” said Torwin.
Asha met his gaze. Very quietly, she said, “Does this mean you’re staying?”
He looked away. “Just... until the wedding. That will give me enough time to find you riders, and train them so they’re flight ready.”
Asha bit down on the smile creeping across her lips.
In the silence that followed, Safire’s knife flashed as she tossed it one final time, then sheathed it in her boot. “Well,” she said, “I guess that’s settled.”
To aid him in his plan, Asha told Dax about her secret tunnel beneath the temple. They decided the scrublander army would wait outside the city wall with Roa while Dax, Jas, Safire, and a few other Haveners—what Dax called his group of rogues—took the tunnel into the city, then ran to the north gate. There they would hold the gate open long enough to let the army in. Roa’s hawk, Essie, was the signal. Dax would take the bird into the city and, once the gate opened, let her fly.
After the city was secured, the dragon king imprisoned, and Dax sat on the throne as regent, things would begin to change. His union with Roa would fix what was broken and bring peace back to draksors and scrublanders. The skral would befree to choose. They could remain in Firgaard or seek out new lives elsewhere.
When the meeting ended and Asha went to follow Safire out of the tent, Dax halted his conversation with a scrublander girl and called for Asha to wait.
The tent emptied, and Dax leaned against a map of Firgaard unrolled across the table. His hands cupped the edge of the rough wood as he looked his sister up and down.
“You disappear with him last night and then reappear wearing his clothes?” He motioned to the shirt and trousers she wore. “Think about how that looks.”
Asha crossed her arms over Torwin’s shirt and raised her chin. “Would you prefer I still be standing in my binding dress?”
He made a frustrated sound. “You’re the daughter of the dragon king.” He pushed himself off the table. “And Torwin is...”
Beneath me. Forbidden.
