Page 130 of Keldori By Daybreak

The hard part was watching the bombardments continue as Caitria’s forces were unaware I’d given myself over. Buildings continued to crumble and vines and bits of opal showered from the sky. The guard leading me forward moved too slow, stumbling over rubble and prodding at my back nervously with the end of a red spear.

I had half a mind to race ahead and find someone more competent.

“Easy,” Ciarán warned in my head. “It has to be believable.”

“I’m not sure anyone is going to believe this guy was the one to capture me.”

“But he didn’t. You’re giving yourself up to save Willow’s Grave, which Caitria will believe regardless of who drags you to her.”

“Who’s there?” A voice called out in the dark, and I had to stop myself from sighing in relief at the sight of a group of guards.

“I’ve got the Saergrim!” the guard behind me shouted.

Red weapons appeared in the hands of the newcomers, and they hurried to surround me.

“You’re sure it’s her?” The guard with the most stripes on his uniform surveyed me from behind a ruby scimitar.

I blinked Skal into my retinas, and they all took a step back as my eyes took on the black sclera I was now so used to seeing on Ciarán.

“She’s the one that attacked Kamryn,” one of them said. “That woman outside wants her alive, but didn’t specify in what condition.”

Ciarán’s anger spiked along the tether, and I braced to defend myself, but another guard pulled his friend back.

“Don’t try it,” he hissed. “Did you see what she did to Kamryn? His skin is falling off. Touch her and she might do the same to you.”

I wiggled my fingers at them in a taunting threat and bit back a smile when they all shifted away from me.

“Get her to the gate fast so they quit with this racket.” The guard with the most stripes on his uniform looked up at the flashing sky. “Run.”

The streets passed faster now, and the border wall rose to occlude the night sky as we approached. The three guards flanking me kept quiet, but Ciarán filled the silence.

“Look who I found,” he said, and while the street ahead remained in place, Ciarán’s field of vision merged with mine. A ghost of the opal forest extended ahead of me, and a large, jade-green head bumped against my shoulder.

“Una’s there?” I asked.

“Of course. Where else would she have gone?”

“Careful. The soldiers might notice the giant green fox monster lurking outside their camp.”

“We’ll be fine. Focus on you.”

The street snapped back to normal. The gate was directly ahead, and Caitria’s green-weaponed soldiers waited in the open archway. The fires of their camp gleamed in the stone trees beyond the citadel limits, and I took a deep breath, reminding myself that Ciarán was out there.

The Barony guards handed me off to the soldiers with little fanfare. My glowing eyes confirmed my identity, and one of the men started yelling commands of a ceasefire. The knot in my stomach loosened, and the sky gradually quieted as the command was relayed along the tree line.

It would’ve taken a lot of Skal to launch an attack like the one Caitria’s army had tonight. That much Skal would be difficult to hide. Ciarán, I was certain, would find it quickly.

Hopefully more quickly than not, I thought, as soldiers paused in their activities to watch me be marched past them into their camp. Tents interspersed the trees, the largest of which sat up ahead. Piles of rubble glinting with glowing opal marked where parts of the forest had been razed to make room for the army.

I bit back the anger that roiled in my stomach. Stone trees were not something that could be replanted.

“It’s just rocks, Blue,” Ciarán said in my head.

“It’s not just rocks. This forest belongs to Willow’s Grave.”

Ciarán hummed in my head in reply.

The soldiers pushed me through the flap of the largest tent, but I must’ve beat Caitria home, because the tent was empty except for rugs, a cot, a small desk made of light wood, and a couple of wooden chairs.