Color drained from her face, and she stumbled hastily to the deck where he stood. The wind wrapped around her, and she knew he’d heard the noise of the company carrying on the wind. Lex launched herself out of the chair and went to stand at her side.
“They must be from the Village,” Lex said.
Aydra squeezed the railing in her hand. “FuckingRhaif,” she hissed under her breath. “But if they’re from the Village, that means…”
Lex met her gaze, and at the same time they said, “Fucking Ash.”
A murmur of whispers and concerned voices had started in the yard below. Hunters were starting to gather, all looking up to Draven for their next move. Nadir cursed under his breath, his large thin hands gripping the banister as though he could ring the water out of the wood. “How far out?” he asked Draven.
“They’ll be here in an hour,” Draven answered. He pushed off the banister and started down the steps faster than Aydra could muster a protest.
“Everyone in the trees!” he bellowed out.
Echoes of his orders surrounded them. Nadir shouted something to his own men, and they bounded off the barrels and tree stumps they’d been sitting on. Aydra’s eyes widened at the quickness of the men and women moving around her, arrows and bows being thrown in the air to their persons. Men took spears from their walls, knives pushing into their boots. And then the Hunters began ascending to the canopies, clamoring up the trunks of the great trees and climbing the ropes hanging down.
Nadir ran down the stairs behind Draven, to which Aydra shortly followed. She drowned out the orders he gave his men and ran after Draven.
“There will be no shooting unless they shoot first,” Draven called out. “Be prepared for anything. If it is a war Magnice wants, we shall be ready for it.”
Aydra grabbed Draven’s arm and whirled him around to face her. “What are you doing?” she hissed.
“Preparing my men,” he said simply.
“Do you truly think—”
“I know you are a long way from home,” he cut in, brows narrowed as he stared down at her. “The last time you were in my realm, your brother accused me of kidnapping you. I will assume he thinks the same this time.”
“I left of my own accord,” she argued.
“Did you tell him where you were going?” he asked. “Did you tell him you were coming to help me? Did you tell him of the boats?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t.”
“And did you tell him about us?”
A pause washed over her, and she felt her weight shift just noticeably before straightening up, allowing her cold facade to possess the feeling in her heart. “What about us?” she spat.
Draven’s jaw clenched and he gave her a deliberate once over. “You’ve barely been home but a few months and suddenly you ride out again to a realm which your people have declared a resting enemy. Did you think he would not send his own company to follow after you?”
He turned briskly on his heel, and she quickly followed after him.
“Even if he did send his company, you’ve no reason to think they would be here for any reason except to ensure my safety,” she argued. “He probably thinks—”
Draven stopped so suddenly that she nearly ran into him.
“He thinks I’ve lured you here under false pretenses. He thinks I mean to ambush you, take you as prisoner and as ransom. He thinks I want his crown. He always has,” he said, now a little more calm than he’d spoken before. “I should never have involved you in this.”
“But you did,” she countered. “I am here. I want to help.”
A great exhale left him, and she could see his firm chest resting in submission as he looked over her head to his men, the vein in his neck straining under his frustration.
“Help us by making sure your Belwarks do not attack first,” he said, looking down at her again. “If they do… they will have started something neither of us will be able to finish.”
“It’s not Belwarks,” she told him.
Draven stopped in his tracks and turned around. “What?”
“No men followed us from Magnice. This is probably a Dreamer company from the Village. Which means—”
