22
Before we leave Rath land, we head back to the house to let everyone know where we’re going and to pack supplies in case we’re gone longer than expected. I consider testing out my new storm skills to fly to Elyria’s location, but only the Phoenix knows where she and Jasper are. After I call the firebird to me, we detour down the border where Baelen points out our defenses from his position sitting behind me, arms wrapped around my waist.
I’m impressed to find that most of the outposts aren’t visible from the sky—which means they will be even less detectable from the ground. I remember the day we came across Llion after we rescued Talia: he’d camouflaged himself against the rock so we didn’t know he was there until he chose to reveal himself. Male gargoyles are particularly good at blending in to their surroundings. When Baelen points at the fifth invisible outpost, I squint back at him. “How do you know it’s really there?”
His answer is to drop a tantalizing kiss on the side of my neck. He seems to be enjoying the fact that I’m snuggling up against him right now. He’s definitely a lot more relaxed now that he believes we have a week before we go to war. “Ask the Phoenix to take us down. I’ll show you.”
The Phoenix circles a few times, finally locating a place to set down on a precipice at the top of a ravine. The firebird hops impatiently from side to side as if it’s standing on hot potatoes until Baelen and I slide from its back. Then it rapidly returns to the air. I’m not sure what all that was about until the ground shifts beneath my feet.
“Whoa!” What I thought was solid rock isn’t rock. Instinctively, I harness the breeze around me, lifting myself and Baelen up and away from the surface.
He seems pleased that I moved him instead of the other way around. “Look at you,” he says. “Taking a crash course in flying.”
“It’s about time,” I growl, circling the structure and trying to find an opening, because one step on it told me that I was standing on a building, not a rock face. Baelen circles around with me, clearly amused at my bewilderment. He glides in close, slipping an arm around my waist. “You won’t see them until they want to be seen.”
I clear my throat, peering at the structure that blends seamlessly into the cliff. There is a small platform on one side of it that I choose to descend to, finding my feet on what is actual rock. “They’re watching us right now, aren’t they?”
Baelen makes a smooth landing right behind me. “Yep.”
I straighten, attempting to appear as regal as I can. I am their Queen after all. Even if the way Baelen creeps up behind me and nuzzles my ear before stepping back again makes it look like he’s the one in charge.Hmm. If he keeps dropping kisses on my neck like that…
The rock-like structure shifts. A male strides from an opening that quickly closes after two other gargoyles appear close behind him. He’s beaming at me.
“Badenoch!” I hug him before he can take a knee. “Don’t worry about all the Supreme Incorruptible stuff. I’m honored to see you safe and sound.”
He grins at me. He’s an older male who holds his wings in such a way that they always move fluidly with him.
He says, “I’d like to introduce my son and daughter. They will fight with us.”
Badenoch’s wife died soon after she was forced into Howl’s Harem. Badenoch told me his children were living in an orphanage. He’d gone to find them after the fight with Howl in Crimson Court. Two teenagers step up on either side of him. His son is a younger version of him but without the pale scars crossing his chest. His daughter is gorgeous and no doubt takes after her mother with mahogany hair and brown eyes shot through with silver flecks.
I’m surprised. “Somehow, I pictured your children younger.”
They smile back at me good-naturedly and bow their heads. “Supreme Incorruptible, we honor you.”
“I am honored to meet both of you.”
They show me inside what they call a ‘cavern’ and introduce me to the thirty other gargoyles inside.
“It’s sort of like a mini Cavity,” Badenoch explains, showing me how the building is painted to look like the rocks around it and covered in strong, protective material that Talia has used her deep magic to conform and meld into the surroundings. I’m really happy this means that Talia is testing out her powers. I haven’t seen her since Grayson caught her on the cliff top.
Badenoch shows me the openings in the base and top of the structure and the gazillion arrows stockpiled at one end. “If the enemy travels by foot through the ravine below us, we will use these openings to fire on them from above. If they fly over us, we will use the upper openings to shoot them out of the sky.” He reveals one basket of five arrows that are all gold-tipped with shimmer beetle husks. “These are only for a dire emergency.”
These arrows can slice through any armor, even cut through a gargoyle’s wings. They will bring down the most heavily protected foe but the danger is that the weapon will fall into the enemy’s hands and be used against the gargoyles.
“Only if absolutely necessary,” I say, thanking Badenoch again.
Taking to the air with the Phoenix once more, two hours pass before we soar toward the north-western corner of Erador, the firebird’s steady wings propelling us around Mount Denrock and toward a lush, green mountain beyond it. Baelen rides behind me, arms wrapped around me, his head resting against my shoulder. He’s very quiet, relaxed. Somewhere along the way, I discover that he has fallen asleep and I don’t want to wake him.
The Phoenix has been mostly quiet until now, but it sings into my mind:It’s lucky that you came back when you did.Baelen Rath was a burning candle with no wax left.
You were checking up on him?
He called me to help find you. I flew over Erawind many times looking for you but you were hidden from everyone. So were Elise and your Storm Command. Baelen did not sleep. Not even a Storm Prince can survive without sleep for a week.
I pull Baelen’s arms closer around me, enjoying his trusting weight against my back. I’m determined that he will sleep in a proper bed tonight.
I ask the Phoenix,What else did you see when you flew over Erawind?
