Especially now, he thought grimly. At that very moment, Lesva was probably explaining in great detail to everyone who would listen how he’d betrayed her. Betrayed all of them.
“Your brother would,” Syla said. “He brought all those dragons and riders a thousand miles to get you back from the Freeborn Faction.”
“He had superior numbers and wouldn’t have believed there was much risk in coming for me. He would also be the first to sacrifice me if it would lead to a victory for our people. He’s sworn to put his duty as the leader of the Sixteen Talons ahead of personal wishes, and I’m a lowly captain anyway, not anyone worth risking the military or the tribes over.”
“You could be a chief if you dueled yours for the position. Right?”
Vorik gazed at her, remembering that they’d spoken of that in the middle of the night in his cave. When she’d been limned in silver and appeared like someone in a dream. This was confirmation that ithadn’tbeen a dream. He’d already suspected, but he made a note of her new power.
“I’m not qualified for the job of chief,” he said.
“Not beingqualifieddoesn’t mean that you can’t lead,” she said with a smirk, waving at herself. “Sometimes, when the gods place you in a position where you’re needed, you have to figure out how to qualify yourself along the way.”
“You’re doing a good job of that yourself.” Vorik kissed her, in part to end what seemed a dangerous discussion and in part because her lips were so close, so appealing.
She sank against his chest and let him. With a fumbling hand, she pushed the key on the desk toward him.
“What will we do with the next few hours?” he murmured against her lips, not yet picking it up. “If you don’t drug me and interrogate me?”
“This is nice.” Syla raised her hands to his shoulders, then slid them up the side of his neck to thread them through his tousled hair. “Or did you want to instruct me on how to juggle? Someone gave me balls, and I’ve longed for a teacher.”
Vorik snorted softly, leaning his head slightly into her touch, and she kneaded his scalp. “Maybe later. I do enjoy participating in safe discussions and hobbies with you.”
“Those where neither of us betray our people?”
“Quite.” Smiling, he deepened their kiss.
9
I am gettingupdates from Igliana,Wreylith spoke into Syla’s mind as she leaned against Vorik, returning his kiss while he stroked her hair. She longed to do more with him.Muchmore.
Could she? She’d told Fel and the major that she would be in here interrogating Vorik, something that might take hours. That dishonesty disturbed her but not as much as the thought of an exuberant stormer-hating military officeractuallyinterrogating him. With knives, not hydra-scale powder.
Eventually, her people would check on her, but the threat of succumbing to Candles of Serenity ought to keep them away for a time. She could have a few hours with Vorik. She was sure of it.
But what would she say when she didn’t walk out with any information? She needed to find those shielder components, and someone who knew their location stood in her arms, kissing her and making her forget that need.
Drugging and questioning him would be a poor way to reward him for saving her life—again—but wouldn’t it be a betrayal to her people not to learn everything she could from him? The fleet had driven the stormers away from the harbor but not the entire island. The Kingdom was far from safe.
As you may have observed,Wreylith continued as Syla enjoyed kissing Vorik while mentally wrestling with herself,the Freeborn Faction dragons are resting on this end of the island, within range of the weapons platform. They’ve informed me that the stormer dragons are perching and scheming on the other end of the island, occasionally slinging telepathic threats at them. Meanwhile, Igliana and one of her kin have been scouting the rest of your island chain, suspecting your enemies are up to something else.
Are they?Syla slid her hands over Vorik’s shoulders as he trailed his down her arms, fingers grazing her waist through her dress, waking her nerves—her entire body.
Though he stood in shackles, there was nothingprisoner-like about him. No, he radiated the power of a great predator, as he always did, danger coiled beneath the calm. He could flex his magically enhanced muscles and break those shackles at any moment.
The stormers,Wreylith said,were in the process of bringing many more dragons to the Island of Eliok—or perhaps another destination within the Kingdom—when they saw your ships and attacked.
I assumed their scouts relayed to them that we were coming with the weapons platform, and that was why they sent reinforcements.
A dragon would not be able to speak telepathically all the way from here to either of the mainlands. A scout would have had to fly much of the way there before sharing that information, and then numerous wings of dragons would need to have been gathered and fly all the way back to the islands.
Something that would have taken longer than our sailing from Castle to Harbor Island.Syla assumed that was what Wreylith was saying. Jhiton and his squadrons had beenheading this waybeforethey’d known the weapons platform was on the move.
Yes. They were prepared for another incursion.
They may simply have intended to bolster their forces here. I’m sure they’d heard about the weapons platform.But would they have guessed that she would carry it to another island on a ship? She was less certain about that.
Vorik’s hand brushed the side of her breast, and a zing of pleasure swept through her body. Syla didn’t want to be ungrateful to her dragon ally, but couldn’t she have a couple of hours before musing about what the stormers were up to? As Vorik’s capable hands stroked her, one sliding past her hip and down her thigh to lift the hem of her dress and graze bare skin, thoughts of enemy plots slipped from her mind.
