I’ll handle it,Vorik vowed.You can call off Lesva.
Jhiton didn’t answer. He’d either been distracted or he simply wouldn’t say what Vorik feared, that hewouldn’tcall off Lesva. Vorik would have to make sure he got to Syla first.
14
A knockat the door woke Syla from the doze she’d allowed herself after theStormslicerhad docked. The soldiers who hadn’t been sent ashore were repairing the vessel, and with bangs and thumps reverberating through the walls, she hadn’t expected to fall asleep, but she’d been exhausted after using the weapons platform.
“One moment,” she called after a second knock.
She opened the door to find Fel and Hixun standing in the corridor, burn marks blackening the wall behind them. Portions of the deck and hull were in bad shape as well. At least the vessel remained seaworthy.
“Your Majesty.” Hixun bowed to her.
Fel peered past Syla’s shoulder and into the cabin, as if he expected to find someone else. Who? Vorik?
“You never know,” he grumbled, interpreting her question from the look on her face.
“I think Tibby got him,” Syla said, though she didn’t want it to be true.
“Ihopeshe did, but I never saw him come up.”
“No.” Syla probably shouldn’t have brightened. She did manage to keep from smiling with hope. “I thought you weren’t that determined to see him dead after all the times he’s helped us.”
“He didn’t help anything today. If he’d succeeded in blowing up the weapons platform, we would again be defenseless against dragons.”
“True.”
“And you said he wants tokidnapyou.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t seem as bad as his brother wanting to kill me.”
“You should avoid that whole family.”
“I’d argue, but I suspect you’re right.”
“Of course I am.”
Hixun cleared his throat. “Your Majesty?”
Fel stepped back, waving for the officer to speak. Meanwhile, he leaned his hands against a wall and stuck his foot out to stretch one of his calves. The battle had probably left him stiff.
“Have your men reported back, Major?” Syla guessed.
“Yes, the party we sent to the palace returned. They found Lord Oyenar, but he wouldn’t go with them. His wife is injured with a broken leg and possibly other wounds, and he wouldn’t leave her side.”
“That’s understandable.”
“Yes, but our men offered to carry them both back if needed, and he told them to suck dragon balls.”
“I… don’t believe dragons have that anatomical feature.”
“They don’t, but he was pissed. From what the men gathered, a team of stormers invaded the palace while buildings in the city were being blown up, including one of the military barracks, as a distraction. They were trying to kidnap not Oyenar but his wife, Lady Abrya. He said they would have gotten her, but, during the fighting, part of the palace collapsed. The two of them weretogether and buried under the roof. He clawed a way out for them and said the only luck the gods sent his way was that the incursion team left when our fleet arrived.” Hixun waved toward the sea where they’d battled the dragons.
“I’ll get my first-aid kit so your men can take me to them.” Syla turned to retrieve it from the desk.
Hixun lifted a hand. “We’re working to secure the city, but our men already had a skirmish with two stormers, and we suspect there are more.”
“If Lady Abrya is injured, I need to go now. It sounds like she has grievous wounds. I can promise you from past experience that having a roof fall on you isn’t pleasant.”
