‘What aren’t you telling me, Tova?’ My question was answered with a look of guilt.
‘There’s a chamber deep under the throne room with a shaft that leads to the heart of the mountain. It holds the archive of my people, a workshop for the finest masters.’ He paused, giving me a grim look, ‘and the way to kill us all with a single blow.’
‘And you want to go there for…?’ I let my question hang, impatiently tapping my fingers on the table until his shoulders sagged.
‘To retrieve the smelting recipe for the alloy responsible for the void boxes.’ He paused, staring at me intently, ‘and to ensure Mlot can’t use the shaft to wake up the mountain.’
‘You’ll die there,’ I said bluntly, pouring myself a glass of wine and offering him another. ‘As hard as it is to believe, I’ve become accustomed to your presence, Master Orenson, and I don’t want to see my Viper cry. My answer is no.’
‘Then she will mourn us both.’ He picked up the glass and took a sip. ‘You can’t outrun a volcano. Mlot will destroy this mountain, the mine, the city, and your entire army. Even if you somehow survive, how can you defeat whatever comes next if we barely withstood the void box?’
We stared at each other; I was weighing my decision, while he was ready to defy it. ‘Fine.’ I finished my glass in one gulp. ‘But do me a favour and survive, for your sake and mine.’ I gestured for him to leave and leaned heavily on the desk. I’d found a solution to one problem, only for more to spawn.I’m sendingthose men to die. What if Tova doesn’t make it? If their sacrifice can save everyone else, could this gamble save those in Wiosna still clinging to the threads of sanity?
My heartbeat was so strong that I had to press a fist to my chest. This decision was the correct one, the sensible one, but as a man, it felt like betrayal. I knew what Tova meant to her… and what he meant to me. I needed someone who listened, someone who’d understand my decision.
Cinared?I reached out, needing the connection, but my thoughts were met with silence. I rubbed my chest, missing the strange warmth that the dragon’s presence awakened, and my hand landed on Sana’s amulet. The stone was warm, pulsing like the heart of my lover. I was tempted to read the letter, but what if she asked me to protect Tova? Begged me to keep him safe? I couldn’t do it. Not until he walked out of there alive.
I left the tent and walked through the camp, answering the soldiers’ questions, making jokes and wry observations to keep morale up. I couldn’t rest until I’d checked everything twice to ensure we were ready for this night’s attack. I couldn’t neglect anything, because their lives depended on me.
So, I walked. Each step was more difficult than the last, weighed down by a crown heavier than a convict’s shackles.
Chapter 25
Reynard
Dusk arrived too quickly. Darkness settled over the tents as the camp prepared for battle. I stared at Wiosna Mountain from the back of my horse, but the harsh stone with its covering of luminous snow didn’t look any less intimidating. I had a plan of attack, but doubt kept me second-guessing myself. Had I made the right decision?
The pommel of my sword branded my skin as I struggled to control the Wild Magic coursing through me, my grip so tight I marvelled at how it had survived. My breath caught as the pain shot through my hand.
‘Tova,’ I called.
He turned, looking more animated than I’d seen him since his arrival at my camp. ‘What?’ he answered before correcting himself under my soldiers’ reprimanding glares. ‘How may I help, Your Majesty?’
‘Stay alive,’ I said, taking him in, the fur-lined leather vest and ropes crossing on his chest. ‘For the love of all the gods, please stay alive.’
His eyes softened, understanding flashing in them before he nodded. ‘I’ll see you at the entrance to the mines, and if I don’t, tell her it was my choice. My Drah’sa will understand.’
I didn’t want her to understand, didn’t want to hear Sana’s heart-shattering sobs if she lost him. I closed my eyes, but even in the privacy of my thoughts, there was no peace, only the silent villages with corpses frozen under fresh snow. Mlot couldn’t be allowed to continue, and I would have to bear the consequences. If those cubes were used in my cities, it would be carnage.
‘Crazy, reckless dwarf. What if Mlot’s ability to awaken the mountain is just a myth?’ I muttered. The old dwarven legend claimed the mountain had risen from the ground one day, spewing fire and destroying the surrounding forest with rivers of fire, that its fiery heart still beat deep beneath their mining shafts.
I remember it happening. The flames were so high they eclipsed the sun. The world’s heart bled that day. The intensity of the flames strengthened my wings while smoke flowed over them with the blessing of darkness.
Cinared’s voice filled my mind, thick and smooth like molasses, dragging me in. A feeling of weightlessness spread through my body, while the flames from below warmed the membranes of my wings. My heart was brimming with the pure joy of basking in the element of my creation.
How old are you?I asked when he released me from the memory, allowing me to focus on the world around me. The land I now recognised from the memories of my dragon.
Older than you can imagine. I’m a primaeval dragon, born from the aether when the stars were formed.Humour bled into his thoughts.And now I’m tethered to a human. How low I’ve fallen.
I’m just as thrilled,I thought. His roaring laughter reverberated in my mind long after he withdrew, leaving mealone with my thoughts. I welcomed the silence. This attack would be difficult enough without seeing memories so ancient I barely recognised the world in them.
‘Get ready!’ I shouted, riding to the head of my army.
An hour later, as the last hint of daylight faded from the mountain, my officers arrived with their reports, providing me with the final piece of information I needed: the ideal place to concentrate the attack.
Compared to the trap we’d encountered, the defences before us were simplistic. The earthen ramparts, whilst high, were clearly made in haste and had several weak points where the wall was built on unstable soil rather than stone. The most vulnerable was the brattice defending the road to the city above. That was where I intended to begin my game of cat-and-mouse.
The climbers should be close to beginning their attack. For them to be successful, I needed Mlot’s forces to focus on my army here. If I calculated it right, we could breach the city with minimal losses.
