A fact that nearly drives me to a stop.
I am the Ember King, and the deeper into the bloodlands I run, the more it feels like I’m abandoning my people.
I remind myself: my fire is a danger to them.
Far better for my flames to burn where vampyrs are and where Ember Fae arenot.
As I run onward, the dark channel narrows.
A bottleneck!
My hope flares at the sight of it.
At a guess, the channel here is only one hundred paces wide. Far enough to allow a stream of vampyrs through, but narrow enough to be more easily defensible.
Damn, but Kaiba won’t know the bottleneck is here unless he risks sending serpents this far north to investigate. A twofold risk, not only because of the vampyrs, but because this part of the channel is technically within Iron Kingdom territory. Not that the darkness is swarming with Iron Fae, but their towers will be nearby.
A distance I check as I run.
In the east, artificial starlight glitters brightly, clearly highlighting the heavily guarded Iron Towers situated safely outside the new darkness.
Because of the way the bloodlands are—or until now,were—situated in the northwest of the Iron Kingdom, a wide strip of uninhabited land extends from the bloodlands’ southern edge to the border of my land.
Whatever water sources may have once existed here have dried up. When Antony became king, he relinquished control over this corner of his kingdom. He maintained Iron Towers along the natural border—the same ones that are now burning far behind me—but also built Iron Towers southward of the bloodlands’ eastern corner.
The two Iron Towers nearest on my right are dangerously close to the dark channel’s edge, the intense activity in the air above them an indication of how agitated the Iron Fae have become.
Eagles soar back and forth, the birds remaining steadfastly within starlight while the tips of their wings come close to skimming the darkness.
I increase my pace, prepared in case the Iron Fae spot me.
I’m momentarily thrown when they don’t react to my presence, even when my path takes me within fifty paces of the first of the nearby towers.
But of course.I’m reminded of how opaque the bloodlands are when viewed from the outside.
Threedays ago, when I flew along the bloodlands’ southern edge on my serpent, I couldn’t see into this cursed place. Its dark pall makes it impossible to discern shapes or even movement.
A swarm of vampyrs could have been flying alongside me, thirsting for my blood, and I wouldn’t have known.
If I let my fire rage, it could be bright enough to make me visible from the outside, but I guess I’ll find out if that happens.
Just as I return my focus to the mountains ahead of me, a glimmer of light splashes across the air on my right.
My focus snaps back to the Iron Towers, sweeping to the second tower situated farther along than the first.
I brace for the strike of the golden energy that will wrench me into the Oracle’s presence…
Or was it a trick of the light?
When nothing happens, I’m forced to consider it might have been a mere reflection of starlight off an iron blade.
A moment later, a new eagle appears, racing toward the tower. Not a sight that would normally give me pause, but the eagle is larger than most, and its saddle is a gleaming, ivory color.
I’m not completely familiar with every intricacy of the Starlit Court, but only the lords in Galla Vividari’s court ride eagles with ivory saddles. Those lords also wear white clothing. Always.
Yet this eagle’s rider does not.
His posture is rigid, his red hair making it clear he’s highborn, since lowborn all have dull, black hair, but the cut of this man’s leather armor ranks him no higher than a captain in the Iron Army.
