I nodded, turning so she could do the laces on my own vest as I strapped the gauntlets over my forearms.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay with Ronan tonight?” I asked, keenly aware of how close I flew to her flames.
Nerissa straightened, cracking her neck and rolling her shoulders. “I’ll see him at dawn.”
Lightning cracked in the skies, its flash illuminating the shadows of the neighboring tents against the walls of our own. Nerissa frowned, sheathing her blades.
“Not good for flying,” she murmured. “Maybe Vienah can get that under control.”
I nodded my agreement. “Thank the gods for sending us a water witch.”
My head snapped up at the swish of the tent flap. Kresida appeared a moment later, the few lit tapers shining off the wet stripe of black paint against her dark skin. Her eyes slid to Nerissa.
“Commander,” she murmured, Nerissa’s previous title rolling off her lips in assured confidence. Kresida held a small vial of paint and nodded to the ex-War Slayer.
Nerissa had stiffened, but her emerald eyes slid from the ebony paint to the matching wolf skull on Kresida’s shoulder. I nodded to the two of them before stepping outside.
The deafening boomof air canons echoed below where Tiberius and I circled the gathering Rising forces in the early hours of the morning. Thousands of troops lined the fields south of Aedrialis, ready to march on the city as soon as its shield fell.
We banked, heading toward the fleet Astraeus had called to arms. My head cocked as I spied eighty ships lining the coast ofSultira, all flying the same flag, aVoutlined with the snaking heads of theHydra. The same had replaced the Marisarma flag that flew atop Astraeus’s massive ship. V for Votruvia.
A blast of white light shot forth as Aquila signaled the second coordinated rubelline air cannon attack. I braced myself as forty glowing, red balls pummeled the invisible shield around Aedrialis, the wind around it rippling in a wave of magic.
Fuck.
My stomach dipped. The shield held.
We continued circling, and I spied Vienah in the leathers she so despised at the stern of theHydra. Astraeus’s blue coat flashed, and I pulled my gaze toward the forces on land. Ronan sat atop his own agrippa, a steadfast stallion I’d picked for him. He wore plain, silver armor we’d scraped up from the old keep at Khasimir.
Carina stood at the front lines alongside Kresida, with Drystan in his own armor twenty yards away. He glanced up, nodding a greeting as we passed.
Vulcan adjusted his seat behind me. Despite my protests, he and the mother hen we rode atop refused any other post I suggested for the elf.
Another flash from above and a third volley of cannons echoed from below, banging against the city’s unyielding barrier.
“How many more rubellines do we have?”
“Three more volleys worth,” Vulcan called as the wind whipped around us.
Ti circled behind our troops when a blur of small, dark figures caught my eye from the mountains.
“Are those?—”
“Yes,” Vulcan growled from behind me.
Ti, can you?—
Already on it.
I glanced behind to see Aquila dive, the surrounding troops clearing the field to make room for his landing near Ronan, no doubt to communicate the arrival of Evony’s strange friends.
Tiberius picked up his speed and soared toward the creatures gathering at the mouth of a cave near the foothills. Ti’s hooves hammered down as we landed a short distance away.
Gork stood at the front of the group, his peg leg clacking against the stony ground as he shuffled ahead and frantically pointed south.
I slid off Ti’s back and stepped up to Gork. “What is it? Why are you here?”
Gork mumbled something in his own language, pointing again to the south.
