His already dark eyes shadowed more as he gave a curt nod and vanished between the waves of bodies moving this way and that, everyone with their own task. I’d relegated my warriors to building the spiked fence; they’d chopped enough hard firs at home that the sap-rich softwood surrounding us proved noobstacle at all. They swarmed through the forest, their thick furs and metal helmets forgotten in a pile.
Once this ordeal was finished, we needed to send a whole new army to replace the trees we were sacrificing.
“Kylian.” I called out to a burly warrior who could have towered over Vylkor himself–they even had the scars on their brows to match. He was one of the few I could make out in the swarm. “Gather two hundred men, each carrying at least five of the biggest wooden spikes, and follow me.”
Kylian didn’t ask any questions. He nodded that big head of his and whistled.
I grabbed a load of stakes myself. Their serrated sides dug into my skin, but their sweet sap finally erased the stench of the Defector Lands and blood from my nose.
By the time I marched outside the perimeter of the camp, I had hundreds of steps and groans following me.
I allowed myself a small sigh of relief.
Order.
Efficiency.
This is what the Blood Brotherhood army was good at–being ready for anything.
And I had to keep everything moving perfectly.
“Where are you off to?” Elysia called out.
She kneeled outside the stake fence with Calyx, cheeks and hands muddied, an entire row of his menacing caltrops already buried one foot deep. Behind them lay a row of the runes Allie and Dara had enchanted.
My nostrils flared as a wave of longing struck me.
I could almost smell her in the air, carried by the wind, as if she was watching over us.
Every time I let my thoughts wander toward her–though it happened much more often than it should have–my chest tightened and the fire burning inside of me blazed harder.
I reminded myself that she was safe. That helped less the more I repeated it.
“To secure the entire perimeter,” I said.
“What do you think we’re doing? Planting daisies?” Calyx grumbled.
“Roses would have looked better,” Elysia muttered.
Calyx did not look good, however.
His warm skin had gone ashen, a pale shadow of its normal tan. Sweat pooled above his dark brows, and his movements were sluggish and forced. Elysia kept giving him concerned glances; she wouldn’t have risked her pristine fingers in that mud if she hadn’t been watching over him like a hawk.
“Maybe you should take a break, this sun’s brutal,” I said, as gently as I could as hundreds of men waited for me to lead them.
“That sounds like a great idea.” Elysia brightened, looking expectantly at Calyx.
“I’m fine.” He waved us off. “We’ll finish this side and then I’ll stick my head in a stew cauldron.”
She grimaced. “That pig-headedness of yours is going to get you into an early grave.”
“Good thing we’re digging a hole, then.”
She nudged his shoulder, gentler than usual. “Don’t even joke about that.”
I left them to their jabs, braced the stakes in my arms once more, and ventured into the lines of young trees standing between us and the river. The trace of Allie’s energy followed me.
In the shadow of the trees, I let myself indulge in it.
