I sighed, rolled my shoulders back, and faced them. This was going to be a long discussion.
Chapter 53
Ryker
“Trolls,” I repeated, staring at Sylvester like either he or I had gone insane. “She brought trolls into the city.”
He just cawed in reply, sounding as confused as me.
I ran my hands down my tired face, trying to ignore the blood I hadn’t managed to wash off the last battle.
If the trolls had agreed to march and seek shelter among people, the crater’s bleed was truly dire.
“Who knew the she-beast was so friendly.” Elysia huffed, as if she hadn’t been worried about Allie when her energy had yanked on mine.
“Creatures will always be smarter than us,” Zandyr muttered. He stared at the tired Blood Brotherhood warriors trudging through camp, shoulders caved and lips trembling with prayers nobody had bothered to answer today. “The animals have retreated from this area. They can feel death approaching.”
It wasn’t approaching.
It was already here.
The Serpents kept coming at us in unnatural droves.
Mercifully, their snakes hadn’t yet crossed the river, but Kleonos had taken great pleasure in bringing them right up to the edge, jaws snapping for blood.
But the Serpent soldiers…they moved like no mortal should.
A vicious vigor helped them face the relentless river currents as if they ran through grass. Their bodies withstood too many of our blows. Their jade-covered armour was more for show and intimidation than protection, so something else had turned them into relentless killers.
Something sinister.
Sylvester waited for me to unclasp my baldric and set it down on the table, next to the useless maps filling up the entire war tent. Blood dripped from the tips of the daggers, the pommels too spent and full to absorb any more.
It still wasn’t enough to push the Serpents back.
He flapped his wings and cawed again.
My hands froze.
My eyes sparked.
“They didwhat?” I bellowed.
Sylvester cawed again.
I braced my hands against the table. The battle lust still raged through me, but the swell of anger came from thousands of miles away.
“What?” Elysia asked. “What did they do?”
“The Northern Clans have attacked the crater,” I said. “Three times.”
That we knew of.
This meant the first attack had taken place while I was just leaving Solkar’s Reach–or was still there.
Elysia jumped off the table she’d sat on as soon as we’d entered the tent, horrified gaze frozen at nothing.
“But…you protected the entrance,” she said.
