They were trying to dig Ryker’s grave right in front of me, bloodying his reputation and hoping I’d dance on the ashes.
Just like with the attacks, they had miscalculated.
“So that’s what you’re playing at.” It was my turn to laugh. And it sounded cold and vengeful. “You have no claim over Solkar’s Reach, Beren. This land belonged to the Commander’s mother. It’s his birthright, nobody else’s.”
The smile finally fell from Beren’s face. He looked cold. Colder than the ice which had enveloped the soldiers he didn’t care about. Vylkor had probably mourned their souls more than him.
“So it’s going to be like that?” he asked, the severe lilt of his voice spiking the soft hairs on my skin.
I lifted a brow in reply.
“Very well.” He licked his teeth. “Evacuate the crater and there will be no bloodshed.”
Lioran and Edrin both flinched at the request.
Either Beren’s calm had been shattered or this had been his plan all along–he just hadn’t shared it with the other two.
It didn’t matter much to me right now.
A threat was a threat.
“No.”
He tsked, his jowls shaking underneath the beard. “They said you were too stubborn for your own good.”
“Who’s they?”
“Your inevitable demise.” He closed his eyes and rolled his neck from side to side, feigning disinterest. Then that dark gaze of his whipped to me. “Here’s the situation, since you don’t seem to fully understand it.”
Dax growled.
“You’re outnumbered and outpowered,” Beren said. “You may be the fierce Huntress and scared our soldiers away, but you’re surrounded by snot-nosed kids who can barely hold weapons and an old warrior who can barely see.”
He had done his research–but not recently, it seemed.
He didn’t know about the trolls.
“Yet, somehow, that was enough to win,” I said.
“Against only a fraction of our army,” he hissed.
I shrugged. “Not my fault you didn’t send the entire one.”
Beren stopped, looking at me like I was deranged. I sensed the doubt sprouting. “You’re in a hole. A large hole you cannot defend in its entirety. From where I’m standing on top of my mountains, you are an easier target than you realize.”
“I know exactly where my place is, Beren,” I said. “Between you and innocent people. If it’s a war that you want, we’ll deliver.”
“If your beloved Commander would have delivered his fair share of the crater’s magic, we wouldn’t be talking right now.”
I tilted my chin. If all he wanted was more magic, then bloodshed could be avoided–as long as he didn’t want to bleed us dry. “How much is missing?”
Edrin’s eyes shone with greed.
Lioran’s face turned even more pinched as he opened his mouth–but Beren beat him to it.
“Too much,” he said. Too fast, too definitive.
Lioran’s gaze shifted with unease.
