Page 311 of Burn of the Everflame

A twig snapped to our left. A figure emerged in the trees, though Luther shoved me behind him before I could get a clear look.

“Who’s there?” a woman’s voice called out, accompanied by the deep, throaty growl of a feline beast.

A man on horseback wearing the insignia of an Emarion Army officer pulled off the Ring Road and galloped toward us. “What are you doing?” he bellowed. “No wandering off.”

“Fucking Fortosians,” the woman muttered. “Sheep who think they’re tigers.” The creature with her snarled, seemingly in agreement. “If they didn’t breed like rabbits and dilute their power just to make their army larger, maybe they’d be able to sense this aura, too.”

I stilled. That didn’t sound like the voice of a person whose mind had been wiped. I tried to peer out from behind Luther, but he pressed back against me as the voice grew dangerously near.

“I know someone’s there,” she yelled into the trees. “Come out, or I’ll send my wasps to find you.”

“Get back to your people,” the man shouted.

“Don’t bark at me, you little whelp,” the woman snapped. “If I still had my Crown, I’d⁠—”

“Ailani?” I called out. I pushed off Luther’s grip and stepped around him to see the former Faunos Queen sitting atop a massive white tiger.

The beast growled, and Ailani’s head snapped toward me. She balked as Luther’s magic glittered away. “Diem?”

“Her Majesty to you,” Luther grumbled.

“Thank the gods you’re still you,” I said. “Why are you here?”

“A few days ago, all the animals in Arboros fled to Faunos. They didn’t know why they’d left, they just felt something in the earth that told them to leave. I sent a hawk to Mireille, but it never returned. Then yesterday . . .” Her expression went uncharacteristically somber. “The animals started leaving Faunos, too. I listen to my beasts. When they say to go, we go. We got to Fortos just as your rider arrived.”

The male soldier from the Ring Road dismounted his horse and stalked into the forest, then jerked back in surprise when he saw me. “Your Majesty,” he said with a stiff salute. “What are you doing here? Your orders said to come to Lumnos.”

“Change of plans,” I said. “We’re going back to Fortos.”

“No,” they both said in unison.

“Yes,” I insisted. “Ophiucae’s army is on the way. We’re marching south to confront him.”

Ailani and the soldier exchanged a dark look.

“Well, you won’t have to wait long,” she said. “His army’s right behind us.”

70

DIEM

Eighty men.

Eighty mortal men.

Only eighty mortal men.

“Where are the rest?” Alixe squinted into the distance, where Vance and his men stood in rod-straight lines at full attention, a strange contrast to their dirty clothes and roughshod, shaggy appearance. “There were more when we faced them in the past.”

“Our lookout came to warn us before he saw their full numbers,” the Fortos Vice General said, looking them over with scorn. “If I’d known it was only this many, I would have stayed and put an end to them myself.”

“Where are the Descended?” Luther asked. “He had a group of them in Sophos.”

“They surely faced a battle in Arboros,” Nidara said. “Maybe these men are all he has left.”

“Or maybe the rest are hiding behind an illusion,” Alixe murmured.

Everyone fell quiet, their eyes rising to the empty horizon.