“Yeah, thank the trees for small mercies, huh?”
“Yeah.” I leaned our foreheads together.
“Allie?”
“What?”
“I miss home. I miss Mr. Brinnegar and his stupid assignments that have no bearing on the real world, and biology class on dissection days when the cheerleaders would whine about how gross cutting something open was while you tried not to pass out or barf. I even miss gym class.”
“Me, too.” I pulled my best friend closer, staring out into the dark nothingness of the night surrounding us. “I miss it, too. Well, I don’t miss gym class, but the rest of it I miss. No one who ever actually had to play field hockey in gym class could miss that.”
“Are you really going to find some way to get us back home?”
“I’m going to try.” I squeezed her tighter. “Did you really copy all your gym class reports from Wikipedia?”
“Every single one.”
There was a crunch of leaves to our left, and I instinctively reached for the sword I’d gotten used to wearing at my hip after so many months of war. I wrapped my hand around the hilt, and shifted my weight, putting my body between Mercedes and whoever—or whatever—was coming toward us.
“Your Majesty?” Kitsuna called out a moment before the red-haired wryen, the daughter of two different types of dragons, melted out of the shadows. She’d been acting as my fiercest bodyguard this past year, even though she didn’t possess the ability to transform into the dragon inside her.
“Hey, Kit.” I took my hand off the sword and patted the ground beside me. “Come hang out with us.”
“I can’t.” She shook her head. “You’re needed.”
“Why?”
“Your Royal Council of War has arrived. The army is mobilizing, and the Town Watch for Neris has sent all their spare men to help guard the castle.” I watched as she shifted from foot to foot, not meeting my eyes. “You need to come.”
“That’s not all, is it?” I asked, my stomach filling with dread.
“Allie.” Her shoulders slumped.
“It wasn’t just the Forest of Ananth,” Mercedes said, her voice low. It wasn’t a question, and my heart clenched. “Bavasama’s troops, they didn’t just raid the border at the Forest of Ananth. That’s why the members of the War Council all came so quickly to Allie’s summons. Bavasama’s army didn’t just stop with us. They invaded somewhere else…. Didn’t they?”
“You need to come now,” Kitsuna said, her voice hollow.
Chapter Seven
In the ten minutes it took for me to get to the throne room from the back garden, the palace had filled with people. It sounded like a dozen high school pep rallies being blared through fifty-foot speakers at the same time.
“Everyone, please!” Rhys yelled over the screaming and the arguing and the general noise pouring out of the room. “Let’s all just settle down and talk about this!”
“There were ravens over Meridoc. They were carrying fire wizards. Meridoc is burning, and you want us to be calm?” Lady Arianna, steward of the Veldt, snapped, her face red and her normally sleek, blond hair standing up in tufts all over her head.
“The desert near Caradocia has ogres amassed on their borders,” Melchiam, the Rache of the Firas, said, his maroon robes rumpled and his long black hair hanging loose against his shoulders instead of tied back like it normally was. “We’ve had to strike our camps and go in search of water elsewhere. Lands we’ve held since the First Rose are no longer in our control.”
“We can address all of this—” John of Leavenwald began from near the throne.
“Shut up!” I yelled, letting my voice carry across the room as I swept out of the main doorway and through the rapidly parting crowd, trying to project my faux queenly confidence. I made my way to the huge, intricately worked throne. “All of you. That’s an order. I need all of you to just shut up for five minutes.”
“Your Majesty—” one of the men started and tried to reach for my arm. Instead of letting him grab me, I picked up my pace and kept moving.
“No bowing.” I stalked up the three steps to my throne and turned to plop down on it. “You all know how I feel about the bowing that takes place around here. We get nothing done if you spend the next half an hour bowing and
Everyone looked at me, and then the room filled with a flood of noise. They’d decided to talk at once, and instead of listening to one another and going from there, they talked over one another.
“Wait.” I held my hands up in front of me. “Stop. Stop all of you. We won’t get anywhere like this. So, first, Rhys, have you heard anything from the troops we have stationed at the White Mountains?”
“There have been attacks all along the border. Our troops fought back where they could, but we only have a small force there, since we’re supposed to be at peace with Bathune now. They could only do so much.”
“Call them back to the palace,” I said. “We need to re-form the entire army. Volunteers and professional soldiers both.”
“I issued orders this afternoon for troops to come to the palace,” Rhys said.
“And how is that going?” I asked.
“Thirty thousand men are on their way to Neris to pledge their swords to the Golden Rose and the Rose Throne of Nerissette. Every noble family has sworn their troops to our use. Between the noble armies and the village militias, almost every able-bodied man in Nerissette will march with us,” he said.
“How long until they arrive?”
“They should all be here within two days. Most of the nobles brought their troops with them, and we’re sending dragons to ferry the volunteers who live farther away. By next week you’ll have the largest fighting force this world has ever seen, my queen.”
“Good.” I turned to stare at my father, trying to keep my voice calm. “John of Leavenwald?”
“The Woodsmen have all received the call, Your Majesty.” He bowed his head to me. “Our men are scouring every forest in Nerissette. If there is food there, it will be found and brought to the army. The first of the supply wagons have already left the Leavenwald and should be here in the morning.”
“Right. Winston, you’re next.”
“The Dragos Council has met. Our warriors will arrive in the morning with recruits from the villages near Dramera. The aerie is prepared for war. We’ve already begun flying patrols.”
“And what have the dragons seen from the sky?” I kept my eyes focused on him.
“The Borderlands is burning,” Winston said softly. “Bavasama has set fire to the White Mountains and any other land that wasn’t inhabited on our side of the border.”
“What about the places where there were people?” I asked, not really wanting to know the answer even as I asked the question.
“Six villages and the two largest Firas encampments have been invaded.” Winston turned to stare at Melchiam. “The encampments of the Lumeve and the Candelliere are gone. From what we can see, the people tried to flee from their campgrounds but didn’t have time.”
“Gone?” I asked a second before Melchiam let out a high-pitched wail, sinking to his knees with his head in his hands. Everyone turned silently to watch as the man dropped his head onto the floor and began to scream, long, terrible screams that sounded like a fire engine on a too-cold winter night. It was raw and primal, and it made the little slivers left of my heart feel like they’d been kicked by a bully in steel-toed boots.
“You mean they’re dead?” I asked, my eyes wide as I turned away from the screaming man and back to Winston. “
“Yes.” He nodded, his eyes not meeting mine. “Everyone. They’re gone. I’m sorry. We were too late to
