“Any wounded should stop with me at the Umber,” Nadir called to them.
Lex raised an expectant brow at Aydra’s defiant frown. Aydra cursed the canon stinger wound on her arm and huffed at her.
“I’m fine,” Aydra assured her.
“Go with Nadir,” Lex insisted. “At any rate, just go so you can meet Lovi.”
“What will you do?”
“Find a ledge to throw him off of,” Lex said with a nod to Ash.
Aydra raised a brow in agreement. “We miss an opportunity earlier,” she muttered.
“True.” Lex’s hands sat on her hips, and they both watched him try to speak with one of the Honest women. “You should tell him where you’re going. He won’t listen to me.”
Aydra nodded. “Hey Ash—”
The sound of his name coming from her made him alert to her as though he were being called by his master. He excused himself quickly from the woman and came jogging up to her. “Yes, Your Majesty. I am here.”
“Thank the Architects,” Aydra mumbled under her breath. “You’ll go back to the Venari kingdom with Lex. Pack your things. You’ll ride out for your Village by nightfall.”
“Where will you go?” he asked.
“I am stopping with Nadir by the Umber. Diplomatic mission,” she replied.
Ash gave her the first agreeing nod he’d taken all day.
Aydra bid Lex goodbye a moment later, and then she made her way across the sand to where Nadir was standing, gathering up their injured people.
“Surviving, Sun Queen?” he smarted upon her approach, a slow smile growing on his face.
As the adrenaline of the morning began to slow, Aydra felt herself start to tire. “I am,” she forced herself to say. “Your people fought valiantly,” she told him. “The ambush from the reef side was well coordinated. Those men had no idea what to do upon seeing you all rise from the waters.”
The smirk on his lips widened. “My people have been guarding this reef for two hundred years—not usually against people, but against creatures and the Infi. We have—”
“You fight creatures?” she balked.
He eyed her. “Don’t give me any of that ‘creatures are misunderstood’ bullshit, Sun Queen. These were vicious animals.”
“So is the Ulfram—” a flash of small red caught her eye, and she called out to the cardinal passing her by “—but with the right understanding, they are no more deadly to you than a cardinal,” she said as the cardinal landed on her finger.
Nadir’s jaw set and he stared at the small red bird on her finger. “I’m pretty sure that bird helped peck men’s eyes out today. So I don’t know how innocent I would say it is.”
Aydra smirked and the bird left her. “Tell me, Nadir. Will your giver be at the Umber when we get there?”
“Ah… probably,” he finally decided. “No promises. Don’t think he will listen to any politics you’d like to talk about.”
Aydra shook her head. “No politics.” She held up her arm, showing him the canon stinger burn, to which he winced for her.
“Ouch.”
“Ouch is correct,” she agreed.
He grinned a crooked, mocking grin down at her. “So not all creatures are vicious, huh?”
Her nostrils flared at his satisfied face, his cerulean eyes dancing at the delight of her in pain. “Shut up and take me to your giver.”
“Where are you shoes?” he asked.
“Oh.” Aydra had forgotten she’d taken them off. “I’m actually not sure.”
Nadir laughed at her and then draped his arm around her shoulders. “Good thing the trail is sand. I’m sure one of my sisters will have a pair that will fit.”
Draven did not go with them to the Umber. Instead, he helped his people take their dead back to his home. He’d barely looked at her since Dunthorne’s death, and she knew he was taking the passing of his friend hard.
She was left with only Nadir whom she knew to walk with. They spoke of the battle as they walked, of the way the strangers fought. He told her what they’d found on the ships—weapons, even some gold. He was having his people sail them around to the eastern edge of their reef to be raided of goods.
It took an hour to reach his home, and when they finally reached the hillside above it, she stopped for a moment to take it in. A smile rose on her face, and she shook her head at the beauty of their peaceful home.
Colorful tents lined the beach, boats pulled up to a line of docks that jetted sporadically into the ocean. The clear water poured softly against the sand on the shore. She could see the reef beneath the water as it spread out further than her eyes could see.
In the distance, she saw carts upon carts, full of goods, fabrics, food, and flowers. Her eyes narrowed. “So you are the traders?” she asked.
Nadir was stopped beside her, and he pointed at a great hill in the distance. “Beyond that hill is our food forest. We can grow a lot of foods here that you’re not able to in the northern climates. Most of it trades with the Blackhands and Venari. Your Dreamers only trade for the rarest of goods, as you grow most of your things in the Preymoor,” he explained.
She crossed her arms over her chest and raised a brow at him. “Tell me, Nadir… are the rest of your people as beautiful as the home you live in?”
Nadir’s face faltered just slightly, and he held his chest. “You don’t think I’m pretty?” he asked in a hurt voice.
She rolled her eyes as he fell off balance, faking pain at her words. “Take me to your giver, pretty boy.”
The noises of children laughing and playing around the tents danced in her ears. A few went up to her, offering her flowers, and by the time they had reached the big tent, she had a near bouquet of flowers in the end of the braid her hair had been woven into over her shoulder.
Nadir gave her no warning before whipping the curtain door out of his way and barging into
