by G. A. Aiken
Brannie focused on Aggie, brown eyes blinking.
“Do be kind,” Gaius told his sister. “That Cadwaladr saved your life once.” Then, to the captain, he said gently, “Could you excuse us, Branwen?”
“Oh! Of course!” She motioned to the Mì-runach. “Come on, you lot. Let’s give them some privacy.”
The Mì-runach who’d traveled with Brannie and Gaius exited the room, but those who’d been guarding Aggie did not move.
Brannie glared. “Move your asses,” she ordered.
“We don’t report to you, Captain.”
Uh-oh, Gaius silently told his sister. She’s going to blow.
Brannie had her hand around the offending dragon’s throat, her blade nearly out of its sheath when Aidan the Divine, who’d also escorted him here with his Mì-runach brethren Uther and Caswyn, came back into the throne room and quickly separated the pair.
Calmly, without the obvious intensity of the other Mì-runach, Aidan pushed Brannie back and said to the others, “Come, brothers. Let’s leave kin to speak alone.”
“But we’re supposed to protect her ladyship.”
“Of course you are. From outside the door.”
“Yes, but—”
“Now.”
Snarling and muttering, the rest of the Mì-runach walked out, the royal-born Aidan winking at Gaius before he closed the doors behind them.
“So,” he finally asked his sister, “how’s it been going while I was gone?”
Before Aggie could answer, Lætitia walked into the throne room. “It’s about time you returned,” she announced. “You have an empire to run and you can’t be—”
Aggie’s face turned red and she snarled at their aunt, “Get. Out.”
Lætitia spun on her heel and headed back to the door. “I’m leaving of my own volition, but this discussion isn’t over!”
Gaius smiled down at his sister. “So . . . did you miss me?”
“Oh, shut up.”
The Riders reached their destination four days later, and it seemed that Tatyana’s information had been correct. In another day or so, these men they watched from the safety of the trees would be attacking a nearby temple.
Now would be the real test of her team, a team she’d actually planned from the beginning.
Kachka knew the Anne Atli well enough to know that she would never allow Kachka to take any of the favored warriors. But Kachka had never wanted the favored warriors. They would be difficult and untrustworthy. At least to her. Their loyalty, unto death, would be to the Anne Atli.
So, Kachka needed more . . . unusual choices. Marina. The Khoruzhaya siblings. Tatyana. They all had skills and, Kachka was sure, their dreams were of a life outside the Outerplains.
Now, this moment, would prove whether she’d been right.
All that game playing was how one got what one needed from the Riders. Ask for what you wanted directly and the Anne Atli would fall all over herself denying it to you. So Kachka had feigned annoyance, regret, disappointment. But when Zoya and Nina had been forced on her—she’d no longer had to fake anything.
They could be her ultimate downfall.
She could only hope that she could make this work despite those two. Right now, she had to focus on what was in front of her.
Brutal men, brought in for one singular purpose. Killing a group of women bent on doing nothing more than worshipping a goddess of their choice in solitude.
They needed nightfall and to regroup before they did anything else, so Kachka signaled for them to back up and silently leave the area until they could figure out their next—
“Oy! What are you doing?”
The man had quietly come up behind them and Kachka turned, her sword pulled, but an arrow went through his open mouth. He dropped back and Kachka looked at her cousin.
Tatyana cringed as she lowered her bow. “Sorry. I panicked.”
In order to keep their privacy, Gaius and Aggie went to their favorite private garden deep within the palace.
The servants brought them fresh fruits and wine before silently leaving. Once the door was closed, and they were left alone, Aggie hugged Gaius again.
“If you had died,” she explained, “I would have been really pissed at you.”
Gaius stretched out on a lounge chair before popping a grape into his mouth. “Me, too. I do like living. And I’m so good at it.”
Aggie dropped onto his stomach—hard—and while ignoring his yelp of pain, she reached over and grabbed her own bunch of grapes.
“So,” she asked around the fruit, “did you have a good time with the crazy queen?”
“She wasn’t that bad. At least not this time. She actually remembered me!”
“She’s only met you two thousand times.”
“Don’t exaggerate, Aggie. More like one thousand.”
“Still.” His sister sized him up. “It must have gone well. You seem . . . unnaturally relaxed. For you, I mean.”
Gaius grinned. “What can I say? I met a very nice girl.”
“You? You met a nice girl?”
“She’s lovely. Sweet. Charming. Royal born perhaps.”
Aggie’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sure Auntie Lætitia will like that.”
“Oh, when it comes to prospective mates for her favorite nephew, this girl is just what Auntie Lætitia has been hoping for. . . .”
No longer unseen, Zoya moved first, charging into the middle of the camp and swinging her axe, randomly chopping off heads and body parts.
Kachka motioned to the Khoruzhaya siblings. “Go around!” she yelled in their language, not quite sure if these men could understand her or not.
The siblings ran and Kachka pushed her cousin back to the trees. “Protect us from above.” Tatyana was prone to panic and she was not good in battle. Kachka would rather have her watching their backs than trying to attack from the front.
Some male swung at her, and Kachka blocked the sword with the metal gauntlet on her forearm before slashing at his gut with her blade.
“Marina!”
Marina came in after Kachka, ducking a pike to the belly and barely avoiding a sword to the leg. But once she’d cleared all that, she struck, ramming her blade into the first male who crossed her. Behind her, two men went down, taken out by the siblings.
Kachka dispatched another man with a sword to the throat. Another with a stab to the back. He went down and that’s when she sensed someone coming up behind her. She turned in time to see a warrior running toward her. Kachka raised her blade, but Nina Chechneva jumped from the trees, landing on the man’s shoulders. She didn’t have a sword, but a long blade dagger that she stabbed with both hands into the top of the man’s head.
Perhaps bringing Nina Chechneva hadn’t been such a big mistake after all. . . . .
“So what’s on your mind, sister?” Gaius asked as he now reached for the cheese.
“What makes you think there’s something on my—?”
“Aggie, please,” he begged. “Not with me, sister.”
“What happened to you . . . it bothers me.”
“Because I was stupid?”
“You weren’t stupid. You were eager. We both were. And those who captured you knew we would be.”
“Everyone knows we want our cousins. They’re traitors to the empire. To us.”
Aggie pursed her lips and Gaius studied her for a long moment before he asked, “What are you thinking?”
“I’m just thinking that instead of waiting for them to come to us . . . to bring our cousins to us—whether it’s that ridiculous cult or someone else working with them—we go find them ourselves. Hunt our kin down and wipe them out.”
“All right. And who do you think would take on such a task?”
Aggie shrugged. “You.”
“Me? After I almost got myself killed?”
“That only happened because they had something to lure you with. Lure us with. We were reacting, not acting. I say no more of that bullshit. If we kill our cous
ins first . . . the rest of the world has nothing left to bargain with.”
Gaius grabbed Aggie around the waist and sat up, plopping his sister beside him on the lounge.
“You take the best and most trusted of your soldiers,” Aggie said, leaning in close, her voice low. “Dragons only, so they can fly when needed. You get the information. You hunt our cousins down. You kill them all. Then we’ll be done with it.”
“The Senate—and especially Aunt Lætitia—will not like me going off again.” Gaius smirked at his sister. “And some will think you’re purposely sending me off to my death.”
“And that will work until you get back. At least for me and my still tenuous reputation among our own. But don’t worry.” She patted his knee. “If I wanted you dead, I’d do it myself to ensure it was done properly. You know how picky I am.”
“Very true. Sadly, though, all my most trusted warriors were just killed during my last excursion.”
“But you forget the ones you traveled here with. A Cadwaladr and some Mì-runach. If nothing else, you know those Low Borns don’t want our throne and they’ll happily kill anything you tell them to.”
“Do you think they’ll fight for me?”
Aggie flicked her hands up. “Couldn’t hurt to ask.”
With the knife buried to the hilt in the top of his head, the man stumbled and dropped, while Nina rolled away, coming immediately to her feet. She then rammed another dagger into a different male, but she didn’t kill this one instantly. Instead, she just incapacitated him.
And, while he struggled to breathe, eyes wide in fear, she pressed a bloody hand against his chest, chanted a few words, and then yanked the man’s screaming soul from his body. She made a fist, silencing the screams and taking the soul as her own.
Panting, exuberant, she faced Kachka, raising her brows. A silent question. Kachka knew Nina would only ask it once.
Kachka looked around at what they’d already done. And remembered what Annwyl wanted. For the Chramnesind cult to start feeling some fear. To know that they were fucking with the wrong queen.
The man that Nina had attacked looked . . . wrong. Mouth twisted open, eyes bulging wildly from their sockets. Muscles strained and locked in pain so the whole body was contorted in death.
Sure. They could chop all these men to bits, but that could happen in any war. This . . . this display would send a message that would not soon be forgotten.
Kachka waited no longer. She nodded once and Nina, smiling wide, turned and found a few more victims. Her body trembled in ecstasy with each soul she ripped away from the screaming men.
While Nina did that, everyone else pursued their own forms of mayhem. Zoya twisted men until they broke for her. Marina cut men down quickly, without fuss or pleasure. It was just a job. The siblings killed like they were on the Outerplains hunting boar. Tatyana watched from a distance, her bow ready, if it was needed. But she’d done her job. She’d brought them here. She’d provided good, solid information. Kachka would not now make her fight.
Kachka herself tracked down the one she was sure was the leader. He had an arrow to the back, but his armor had stopped it from going all the way to his heart. He was dragging himself off into the trees when Kachka caught up with him. She grabbed his leg and dragged him back to the middle of the carnage. She flipped him over and held him down with a foot against his chest.
“Why did your cult send you here?” she asked him.
“You, whore, will burn in the pits of hell for what you have done here.”
“Was it just to cause fear in the Southlanders? Or do you look for something? Tell me and we make quick work of your death.”
“My god will find you. He will destroy you. He will destroy all you love. For his power is great!”
Kachka stopped listening and stepped away from the man, motioning to a joyful Zoya Kolesova.
The larger woman slammed her foot on the man’s chest, forcing him to the ground, the arrow in his back pushed until it broke. Then she stepped back, hefted her battle axe high above her head, and brought it down six times. The man was nothing but big chunks when she was finished.
Panting, she faced Kachka. “I like this, Kachka Shestakova.”
And, for the first time ever, Kachka grinned at Zoya Kolesova. “I can tell, comrade. I can tell.”
“Do we clean this up?” Marina asked.
“No,” Kachka said, walking back to the oversized Southlander horses they had been forced to take because they’d left their Outerplains mounts back in Brigida the Foul’s cave. “We leave them for the crows to dine on.”
“And us?”
“Us? We go find more to kill.”
“Yay!” Zoya Kolesova cheered. “I was hoping she’d say that!”
Kachka stopped, faced the others. “But first, we need to get better.”
Zoya looked around at the carnage. “You don’t think we did well here?”
“We were lucky. Caught them off guard. They weren’t expecting us. But word will spread and we’ll need to find a better way to fight.”
“She’s right,” Marina agreed. “There’s only seven of us. We’ll need to learn to be quieter. Faster. They should never know we’re coming.”
Yelena Khoruzhaya nodded. “Faster. Quieter. And maybe different weapons.” She nodded at her brother. “Bows are good. Javelins and spears also.”
Kachka re-sheathed her sword. “And we will only attack at night. We were very lucky today. We won’t be again.”
She looked over those who’d fought with her. Yes. She could make this work. She could make this team work. She just had to be smarter than their enemies. For the first time, Kachka was in charge. Out here, roaming these lands, there was no one above her, no one to report to, no one to watch her back except the six tribesmen she was looking at.
“Come,” Kachka ordered, again heading to the horses. “We have much to do, comrades.”
Servants led them to a large dining table covered in fresh fruits and vegetables, warm bread, and succulent meats.
Brannie only had a moment to think, My, that looks good . . . before she realized that the Mì-runach had already hunkered down so they could feed.
“Like wild animals,” she muttered as she took the only open seat, by Aidan the Divine.
He grinned at her around a mouthful of turkey leg, which caused Brannie to reply, “Shut up.”
“I didn’t say anything!” he said on a laugh.
“You were thinking at me.”
The Rebel King and his sister entered the dining hall from the back. As they approached the table, Brannie quickly realized that they were staring at her. She just didn’t know why.
The pair grabbed two chairs and pulled them up beside Brannie. The king at the head of the table, his sister on her other side, almost between her and Aidan.
When neither said anything, Brannie asked, “Is there something you . . . need, King Gaius?”
“Loaded question,” Aidan leaned over to whisper. So she punched him in the thigh to shut him up.
“Ow! Vicious harpy!”
“Is there a chance,” the king’s sister began, “that you and your”—she glanced at the dragons eating heartily of her people’s food—“friends can stay at my brother’s side for a bit longer?”
“Here? Don’t you have guards for that?”
“Not as guards. Protection, yes, but he’ll be going out to . . .” The king’s sister glanced up, thinking, before finishing with, “handle something. Important to the Empire. And it would be wonderful if you lot could go with him.”
Brannie looked back and forth between the king and his sister. The king smiled, but she didn’t trust that smile. Then again, his sister wasn’t much better. She raised her eyebrows, which appeared just as untrustworthy, so Brannie returned her gaze to the king.
That’s when he offered, “You’ll get to kill things.”
“Ooooh,” Aidan said near her ear. “Now doesn’t that sound lovely? Let’s do it.”
; Brannie brought her fist back and popped the chatty bastard in the face.
“Owwww! Heartless wench!”
“We were just supposed to bring King Gaius here,” Brannie reminded the twins. “Nothing about helping either one of you. I’ll have to get special permission for that.”
“We’re tight on time,” the king’s sister said. “Do you know how long this will—”
Brannie, closing her eyes, cut the Iron royal off with one raised finger.
Mum?
Yeah?
It’s Brannie. King Gaius wants me and the Mì-runach idiots to stay and kill stuff for him. I said I had to check in with you first, though.
Yeah. All right. Just be careful.
Yeah. Will do. Brannie opened her eyes and nodded at the Rebel King. “Me Mum says, ‘Yeah, all right.’”
“Oh,” the king said, glancing at his sister. “Well then . . . excellent. We’ll get started in a day or two. But, for now, relax and enjoy your time here.”
The twins left after that and servants returned with more food and what Brannie would guess was the better wine.
“That was smoothly handled.” Aidan nodded.
“Shut up.”
Laughing, “I was giving you a compliment!”
“Shut up anyway.”
As soon as the suns rose in the sky, Annwyl slid out of bed, leaving her mate asleep. She quickly dressed, grabbed her weapons, and headed out to get some training in. The Rebel King was gone. Kachka and her Riders were gone. Rhi was off with Izzy somewhere. Her son had gone to Bram’s castle to meet with his Uncle Bram and cousin Var.
Everything was now back to normal, which meant she had to get back to work.
As she crossed the courtyard, she knew someone was walking behind her.
Annwyl had her swords pulled and pressed against the follower’s throat before she realized it was her daughter.
“Do not,” she snarled, “sneak up on me, Talwyn!”
“I wasn’t. I was walking.”
“Behind me. You know I hate that.” Annwyl lowered her weapons. “What is it? What do you want?”
