“Because the community was on the border of Azule and Gemond,” Niemoj said as if that were explanation enough. When I raised my eyebrows, he added, “Emperor Draedyn has a different relationship with those of Azule, or at least he did in the stories my mother told us.”
Really, I needed to know more about the other two kingdoms. If I’d asked more questions before we went to Kanahele o keola, I would’ve been more prepared for the insanity we encountered. And if I’d asked more about Gemond, I might not have made assumptions about Zakai being evil. Though I’d been a bit anti-all-rulers there for a while. Right now, my ignorance about the ins and outs of my powers and the familial bond with Draedyn was threatening to overwhelm me. There wasn’t space for anything else.
Yet there had to be.
I nodded to let Niemoj know I was listening.
“There was some belief that you could trick the evil ones, that those who stole children in the middle of the night only wanted the best children. If parents loved their child, then those were the children to take.”
That was some twisted logic. That was like saying your pancakes tasted bad just so no one else would want any. “So if you were unloved, the emperor and his Druman wouldn’t steal you?”
Niemoj looked at his brother.
In a softer tone, Nielub said, “Our father, Andrik, meaning brave, died before we were born. He was taken to war by the emperor. My mother’s father, Jedrik, meaning strong, was taken just before her brother, Milos, was born.”
“Let me guess, Milos means loved?”
Nielub shook his head and stripped the husk off another ear of corn. “It means most favored.”
“And he went to serve in the war?” I asked. These people had some seriously sad family history.
“Maybe. He was taken when he was ten. The Druman swept through Wojslav and took a dozen boys and a dozen girls. Our mother was spared because one of the neighbors said she was worthless.”
“So your mother named you after what she believed would save you?” I felt like I was barely grasping the edges of their stories. Not that I didn’t understand the words, but the paradigm of their childhood sounded more like . . . like the whispered stories I’d heard as a kid and always thought were just tales from the emperor meant to scare us into submission.
Niemoj chuckled. “When you love someone, don’t you do everything in your power to save them?”
Well, of course. It was why my mother fled, why she’d kept the Phaetyn power a secret for so long. It was because of motherly love that Luna Nuloa gave me her ancestral powers . . . I possessed the strongest traits of both of these women. My mother’s Drae powers, and Luna’s—
Whoa. I blinked with the epiphany. I had two powers. Which I knew—being a Phaetyn-Drae, but . . . I’d missed something huge.
I’m only using one to protect myself from Draedyn. I groaned, earning a curious look from the twins.
Tyrrik? I sighed.
Yes, my love?
I’ve been using the Phaetyn sheild to protect the army, but why haven’t I been using it to protect my mind from Draedyn too?
18
I felt Tyrrik drop, the shock hitting him the same way it had me. He pulled his wings down hard repeatedly to climb back into the air.
Using both your powers at once doesn’t work, he said immediately. I was able to attack your mind yesterday on the way to catch up with the army.
No, I replied. You didn’t attack me through the veil; you were inside it already.
I waited as he processed that, feeling the way his mind turned over the problem, studying it from all angles.
You’re right, he said. And that is so obvious.
I grimaced with him. The Phaetyn had protected their forest from Draedyn for decades with a veil. If anyone asks, we knew it the entire time.
Tyrrik’s lips curved.
I inhaled, determination settling in my bones. Maybe Draedyn would’ve had a harder time entering my mind if I hadn’t exhausted myself yesterday. I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. I’ll see you soon, mate.
I peered at Niemoj and Nielub. “How old are you?”
Their matching grins were so wide and gleaming I drew back. I’d just woken up; I didn’t want to see that many teeth right now.
“Twenty-one.”
I shook my head because no way did I hear that right. The only man I’d met of that age was Calvetyn, and I was pretty sure he had gone to war and then escaped. “Did you serve in Draedyn’s army?”
“We lived out in the mountains because Zakai would not risk his kingdom by harboring the emperor’s enemy, and the rebels didn’t want to risk their base by having Draedyn swarm through Gemond. But after word was spread of your visit and your intent, the rebels came to Rostisek, the center of Gemond. We gathered here in hopes of being able to free our loved ones.”
That was what we all wanted, myself included. Kill Draedyn, bring the men home from the emperor’s ridiculous war of expansion, and we could . . . just live instead of merely surviving.
“And what’s your role? Are you my new body guards?”
They are not, Tyrrik snapped, gnashing his fangs.
It was a joke, Mr. Confident!
“We do whatever Zakai tells us to: fetch people, deliver messages, kill people,” Nielub said.
And at the same time his brother, Niemoj said, “We’re assassins.”
I studied them again, whistling low. Yes, undoubtedly big, but could they sneak? Maybe being that big meant they didn’t have to sneak. “How many Druman have you killed?”
Nielub shrugged. “We stopped counting after the first couple hundred.”
If Arnik had said the words, they would’ve seemed like boasting, but Nielub delivered them casually.
Holy-flippin’-Drae.
Tea-time is over, Ryn. King Zakai wants to strategize while the army rests for lunch.
I stretched tall to get the blood flowing after sitting for so long. “Well,” I said, taking a deep breath before continuing, “It’s nice to meet you. I hope you assassins aren’t afraid of heights.”
“Nope,” Niemoj said. “Though I don’t want you to grow a pumpkin around me ever.”
I narrowed my eyes. “That was you?”
Nielub laughed. “He loves that story.”
I waited until we’d exited the forest and were in the rocky valley to shift.
I tilted my chin up, my hair tickling my lower back, and pushed my Phaetyn veil over my body. Then I let my Drae take over. My bones shifted and expanded, my skin stretching to form the membranes of my wings, and scales rippled across my body into my Drae armor.
Soon, I stretched my wings out, arching my long neck in bliss.
Being in my Drae form felt so right.
I tucked my wings close to my sides and cast my slitted-eyed gaze at my passengers. They stood a respectable distance back, near the tree line, and couldn’t currently see me under my invisibility cloak. I pushed my moss-green veil out until the two assassins were underneath it. Smiley was smiling, non-smiley wasn’t smiling, but both of their eyes widened as they looked upon my lapis Drae. Totally impressed.
I jerked my head to the spikes at my back and lowered my left shoulder to the ground, tucking my wing in tight.
Niemoj’s grin faltered.
Definitely impressed. I felt somewhat redeemed after the small pumpkin fiasco.
I held still as the twins boarded, and then I glanced back as a silent kind of hold-on-tight-or-you’ll-die warning. I took a deep breath and bounded forward into a run, pumping my wings.
Hard.
I launched into the air, dipping and swaying as I adjusted to the extra weight. What the heck were these guys made of? Seriously, I’d carried Lani, Dyter, and Tyrrik, but they were nothing compared to the density of the two rebels on my back. They probably killed people by sitting on them I realized, connecting the logical dots in the rebel-assassin training regime. That’s why they wore gold chain mail. Their clothing was probably made of ground-down rock to help, too, and they put bricks in the base of their boots.
I chuffed at my own joke, chortling harder as Nielub whispered. “I think she’s going to eat us.”
I quit laughing, wondering if I could actually snap rocks with my fangs. Tyrrik?
Yes, you can.
My lips stretched back into a smile, exposing all my fangs to the cool wind. How do you know that?