“That’s rather blatant,” Marina noted.
“What worried me,” Tatyana went on, “was that they disappeared without a trace into the surrounding forest right by the base of the mountains. Their tracks just ended.” She pulled out her water flask. “I know of at least three monasteries on the other sides of those mountains.” She took a long drink before adding, “But that’s no longer your queen’s territory, Kachka. It belongs to the Rebel King.”
“So?” Kachka tossed her apple core to Zoya before mounting her horse. “Take me to where the tracks end. We’ll decide what to do from there.”
“What is there to decide, comrade?” Zoya asked. “We hunt them down and kill them.”
“It’s not the queen’s territory,” Tatyana said again.
“And it could be a trap, Zoya,” Marina added.
“So? I am tired of this sneaking around. Let’s confront them head-on. I am ready!”
“But you’re so good at being stealthy.”
Zoya mounted her horse, the animal grunting a bit as she settled into her saddle. “Unlike my sisters, I’m very delicate and small. That gives me an edge.”
Nina Chechneva, who hadn’t spoken a word in two days for no other reason than she simply hadn’t felt like it, shook her head. “No,” she said to no one in particular before riding off. “I can’t with you, Zoya Kolesova. I just . . . I can’t!”
Zoya watched the witch ride off before asking the others, “She can’t what? She says that around me a lot, and I have no idea what it means. What can she not do, Kachka Shestakova?”
Didacus Domitus scrambled up the hill, pushing himself to run fast. As fast as his human legs would take him.
He knew who these dragons were. Why they were here. What they wanted. He knew. He’d heard the rumors. The tales coming from all over the Empire.
That his cousin Gaius Lucius Domitus had been hunting his “treacherous” kin down like dogs. And even more horrifying, he’d been using the vilest of the Southland dragons to help him. The Mì-runach. The most hated and feared of the Dragon Queen’s soldiers.
And then there was that female. He knew that female from reputation alone. The dreaded Branwen the Awful, a captain in the Dragon Queen’s Army. It was said her cackle had rung out as Didacus’s cousins were put to the spear, the sword, or the cross.
It was that heartless female chasing him up the hill right now, while the Mì-runach took down the soldiers who had once been loyal not only to Didacus but to the mighty Overlord Thracius, rightful ruler of the Empire and Didacus’s beloved uncle.
He’d sworn on his uncle’s bones that he would destroy his treacherous twin cousins himself, but even he had to admit he’d underestimated not only the Rebel King but that sister of his. His cousin Vateria should have killed the little bitch when she had the chance, but they hadn’t foreseen what a force the pair of them together would be.
Didacus reached the top of the hill, ready to shift to his natural form so that he could fly to safety, but just as he made it over, something slammed into him, tackling him to the ground.
Big hands pinned his shoulders down and Didacus looked up into the only eye Thracius had left the Rebel King.
“Hello, cousin,” Gaius said to him, grinning.
“Bastard!”
“Now, now. Tone.”
Panting, Branwen the Awful reached the top of the hill, her blood-covered blade out and ready.
“Want me to take his head?” she asked like she was asking if the king wanted tea.
“No,” Gaius said . . . much to Didacus’s horror. “I have a few questions for my cousin.” Gaius leaned in, leering. “Let’s get reacquainted, dear Didacus. We have so much to catch up on, don’t we?”
Then, the big bastard reared his head back while lifting Didacus up and—
After head butting his cousin until he passed out, Gaius released Didacus’s leather jerkin and let him drop to the ground.
“What do you think this one will tell us that the others didn’t?”
Gaius stood, rubbed his nose. “Didacus was a favorite of Thracius. Loyal to him unto death. If anyone knows where to find Vateria . . . he will.”
“You really hate her.”
“Can you blame me?”
Brannie shook her head. “Not really. I just want to make sure you’re not becoming what me mum calls ‘obsessive.’ She says obsession is the one thing that will weaken any warrior.”
“She’s right. But I promised my sister. I owe her Vateria’s head on a platter.”
Gaius kicked his cousin, watching him roll down the hill toward the Mì-runach, who were busy finishing off the few soldiers who’d been traveling with him.