I pulled away from his embrace and studied him again. “You look as though you’re in desperate need of a hot meal.”
He scrubbed a hand across his eyes. “I am. All I’ve had is coffee.”
“Then go clean up and I’ll order us both something. The water here is safe—apparently the Rossi have their own supply.”
“Excellent.”
He dropped a kiss on my lips then headed for the bathroom. Once he’d disappeared behind the partially drawn curtain, I poured two glasses of red and then retrieved the sleeping potion. With that poured into one of the glasses, I called for the maid and ordered our meal.
By the time he’d freshened up, the thick, delicious-smelling stew and freshly baked bread had arrived. I picked up the two glasses of red as he walked toward me, a towel wrapped around his hips and tiredness still riding him. It made me feel a little less guilty about what I was doing.
But only a little.
I smiled and handed him the wine that held the potion, and then lightly clicked my glass against his. “To a successful mission and a safe return.”
“Amen to that.” And he downed the wine in several gulps.
I poured him another, then dished out our meals and sat beside him on the double cloudsak. While it was a comfortable silence, tension nevertheless ran through me—an undercurrent that wasn’t helped by the stirring air and the urgency that was becoming stronger within it.
Trey was struggling to keep his eyes open by the time he’d finished his meal. “This,” he said, with a huge yawn, “is definitely not the way I’d imagined the evening going.”
I chuckled softly and plucked the bowl from his hands before he could drop it. “Me neither, but we have all night and I’d rather you sleep now than tomorrow on the battlefield.” I placed both bowls on the table, then rose and offered him my hands. “Come along, Commander. Time for you to hit the bed.”
He allowed me to pull him up and leaned on me heavily as I helped him across the room. “I don’t know what’s hit me,” he murmured. “I’ve taken part in more than my fair share of war councils over the years, and while I’ve been tired, it’s never been this bad.”
“This sort of thing happens when you get old.” I forced a smile and hoped he didn’t sense the gathering guilt. “Or so I’m told.”
He snorted softly. “You make me sound ancient.”
“When I was a teenager, anything over thirty was ancient.”
I pulled off his towel, then pulled back the sheets and sat him down—although in truth, he all but fell down. I swung his legs onto the mattress and tugged the sheets back over him. His eyes drifted closed, and in seconds he was asleep.
I bent over and brushed a kiss across his lips.
“Goodbye, Trey,” I said softly. “Please don’t think ill of me in the morning. I’m only doing what has to be done.”
I pushed away from him, pushed away my emotions, and strode into the other room. Once dressed, I hunted down his pack and checked the bracelet was still there, then refilled his water flask and placed it and the wrapped cheese and bread into it. I strapped my sword onto the outside of the pack, my knife to my leg, and then swung the pack onto my back. With a deep breath but no backward glance, I strode to the door and opened it.
“Neve,” Ava said, surprise flitting across her face. “I thought the commander said you weren’t to be disturbed?”
I grimaced. “Change of plans, unfortunately. Can you contact Lord Kiro and tell him that I’ll be at the Upper Reaches gates in ten minutes?”
She nodded and did so. “He sounded somewhat surprised,” she said, after a few seconds. “But he’ll be there. Are you sure everything is okay?”
“Yes.” I gave her a quick hug. “If you’re assigned to the Adlin attack party tomorrow, please be careful.”
“Ditto, sister.”
“Always,” I said, and left.
Kiro was already waiting by the gates before I arrived there. His gaze swept me then rose to mine. “I’m gathering you’ve chosen a very separate path to what either Trey or I had planned.”
“Yes.” I stopped in front of him. “According to the wind, there’s a limited window in which I can get into the apiary unnoticed. I need to be there by sunrise if this attack is to have any chance of success.”
“Meaning, I’m gathering, the potion the healer gave to you was given to Trey?”
I nodded. “He’ll wake with dawn.”
“The wind’s advice isn’t to be taken lightly, so it is perhaps for the best,” he said. “But he’ll be far from happy with your actions.”
“I know.” I hesitated. “Tell him I’m sorry.”
He eyed me but didn’t say what most would have—that I could tell him myself when all this was over. Kiro was a realist—as his next words proved. “What do you wish of me?”
“I need explosives, guns, and a speeder.”
He immediately activated the earwig and ordered the supply of all three. Once he’d signed off, he added, “Go to armory five and collect what you need. The speeder is being prepped and will be waiting by the time you’re kitted up.”
“Thanks.”
He gripped my shoulder lightly. “May the wind give you speed and the earth grant you passage back. And thank you, Neve March.”
I nodded but didn’t say anything, simply because there was nothing I could say. We both knew this was more than likely a one-way trip, and wishing it otherwise wouldn’t change a damn thing.
Which didn’t mean I wouldn’t give everything I had to survive, but Kiro wasn’t the only realist standing in this street.
I walked on down the hill. The wind chased my heels, her whisperings filled with the urgent need to be gone. Armory five was situated at the midway point of the inner curtain wall, just to the right of the gates and close to where Hedra had died. A soldier I didn’t recognize waited at the door.
“Nightwatch March?” When I nodded, he added, “Captain July has given orders that you’re to be given as much weaponry and explosives as you need.”
“Excellent.” I swung the pack off my shoulder and followed him inside. “I need a couple of gut busters, ammo, and some form of explosives that are basically set and forget.”
He grunted. “You want a big boom or a little one?”
“Big.” I hesitated. “Although a couple of smaller ones wouldn’t go astray. I also want reasonably stable, as I don’t want to blow myself up before I get to my target.”
“Then the M185 blocks are probably best for the bigger blast. They have the power to blow up a mountain if you put enough of them together, but are quite harmless until you put the detonation timer into it.”
“How long will I have to get out once I do that?”
He hesitated. “The longest timers I have on hand are twenty minutes, but I think there’s—”
“Twenty minutes will do,” I cut in. I couldn’t afford to waste any more time. Not when the wind was beginning to hassle me again. “What about the smaller booms? I think I’ll need something stronger than grenades.”
Given the toughness of the Irkallan’s exoskeleton and the fact grenades were primarily designed to damage via concussion and shrapnel, it was probably safe to presume they wouldn’t actually cause enough damage to stop more than a couple of them. Grenades worked just fine on Adlin, but no text I’d ever read had mentioned their usefulness against the Irkallan.
“I’ve got a dozen or so NP10 balls,” he said. “Team them with the pop cap primers and you’ve basically got a grenade with a more deadly boom.”
“Three or four of those would be perfect.”
He nodded. “And the M185 blocks?”
I frowned. “How big are they? I need to carry them a fair way.”
“They not large. You can probably get six in that pack of yours easy enough.”