“I will stay here as Veronyka, or not at all. I understand that there will be questions and confusion, but I proved myself in that battle—Xephyra and I both did. We defended the gate. We fought alongside your villagers and your apprentices. I refuse to lie to these people any longer. They deserve better, and so do I.”
It was cold, standing there in front of the commander, refusing the thing she’d wanted her entire life. Without the Phoenix Riders, she and Xephyra would be outcasts. Together, but still alone.
A warm hand gripped Veronyka’s shoulder, and she realized that she wasn’t alone, that Tristan was standing beside her. He was lending her his support, even after she’d lied to him and betrayed his trust. He was standing with her against his own father because he believed in her.
In her. In Veronyka.
“Do you have something to say, Apprentice?” the commander demanded, but Tristan’s response was interrupted by a knock at the door. It opened without permission, and in stepped Morra, with Ersken and Jana standing just behind. Tristan’s face lit with triumph, and Veronyka guessed that he’d invited them.
“If he doesn’t, then I do,” Morra said, without pretense or apology. She stood at Veronyka’s other side, with Ersken and Jana next to her. “I have tolerated your foolhardy rules for long enough, Cassian. She conned me, it’s true,” she said, casting Veronyka a look of mild chagrin, “but there was no trickery in what she did during that battle. If it weren’t for her, we’d not have lasted until you returned. She was fearless and brave, and she sacrificed herself—as well as her phoenix, her beloved bondmate—for the sake of everyone here.” She sniffed and turned her glittering gaze on Veronyka as she continued. “She was glory on wings, like the Pyraean queens of old.”
Veronyka’s cheeks heated, fear and pride and guilt warming her from the inside out. She’d lied directly to Morra’s face, and yet the woman had still come here to support her.
She glanced at Commander Cassian, but he seemed unsurprised to hear that she’d actually flown Xephyra in the battle, which meant he must have already known.
“She’s the strongest animage I’ve worked with,” added Jana, smiling proudly, her eyes crinkling in the corners. “There’s no animal on this mountain that’s a match for her.” Veronyka knew she was thinking of Wind and couldn’t help but smile in return.
“Now we have those,” said Ersken, nodding down at Sev’s satchel in the corner of the room, which Veronyka noticed there for the first time. “I assume we’ll be recruiting again.”
“Yes,” the commander said stiffly.
“Well, why not start with our Veronyka?”
He said it a bit awkwardly—the name unfamiliar in his mouth—but the word “our” was what really drew Veronyka’s notice. Her throat was tight.
“This attack means war, Commander,” said Morra. “It’s time to ready our troops, and we’ll need every fighter we can get.”
“ ’Specially ones as fierce and fearless as her,” added Ersken.
The commander’s mouth was open. He was surrounded on all sides, and when Beryk, his second-in-command, edged into the room, asking, “Am I late?” the commander actually threw his hands into the air.
He stared at them all for several breathless moments, then deflated. He waved them off impatiently. “So be it.”
Veronyka had never heard anything sweeter.
That night they burned the bodies.
The enemy soldiers had already been dealt with, so this fire was for friends and allies alone.
It had taken the better part of two days to gather enough wood and for the taxed priest and acolytes—busy helping the healer—to perform last rites and prayers. For some, local family was summoned from nearby villages.
They stood in a semicircle just outside the village gate, where the obstacle course had been. The once-grassy plain was now a desolate field of scorched earth and upturned soil, and the scent of smoke mingled with new boards of wood and fresh paint as they tried to rebuild what was lost.
But not all things could be so easily replaced.
Xoe was the last to be placed on the pyre, her red-purple feathers dull in the evening light. Ersken did the honors, and when he stepped back into the crowd, he put a hand on Sparrow’s shoulder, who had laid Chirp onto the heap just moments before.
Sev was there, shoulder still heavily bandaged, along with Morra and her kitchen maids, Jana and the stablehands, and Beryk and the rest of the Riders. Elliot was allowed to attend as well, standing at the back of the crowd with a guard