A Queen of Gilded Horns (A River of Royal Blood #2) - Amanda Joy Page 0,113
When we realized, you were already gone.”
Chapter 28
Eva
I dreamed of death and hot blood soaking into my skin and soldier-white uniforms stained with worse things. I dreamed of bones snapping, the black wings of carrion crows, and my heart in Isa’s hands, shredded until it was nothing more than meat.
* * *
I woke with the dawn, unable to sleep more than a few hours at a time these days. Aketo beside me didn’t stir as I slipped from beneath his arm and out of the bed. It was good goose down, as comfortable as my bed in the palace.
Throllo spared himself little comfort despite his isolation in the North. It had been weeks since the night we’d faced Throllo’s remaining soldiers, and I was still shocked at how much old fey art the man had repurposed to decorate the manor. Tapestries of ancient battles and marble busts and carved hunks of crystal.
It was a wonder he hadn’t required a team of servants merely for dusting. I stepped into my boots, bundled myself in a fur-lined cloak, and left without waking Aketo. It was early enough that I only encountered one other person, my cousin Tavan, sitting in the manor’s front courtyard. Frost blanketed the ground, grass crunching under my feet. I waved but didn’t stop, mind too full of worries.
Had Throllo taken Isa straight to the capital? Had Mother already gotten news of the rebellion? The marching of soldiers filled my nightmares—thousands of men and women making their way north under her command. Somehow, I did not think we would have months to wait until my mother showed her hand.
Now that she had Isa back, they would be coming to deal with me. No matter how I spent my time, I couldn’t forget every unspoken word between me and my sister. I’d never offered her forgiveness for lying about being fey, and I’d never said that, despite the lie, I still loved her. It seemed such a foolish emotion now, love for my sister. My sister who had betrayed me just hours after her promise to keep Otho and Daischa safe.
What good was that love?
I made my way through the streets of town until I reached the steps leading up to the Aerie. I was sweating by the time I climbed to their zenith, and warming my fingers with my breath.
Over the last week, the cold had become something you couldn’t ignore. The air was thinner up in the Aerie, and more snow had fallen here than in the town. Not planning on staying long, I walked to the row of trees near the ledge. I removed my cloak and summoned my wings.
The shift came easier up here, inches from a terribly far drop. I conjured every detail of the wings and stepped off the edge.
* * *
I returned to the manor a few hours later, sans wings, the muscles of my back aching at the strain of flying. I was surprised to find Osir waiting outside the bedchamber I shared with Aketo. I had spoken little to my older cousins since our arrival at Sher n’Cai. Tavan stayed busy as their most skilled healer and Lirra spent much of her time with Daischa, cooking and seeing to the needs of the elders in town.
Osir had joined Dthazi’s scouting team and left yesterday morning to search for any sign of more soldiers in the surrounding mountains. They had anticipated being gone for several days.
“We found something, Eva. There’s a camp a few miles from here, and it’s filled with khimaer.”
The words were barely out of his mouth before I took off, making for the front of the house. Dthazi and Aketo were waiting beyond the gate, at the place Throllo had doled out his punishments, but was now lots of overturned dirt and trees in the midst of being planted. Daischa was overseeing the project, moving many of the trees from the Aerie down here to create a grove of sorts as a tribute to the forty khimaer men and women who were killed in the fighting.
We were all finding ways to distract ourselves. Daischa had focused the lion’s share of her attention on making the manor a home.
Once I’d saddled one of the horses in Throllo’s stables, we rode past the soldiers’ barracks, now occupied with Dthazi’s forces, and reached the gate of the Enclosure.
After we’d passed through the entrance, I sought the coalescence. Only half conscious of the pommel beneath my fingertips, I sought that cord of magick