Page 168

“We need to run,” Andry hissed, his breath stirring her black hair.

She shrugged him off.

“How many, Isibel of Iona?” Corayne snarled. “How many mortals are you Elders too afraid to fight?”

The Monarch’s eyes flared wide but she did not answer.

“I venture ten thousand.” Valnir’s deep voice rang over the gateyard.

Ten thousand, Andry thought. He puzzled over the number, trying to make sense of it.Barely two legions. Too small to be Erida’s great army, unless this is the vanguard. Or the first wave.

“Most on foot, but there are perhaps a thousand on horseback.” Valnir squinted into the mist again, his teeth on edge. “And there are twenty or so elephants.”

“Elephants?!” Corayne sputtered, whirling to Andry. She looked torn between disbelief—and joy.

Andry felt the same, even as his mind spun. He looked down on her, his heart leaping in his chest, loud as a beating drum.

“There are no elephants in the Gallish army,” he said, all but breathless.

Beneath him, Corayne’s face split into an uncontrollable grin. Laughter followed, spilling forth until it overtook Andry too. The pair of them went slack against each other, trembling with relief.

Still tucked next to his mother, Dyrian gasped to himself. “Elephants,” he murmured, as if enchanted.

“What army marches on my enclave?” Isibel said forcefully over the din of their joy.

Corayne threw back her own piercing glare. “You’ll have to leave it to find out.”

The rain held off, confined to the higher slopes of the mountains in a wall of hazing gray. But the valley floor seemed to glow, bathed in the sun ofwaning winter. Andry’s horse charged alongside Corayne’s, the pair of them neck and neck as they thundered across the golden fields. Behind them, the ridge of Iona knifed into the sky, casting a long black shadow.

They were not the only riders. Isibel refused to leave the enclave but her advisors journeyed in her stead, alongside Valnir, Eyda, and enough Elder soldiers to overthrow a fortress. Many hooves beat against the ground, kicking up mud as they followed the River Avanar. The cold, dark water flowed into Lochlara, flattening out to fill the valley floor like it was a shallow bowl.

The army marched toward them, spears flashing in the sun, flags streaming in the bitter wind.

Blue with a golden dragon.

Purple with a white eagle.

Ibal.

Kasa.

He felt wings of his own, strong enough to rival the eagle on the flag. When the army came into sharper focus, he feared he might fly right off his horse.

Valnir’s eye was true. Thousands of soldiers marched along the lake, many of them cavalry riders, all of them armed to the teeth. And there were indeed elephants. Each great beast was a wonderous thing. They lurched along, hulking gray boulders, their footfalls like low thunder.

Then riders broke apart from the great host, barreling forward to meet the retinue from Iona. Standard-bearers rode with them, holding the flags high even as their horses charged ahead.

It felt like being on top of a cresting wave, with another wave crashing right into it.

Both companies slowed before they could slam together, drawing to a halt.

Andry barely felt the ground beneath his boots as he dismounted. Corayne moved with him, keeping stride, her smile brighter than any sun.

He glimpsed familiar faces beneath the Ibalet flags, their golden robes overlaid with gilded armor blazing with sapphires. The Heir of Ibal raised their head in greeting. Next to them, their brother Sibrez gave a sharp look. Commander lin-Lira sat on the horse next to them, the sigil of the Crown’s Falcons flapping over his head. Andry nearly wept to see them all, shivering as they were, out of place against the cold and wet of Calidon, better suited to the blazing deserts of Ibal.

A trio of knights in white armor rode next to them, their own standard held high.Eagle knights, Andry knew. His joy ebbed a little, remembering Lord Okran, who gave his life at the temple Spindle. The knights stared back at him, all of them brown-skinned or black beneath their white helmets, their armor set with amethysts. The trio clutched magnificent spears.

As much as Andry wanted to ask for news from Kasa, there was one thing he wanted more.