Page 58

It dies away as quickly, and my sight clears to take in both warriors again. Both of them are blowing hard, their chests rising and falling, and this close, I can see that the battle has taken a toll on both of them, even if they don’t bleed heavily from their few cuts.

Sweat streams from Fortiss’s brow, and Tennet’s tunic is dark with it across his back, his hair plastered to his head. They both keep their swords in their hands as they turn back to each other, then Fortiss scowls down at his blade.

He sheathes it roughly, turning to Tennet. “I won.”

“Did you?” Tennet challenges, though he sheathes his blade as well. He turns to me and grins. “You saw it, Lady Talia,” he drawls. “Who would you say won?”

“I’d say the fact that you’re both still standing and haven’t completely exhausted yourselves is about as much of a win as I can take away from this. You expect to do a lot of hand-to-hand battle on your feet tonight, taking out snakes one by one?”

“Sometimes that’s the best way to make them pay attention,” he shoots back, but he’s still grinning, and Fortiss laughs and shakes his head.

“If you weren’t so bullheaded, you’d make an excellent councilor, Lord Tennet. I’ve never met anyone who is more ready with an answer, no matter how ill advised.”

“That’s because the people who you surround yourself with didn’t grow up in the mountains. If you don’t talk back to yourself, you never hear any conversation at all.”

Even I burst out laughing at that, and both men look hard at me, as if I somehow just showed some favor I never intended. I feel a headache coming on, and I turn squarely toward Fortiss. “Have you learned anything that we can use from Daggar’s library?”

“Not enough.” He frowns. “I know there’s more information in there, more information that we need, but time is running short.

What I have learned so far is this—the skrill haven’t come through the mountains in generations, but attacks across the western borders definitely continued for the first few hundred years after the Great Conflict.

To the point that it feels like maybe they weren’t all entirely attacks…

as in, maybe they were attempts to make connections that the Eighth House strongly rebuffed, time after time. ”

“Connections?” rumbles Tennet. He pulls off his tunic and uses it to wipe his face, a move that Fortiss copies, leaving me staring at two bare-chested warriors, both of them glorious in their own ways and equally exasperating.

Where Fortiss’s muscles are wrapped around a lean, sinewy frame that speaks of horse riding and fast climbing or cutting through the endless waters of the lake in the Blessed Plane, Tennet is built like he could take out a bear and then carry a small pony to safety.

I give up trying to look at either one of them without ogling and stare at a point over Fortiss’s shoulder as Tennet continues.

“What kind of connections would the skrill be seeking to make? They’re mindless snakes.

All they seem capable of doing is screaming.

I never got anything coherent out of them, did you?

” He folds his arms across his chest as he turns to me, and once again, I’m forced to laugh.

But I quickly switch my gaze to Fortiss who’s tucked his tunic into his trousers, dragging the belt down a little.

“I haven’t,” I say, determinedly keeping my gaze on Fortiss’s face. “But I don’t know their language, and it’s something it seems like we’ll need to learn. Something maybe you already have started?”

“The books in Daggar’s library are quite descriptive,” he says nodding. “They all describe the Western Realms with the harshest terms possible, a land of ash and fire, sudden storms and endless gray mountains.”

“No wonder the Imperium didn’t push to continue exploring it,” Tennet puts in.

“And that tails with what I saw—but is that all there is?” I ask.

“To Tennet’s point, if anyone wanted to discourage someone making the attempt to cross the borders, accounts like this would do it.

And then there’s the wall that stretches across the Unlit Pass, not to mention the clear antagonism of the skrill and their deadly nature.

Daggar’s entire house was taken out by these things in a day .

They’re definitely the enemy, but why are they doing this? ”

“They are a mighty force that is being used as an enemy, yes,” Fortiss agrees. “And I have to agree with Tennet—I don’t think they need a reason why.”

He breaks off to grin at him. “Don’t get used to it.”

“I won’t.” Tennet snorts as Fortiss continues.

“The skrill don’t impress me as having the ability to reason through their actions. They go where they’re told to go. But someone is doing the telling, I think. Why? And who will we combat tonight? Just the skrill, or the Sahktar too?”

I shudder involuntarily, thinking of the creature that I saw in Rihad’s fireplace—and can barely imagine it being as tall as a Divh.

“If we’re facing the Sahktar, will you be able to talk to them?

Will we be able to understand should they try to speak to us?

Based on what happened to Lord Daggar, I can’t believe it’s going to be a very fruitful conversation. ”

“No. I don’t think it’ll be much of a conversation at all,” agrees Fortiss.

“And I don’t know that it will be beneficial for us to betray any understanding we have of their language, for that matter.

But it might be wise to keep our ears sharp and see what we do understand, and how it may change during the tide of battle.

We may not get the advantage of that surprise again. ”

He looks up at the sun, still high in the sky. “For now, all we can do is prepare for the fight—and for whatever may happen after.”