Page 12 of Lies That Blemish (The Ember War #3)
Aisling
The second I got back to my house, Elaine was waiting in the living room.
“Another attack in Riverine!” she said right when I walked in.
I nodded. “Get ready to take notes. We have a lot of work to do.”
She perked up at that, taking out a notepad and pen as I walked her over to our dining table. She sat down, but I paced.
“First, send all three of my sisters to Sky Reach to live twenty-four-seven in the underground bunker with round-the-clock guards.”
Elaine raised an eyebrow at that.
“I’ll tell you later,” I said. There was too much on my mind, too many boxes to check off.
“Then send out a mass invitation to all households with citizens aged eighteen to twenty-five. We are inviting them to join an emergency Lottery which will be held in two days’ time. They need to have a three-day pack and be ready to serve their country.”
If possible, Elaine’s eyebrows grew higher.
“Make sure that includes people from past Lotteries who didn’t get in, like Charlene,” I added.
Elaine peered up at me. “Do you want me to make sure Charlene’s name is called?”
My father had done it with Kohen and Jace and who knows how many people. But I wanted to do things by the rules.
“No, but let’s pick three times as many names as we normally would.”
“I have to counsel you against that. We don’t want to thin the creature population faster than they can reproduce.”
She hadn’t heard.
“Commander Ledger is ripping down the wall in the Wilds as we speak to allow the Talanagi into our side. There will be plenty of creatures.”
Her mouth popped open, and she grinned. “Okay, Empress. What else?” She was feverishly taking notes.
I told her we needed to get the training center up and running, and to have Sergeant Ashendell be in charge of all trainees’ boot camp. I was sticking with people I trusted here.
“Post Tetra at the training center while the kids go through boot. If there is an attack, I need her to shield it.”
There were notes upon notes as we stayed up into the early hours of the morning, planning things for my country to try to keep it above water.
“And the one-week truce with Imbria?” Elaine said. “After one week, are we… resuming?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Ask me when a week has passed.” I hated that I hadn’t just killed Kohen where he stood a few hours ago.
“And are we retaliating on Luska for the attack?” she asked.
“I did. I killed Maxim’s sister, and we are cutting down the wall and luring the Talanagi to our side to bond with our fleet. I think that’s enough for now, but we need to be ready for bombs to rain. Activate all reserve Fleet personnel back to their bases.”
Elaine wrote that down. “How are we luring the Talanagi to our side?” she asked.
I sighed, rubbing my temples. “I don’t know, but you and I have forty-eight hours to figure that out before the Lottery.”
Elaine stood. “I’ll put on a pot of coffee.”
I reached out and grasped her hand, and she froze, looking over at me.
I gave her a soft smile. “There is no one I would rather have by my side as I run the country in a crisis than you.”
She pointed a finger at me. “Don’t get all mushy. I raised a warrior,” she joked with a wink.
I saluted her in mock fashion, and she squeezed my hand. “I thank the stars your father hired me all those years ago. This was as close as I would ever get to being a mother.” There was a bit of sadness in her voice, like maybe she wanted kids, but it had never happened for whatever reason.
“Well, good, because we thank the stars for you, too, and we think of you as a mother. You know that, right?”
Her eyes filled with tears, and she smacked my hand. “Don’t make me cry, Aisling Everhart.”
I grinned, and she went to make the coffee, wiping her eyes.
I sat down, letting a bit of gratitude wash over me. The days to come were going to be filled with stress and anxiety, but for this one moment, I was choosing to be thankful for all I had. My three sisters were safely asleep in this house. So was my best friend. And Elaine was by my side through it all.
I had to believe that I could turn things around.
My country was depending on me.
In the end, it was Liana who helped us find a way to lure the Talanagi to our side. With food. She said a favorite of the flying creatures was a certain kind of rabbit that we had plentifully growing in the hillsides of Riverine. We captured as many as we could and released them in the northern end of our Wilds and then watched at night as the creatures, both Talanagi and regular ones, came over the border to our side.
The war had resumed with Luska, mostly just on the Wall. They were pissed we’d torn part of it down and were shooting Sky Reach with projectile weapons every chance they got. My sisters were safe underground there, with strict instructions not to leave, and I was in Riverine about to preside over my first Lottery.
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. It was supposed to be only at age nineteen and only once in your life. But we needed soldiers, and there weren’t enough nineteen-year-olds ready. Plus, I never thought it was fair you couldn’t enter a second time if you weren’t picked. All in all, we had ten thousand enter the Lottery. We were packed to the gills inside, with the doors open and speakers that would blast the names called outside.
After the Fleet anthem played, Elaine peered over at me, and I nodded, walking over to the podium. I peered out at the amassed crowd of young people all around my age and stood tall. “Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures,” I called out. “I want to thank each and every one of you who volunteered today to have a chance to go into the Wilds and bond a creature. For your families and for our nation.”
The crowd clapped cheerfully, and I waited until they quieted to keep going. “If we truly want a chance against Luksa, we need more Fleet soldiers to bond Talanagi!”
A hush fell over the crowd.
“The rumors you have probably heard are true. I bonded Liana in the Luskin Wilds!”
The crowd roared with chatter and talking, but I yelled over them. “Two nights ago, we broke down the wall to lure the Talanagi to our side. So, I am here to plead with you. If you think you have the strength within you to bond and survive a Talanagi, then please head north and do so. If you do not, then that’s okay. We still need you, and there are plenty of powerful creatures waiting to bond.”
The crowd erupted into applause and shouts of excitement, and I grinned.
“Good luck. I’ll be rooting for you. Our entire country will.”
The roar was deafening. Elaine had to yell two times to quiet everyone down. When she finally did, the names began to be called. I sat there for hours as each and every name was called. Whoops and cheers rang throughout the stadium, and people ran in from outside to claim their place on the stage. We filled the stage four times before we finally called an end to the event. About sixteen hundred new soldiers in all would fight for their lives tonight. I was praying at least a hundred made it out alive, and ten of them were riding Talanagi. The odds were brutal, and the deaths would be high, but now more than ever, we needed to fight, or I feared there would be no Amersea this time next year.
I walked among the chosen, whispering words of advice. Stay awake. Drink caffeine. Form strong alliances. Don’t give up . By the time I reached the buses, everyone was loading up, and I was reminded of when I met Kohen. The way he’d told me he’d take care of Jace for me. The way he’d bowed out of the alliance just so I would join it and look after his friends.
“You did great.” Alek’s deep voice called beside me, and I jumped a little, pulled from my thoughts.
He smiled. “Sorry.”
I waved him off. “I was reminiscing from our time in there.” I watched more and more soldiers load up on the buses.
“We were lucky to have each other,” he stated.
Charlene walked past me, grinning with her three-day backpack on, and I stepped out and stopped her.
“Empress.” She saluted me. I was glad her name was called.
I leaned into her ear. “Don’t underestimate yourself in there. You should get a group of the strongest and go for the Talanagi.”
When I pulled back, her grin grew wider. “I plan on it, Empress. I’ll fly out, or they’ll bring me out in a body bag.”
She deserved this. She should have been chosen before.
“I’m happy for you,” I told her.
“Thanks,” she said and then got on the bus.
When I slipped back to stand next to Alek, I felt his gaze on me and turned to face him. What I saw made me a little uncomfortable. He was peering at me with adoration, a deep longing in his gaze.
“You did amazing in there,” he told me. “Do you want to have dinner together?”
“I can’t,” I said too quickly, trying to ignore the hurt that crossed his face. I wasn’t ready for what he wanted from me. I wasn’t sure I would ever be.
“I have a date with Tetra,” I added, and he nodded.
Trying to rifle through my father’s old files and find out if he tried to murder me , I wanted to say.
“Alright, well… I’ll see you soon.” He shuffled awkwardly and then leaned forward to kiss my cheek. I flinched a little, hating that I was in this fake arrangement with him, but he had real feelings, and I could, too. If Jace hadn’t ripped my heart out, and Kohen hadn’t ran it over with a train. I was too broken inside for anything real with him, and I felt like I might have led him on the other night. But before I could say anything about it, he was gone.
I sighed.
Elaine joined me, and we both waited until the last bus left before Verik drove around with the car.
Elaine turned to face me, squeezing both of my shoulders. “I’ll have Verik take me to Sky Reach and keep an eye on the girls. You do what you need to do with Tetra. I’ll get you survival numbers as cadets start exiting the Wilds.”
Survival numbers —because I’d just sent a bunch of young kids to their deaths. Liana descended from the sky, where she had been waiting, and I nodded to Elaine. “Keep me informed.” I’d had a house phone installed so she could call me there. We couldn’t speak about anything classified, as an operator could always be listening.
With that, I headed to my house to continue the dreaded investigation of my own father.