Page 35 of Children of Fallen Gods

Klein’s eyebrows lurched. “With all respect, we cannot trust Wayward Winds. We can’t allow our fear of one imaginary threat to overshadow the one that’s already poised at our throat—”

“I’ve made my decision,” my father replied. “I’ll write to Wayward Winds tonight.”

* * *

Mere daysafter all of Stoneheld awoke, Caduan had his coronation ceremony.

It had been, unsurprisingly, my father’s idea — my father, who believed in upholding tradition above all else, even though the idea made Caduan pale two shades.

“A coronation for who?” he had said. “For a dozen people?”

And my father had looked at him as if this were a ridiculous question. “Yes, exactly,” he’d replied.

The ceremony took place upon the dais of my father’s throne room. The Stoneheld on the expanse of black glass — so few of them that they looked like lone ships lost at sea. Words were spoken, prayers were whispered, Stoneheld rituals mingling with Sidnee ones. My father was the one to bestow Caduan his crown. It was a beautiful creation of copper and polished stone that formed delicate peaks like a stag’s horns — one of the few artifacts that the Blades had been able to recover from the House of Stone.

Caduan had risen, and his handful of remaining subjects bowed, and the image made my eyes sting.

On the day of my father’s coronation, he had seemed like the most powerful man in the world. I had been in awe of him — his easy smile and bold confidence more befitting of a force of nature than a living, fallible creature.

But Caduan? Caduan just stood there, looking past his subjects, past my father, past the Pales, as if searching for the home that had once lay miles beyond them. He seemed so…lost.

At sunrise the next morning, the House of Wayward Winds arrived.

Chapter Eleven

Max

Ireally did try not to look back.

It seemed like it would be easier that way. When we rode out, I could barely breathe. I’d been handed so many lives and told to throw them like a battering ram against the most powerful cities in Ara. We would start with Antedale, a fortress of a city, and one of the key jewels in Zeryth’s path to victory. And that, of course, would only be the beginning.

Yes, I tried. But when we were nearly out of eyeshot from the base, I couldn’t help but turn. Tisaanah was standing on the balcony, a speck of red. I raised my hand and gave her one final wave.

Moth rode beside me. He’d been given a big, lumbering beast of a draft horse that had little interest in either moving or listening to him, which would have been very amusing had I been particularly inclined to find anything amusing in the moment. He turned in his saddle and followed my gaze.

“What will she do?” he asked.

Ascended above. What a question indeed.

“She’ll be defending Korvius.”

Moth’s brow furrowed. “Alone?”

My stomach turned.

I could have said,No, she’s not alone, she has the rest of Zeryth’s army.

I could have said,No, she’s with Zeryth, who betrayed her, and Nura, who has hidden knives poised at everyone’s throats.

I could have said,No, she’s with Reshaye, an ancient, bloodthirsty entity that does nothing but destroy.

Instead I said, “Yes.” And that felt much closer to the truth.

Moth didn’t say anything more, going uncharacteristically silent. But, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him keep looking over his shoulder until the base was out of view, shrouded by the rolling clouds.

It would be a long journey to Antedale. My division was not entirely comprised of Wielders, making Stratagram travel impractical — and of course, it was generally a bad idea to mobilize hundreds at once that way, with such a high risk of people accidentally landing on top of each other (or, in the case of one infamous freak accident,ineach other).

I had two captains who each helped lead half of my forces.

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