Page 50 of Master of Storms
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“You are allied with theZini?”Andromeda asked as she rode side by side with Solveig.
The mist unnerved her.
TheZilittuhad brought horses for them, but it felt like riding beneath a tunnel of fog. Anything could be hiding out there. The damp weight smothered all sound, and Solveig’s knuckles remained tight on the reins even as she flared her nostrils.
Sound could be obscured, vision could be cut, but smell rarely betrayed her.
“A mating alliance,” she replied. “As is yours, I have heard.”
Andromeda gave her a regal look. “Yes.”
Nothing more. Nothing less.
Interesting.
“Your mating must be very new, for Draco overthrew his father but recently,” she continued, because there was more to this story she suspected. “Though I was surprised to find you accepted the hand of the younger brother, and not Scorpius, who was heir at the time.”
“You are well informed. It’s been a year.” Andromeda’s gaze shifted toward the front. “And Scorpius has chosen exile.”
It wasn’t an answer. “I make it my business to be informed.”
“So do I.” Andromeda gave her that smile again. “You are newly mated also, but three months past, though I am afraid I do not understand why Marduk returned to his clan so soon upon the ceremony? You are the crown princess of your clan, are you not? Should he not stay with your court and forsake his own? Forgive me if your customs are different to mine.”
“He returned to his family after the recent discovery of his sister, Ishtar, though he intends to reside at my court once this matter is finished. And our match is political.” There was no point trying to pretend. She wasn’t that good of an actress.
“Political?” For the first time, Andromeda arched a brow. “He is rather attentive for a political match.”
Solveig couldn’t help herself.
She looked back at Marduk, only to find his amber eyes locked upon her.
Solveig returned her attention to the mist. “We have known each other many years. Do you miss your country?”
A light sprang to life in the other woman’s dark eyes. “More than anything.” She shivered. “It is always cold here, and the food so tasteless.”
They made light conversation, with Solveig probing the other woman for weaknesses. Andromeda missed her home clan and her people; the landscape she described was a world away from the one Solveig knew, and she found herself quite charmed about tales of hunting ibex, which seemed to be some sort of goat-like creature, and baboons, which she couldn’t possibly fathom.
It was most likely the point.
A medieval castle appeared in the mists ahead, and Solveig fell silent as they approached. Mostdrekiclans coexisted with the human world, but here, in the mountains of Trollheiman, theZilittuhad closed themselves away from the world. Their magic and mists misdirected travelers, and it was quite possible no humans even realized what lurked within their local mountain range.
Her gaze raked the castle’s defenses. Old stone gave way to newer stone, and even brick turrets. It looked like an amalgamation of castles; each dynasty building onto the previous, until a formidable fort remained. Narrow windows. A stark, imposing wall.
And a maledrekiresting both hands on the castle battlements, watching as they arrived.
There was a certain kind of reserved grace to the other woman, and as they rode beneath the battlements of theZilittucastle, Andromeda glanced up from beneath her dark lashes and locked eyes with the male above them.
The king.
Draco Stormshadow, so named because the night of his birth the storms had been so violent that somedrekiwhispered that the gods were warning them of who was about to be born.
Solveig couldn’t make out much about him, but even from this distance she could sense the power he wielded.
This could be an opportunity for her learn more about the threat theZilittuformed.
There was certainly no weakness to be found as theZilittuking jogged down the stairs. He towered over almost all thedrekiin the yard.
