Page 75 of Silver & Smoke
‘My help?’ Wren didn’t hide her surprise.
Kipp made a noise of amusement. ‘Rumour has it that you’re good with poisons, Your Queenliness...’
‘I’ve been known to dabble,’ she replied as she moved through the underbrush. ‘Aren’t we meeting with the council soon? Why are you telling me now?’
‘Because for the moment, only you, myself and Cal know. And that’s how I’d like to keep it.’
‘Any particular reason?’ she prompted.
Kipp shrugged. ‘I like the element of surprise.’
‘So I’ve heard.’ Wren parted the bushes before her, the grasses brushing against her skirts as they moved through the flourishing forest. ‘Do you think we’re ready for this?’ she asked her friend.
‘Ready? I’m not sure anyone’s ever ready for war,’ Kipp said. ‘But we’re doing everything we can to be prepared. You did well to keep stockpiling the healers’ supplies while we were on the road.’
‘I would have done better were the masters with us,’ she replied. ‘Have you heard from Farissa and the others? I had hoped they’d join us at Thezmarr after what happened at Drevenor.’
Kipp sighed. ‘I’ve heard nothing through my usual channels, but with the exception of your former mentor, the other masters weren’t here for the shadow war. I see no reason they would stay in the midrealms for the next.’
‘Because it’s a war of alchemy. Because theirhomewas destroyed. Because—’
‘I’m not saying there aren’t valid reasons,’ Kipp interrupted. ‘I’m only saying I wouldn’t count on their support.’
Wren’s reply died on her lips as they reached the small crop of roses. The silvery petals shivered in the breeze, glimmering like pearls against the deep greenery and thorns.
‘There’s even less than I remember,’ she murmured.
‘We took a lot with us last time...’ Kipp crouched down and surveyed the blooms. ‘It’s not enough, is it?’
Wren unsheathed her harvesting knife and severed a single rose from the bush, twirling it between her tender fingers, the silvery white petals seeming to taunt her now. ‘Not even close.’
‘Wren,’ Kipp said, his tone serious, ‘I can plan as many battles as you need, I can come up with all the strategies under the sun, but... without the counter-alchemy, it will all be for nothing.Thisis where I need you to tell me what to do.’
Wren swallowed the hard lump that had been forming in her throat. ‘I need you to get a map,’ she heard herself say. ‘I’m going to mark some locations, and then you’re going to send the Bear Slayer, along with your most trusted men among us, right to them.’
CHAPTER 41
Wren
‘Transformation requires precision, not abundance’
– Alchemy Unbound
LORD LUCIAN’S EYEStracked Wren as she entered the makeshift command tent that afternoon with Kipp at her side. Her stomach churned with unease, but she told herself that there was no way anyone had seen her slip from Torj’s tent in the dark before dawn.
‘This tent is far too small for so many egos,’ she muttered to her friend.
Kipp chuckled beside her. ‘You’re not wrong there.’
Along with Lord Briar and Lord Pendelton, there were at least half a dozen noblemen that Wren didn’t recognize. She took in their fancy doublets, the weapons that had likely never seen a day’s combat gleaming at their hips and the familiar exchanges between them all. Every chair around the table was full but for the one next to Darian. In addition to his allies, there were Zavier and Thea, while Wilder and Cal stood behind them.
‘Where’s Elderbrock?’ the latter asked, adjusting his bow over his shoulder.
‘He’s indisposed,’ Wren replied in a tone that invited no furtherquestioning. If her friends were surprised that Audra’s own appointed Warsword wasn’t present, they didn’t show it.
‘And Dessa?’ Thea said.
‘In the cottage. She agreed to watch over the potions brewing,’ Wren told her sister quickly before returning her attention to the gathered company.
