The Rebel's Vision Page 10

  “My friend, you didn’t have to make all of this but thank you. What’s the occasion?”

  “I’ve been living here for nearly a month, and I noticed that you and Mave are much busier than me. I’m Kian’s assistant with training, I have no son to take care of anymore, and there're no missions to prepare for. Since you two are letting me stay here, I can handle some things for you. I know it’s overstepping my bounds, but last week I noticed your food stores were running low when there was no reason for it. I stepped in. I managed my household with Summer and Rain for a century, then had to feed a male who was going to eat me out of house and home.” His friend spoke with a pragmatic nature Matesh didn’t hear very often from him.

  This was Zayden, the male who had a family and knew how to take care of it. This was Zayden, the soldier leaders looked to when there was a problem with the health and care of the unit. This was the male who laid beneath a grouchy surface, who was constantly underappreciated and annoyed with the childish antics of others. Mat was speechless for too long, prompting Zayden to begin the familiar grumbling.

  “Sorry. I know you’re the male of the household right now. Mave is your female, and this is her home. I won’t—”

  “Thank you,” Mat said quickly, cutting off the self-deprecating grouch. “No, you…I didn’t expect you to help us, and you’re right, without Bryn, I’m busy, Mave is busy, and he handled all of this, you know?”

  “Any word on him?” Zayden asked, frowning.

  “Not since we got back from the mission a month ago,” Mat said softly, looking down at his food. “Alchan hasn’t said anything to us, and I don’t make it a habit to bother him for information he might not be able to give me. It might be sensitive. Mave’s keeping focused on everything else, but I know she misses him. I do.”

  “He’s a good male and complements you and her. And he’s not stupid enough to get caught by Elvasi or get eaten by anything.”

  “You’re right,” Mat agreed. They both went back to the food. Mat appreciated every bite and how he didn’t need to go into the storage, sort food and count items, and try to guess how much food three adult Andinna needed. Bryn had jumped on that the moment he joined the family, and Mat had only tagged along.

  I thought I could handle it, but I guess I can’t. Thank the skies for friends.

  “Also.” Zayden pointed his fork across the table at him as he swallowed the food in his mouth. “I won’t tell anyone about how you nearly let your home starve. I’ll manage it, so they don’t worry.”

  “Thanks,” Mat muttered. It was a bad look for a male to let the food stores of the home get low. “You know, you don’t have—”

  “Yeah, I do,” Zayden growled softly. “I don’t deserve to be living in a house anymore. I should be in the barracks. I’m just a warrior, my wife passed on centuries ago, and my son has grown up and found himself a role and new living arrangements. I should have moved back into the communal barracks and was ready to until you and Mave said I could stay here. I’m a male under the roof of another family and can help you with your duties since Bryn is gone. You’re my oldest friend, Mat. Don’t be stupid and tell me I don’t have to help.”

  Mat chuckled dryly, finished his breakfast, and took the dishes into the kitchen.

  “Have you been following the mess, trying to figure out how to take Kerit?” Mat asked as he walked back out.

  “Of course. I don’t miss every meeting. I’m still a member of the Company.” Zayden leaned back and picked up his plate and held it out. “I cooked. You can clean.”

  “Yeah.” Mat grabbed the plate, chuckling. “What do you think?”

  “I think we’re fucked. There’s no way to take Kerit without abandoning this village to a possible attack. And if we leave, the guards won’t be patrolling for Elvasi scouts, and Shadra will find it. We could free more slaves down South, but then we’re looking at months of training, not enough space to keep them, not enough food to feed them. It’s a no-win situation.”

  “We need warriors from the get-go,” Mat agreed. “More of them. That solves the training issue.”

  “But then we’re left with the food problem. Most warriors want to spend their days being warriors. We need civilian Andinna to produce food and craft. And that’s even more mouths to feed. We’re talking about a self-sufficient army, not a few self-sufficient communities that could manage themselves.”

  “Yeah…” Everyone was going in circles. Mat’s head hurt every time he tried to find a new idea, a new way of coming at the problem, but nothing seemed to fit, nothing seemed to work. There was no way out except taking the risk of letting some of their people starve or get killed. “You know, we’re so hung up on trying to take Kerit, we haven’t even discussed what sort of losses we can handle in the actual engagement.”

  “Yeah, because I think we all know the answer to that.” Zayden’s blue eyes were dark.

  None. We can’t handle any losses, or we’re doomed.

  “Well, I’m going to head out. If you see Mave, let her know I left early for training. I’ve got a group of young males today who are supposed to be practicing aerial attacks. Who knows if they’ll be able to? Luykas said a lot of the slaves can fly but aren’t the most graceful.”

  “And we can’t forget, we aren’t the only warriors in the sky anymore,” Zayden pointed out.

  Mat only nodded. There was no forgetting the shock and horror of seeing Elvasi soldiers on gryphon mounts. Just another thing they were going to have to fight against and overcome if they wanted to survive and free their people from the hold of the Empire, once and for all.

  “I’ll see you later,” Mat said, walking out of the dining area to get ready for his day.

  “Do it again!” Mat roared, frustrated with what he was seeing from the soldiers in front of him. “I’ve walked you through this a dozen times. There’s no reason you haven’t figured out you can’t dive spear users. You have to outmaneuver them and work together!”

  One of the Andinna pulled away from the training unit, rubbing his ribs as he landed. Mat sighed.

  “Do you need to see a healer?” he asked the young male.

  “No, sir. I just need to stretch it out.”

  “You can take five. The rest of you, get together and discuss how to you can breach the guards of this caravan and get to the supplies. This is going to be one of our most important missions. Destroying enemy supply lines starves out their army, and they’re forced to slow their advance or even pull back so they can keep their men fed. If we can’t do this successfully, we’re done before this gets started.”

  He watched the group pull together, and the young male stretched as he listened to the others discuss. Mat looked at the objective. He had ten Andinna guarding a pile of logs nearly ten feet tall. They were equipped with wooden weapons that emulated the Elvasi and spears and bows meant for fighting Andinna in the sky. The War had changed the Elvasi fighting style, and the Andinna had to evolve with it. Air tactics became more important as the Elvasi learned to bring them down. He had to train this new batch of males how to handle anything. The sky was safer than the ground, but it wasn’t safe. Beyond that, failure in the sky often meant you were dead once you hit the ground, whether from the impact or the enemy soldiers who would rush you. On the ground, you generally didn’t have a chance to fight.

  So, the secret to air missions was finding the right time and place to land. Only the best archers could use a bow in flight. Some Andinna were great spear throwers, but that was a one-shot deal, then they had to land.

  For grunts, for the soldiers who only knew how to swing a sword and fly? The entire goal was to take someone out while landing without getting killed in the process. It was the first thing every Andinna learned, alongside basic sword skills once they joined the Andinna forces. Almost every Andinna was raised to know how to wield a morok, so most soldiers went straight into basic aerial tactics.

  A couple of thumps behind him made him turn. Alchan and Luykas were standing
shoulder-to-shoulder, and Leshaun landed behind them. He smiled, nodding his head respectfully to Alchan and Luykas. His uncle lowered his head while the brothers did nothing.

  “How do they look?” Alchan asked, his eyes leaving Mat and going behind him to the soldiers.

  “Bad. Some are getting the hang of it. A few are skittish. The problem is that they won’t work together. One tries to go in, and another backs off, leaving the bold one on his own. Needless to say, they all get killed before any of them put their feet down.” Mat sighed, turning back to the soldiers as Alchan stepped up next to him.

  “Keep working with them. They’ll get it, or they’ll die.”

  “I say put a few in the fields on light training. Use them in a year, not this winter or in the spring.” Mat had to be honest with his commanders even if he wished he had better news.

  “We might not have that option,” Alchan reminded him. “As winter rolls in, there’s been less Elvasi scouting activity in the Spine, but we all know that’s going to pick up with vigor in spring. They have to be ready for bigger fights by then.”

  Winter—the hardest season, the season that would kill them all if they weren’t ready—was the only time of the year the Andinna had a chance to relax from the Elvasi threat. Mat didn’t need Alchan’s warning. Any Andinna worth their weight knew that.

  The longer the silence stretched, the more concerned Mat got with the presence of Alchan, Luykas, and his uncle. His uncle was the spymaster because his blood magic was advanced and powerful enough to manage it. He was well suited to the role and on top of that, well-educated and respected. No one would ever look at him and see a spy. He hid in plain sight.

  Because of it, he had no interest in the common soldiers. His entire duty was to maintain regular contact with the spies the Andinna had for over a thousand years, mostly old friends from the Empire. People who had been against the war from the beginning. There were new spies as well, some human, some Elvasi. He managed them all, mostly through blood magic but also through back channels. Some of their spies had to go through others in a vast network since there were only so many books that could relay important information.

  It was impressive and useful.

  But then why is he here?

  “Do you need anything?” Mat asked Alchan, frowning.

  “It’s about Brynec,” he said softly. “We haven’t told Mave yet.”

  Mat’s gut dropped as his heart jumped into his throat.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “He hasn’t gotten in touch with us since before we made it back from the mission,” Leshaun explained. “Matesh—”

  “That’s over a month ago!” he growled. “Are you saying he’s been missing for a month now?”

  “He could have—”

  “What? Lost the book? You know Bryn doesn’t lose anything. We need to get a—”

  “Stop,” Luykas snapped. “We know this is bad—”

  “Bad? Mave is going to kill all three of you if you’ve lost him. I’m going to help her.” Mat stepped back from them. “You couldn’t tell us sooner he wasn’t reporting in anymore?”

  “He went two weeks before his last report without saying anything. We figured he was in a hot spot and would get back to us. He also has the habit of waiting until he has something to report.” Leshaun sighed. “A month is too long, though. We’re not just here to tell you that, Matesh.”

  “You’re here to tell me not only is he not reporting, meaning he could be dead, but that we can’t do anything about it,” Mat snapped. “I figured that out.” He ran a hand through his hair as he turned away from them.

  No. This can’t be it. We can’t lose Bryn far from home and never see him again.

  “We can tell Mave or you can,” Alchan said softly. “We’re hoping to get word from him at any time, but we all need to prepare for the possibility that we catch an Elvasi report saying—”

  “Don’t,” he snarled. “Don’t say the words.”

  Don’t you dare say we might hear that he’s dead. Not out loud.

  “Mat—”

  “If someone hears that, the entire village will know by sundown,” Mat reminded him. “And you don’t want that. If everyone knows before Mave, she’ll rightfully be pissed.”

  “Do you want to tell her, or should I?” Alchan asked again.

  “I will,” he answered. “And, king or not, you’re answering to her when she’s furious with you.”

  Alchan bowed his head slowly, and Mat felt some of his anger deflate. Alchan had done this before. He’d gone to a family and had to tell them someone was gone, that they lost a loved one. He would do it. He would accept the anger, and he would continue on as a king and commander should. They’d lost people in the Company before, and Alchan was always the one who found the family and explained.

  “She’s only had a family for a year, Alchan,” Mat whispered. “She’s only had me and Bryn for a handful of seasons.”

  “And we’re at war,” Alchan said calmly. “Where is she?”

  “Probably with the females,” he answered. He looked at Luykas, who turned away. “Did she say anything this morning?”

  “Why would she…” Luykas sighed as Mat stared at him. “Yes. Said the females were her main priority right now. I would assume she’s there, too.”

  “Did she have breakfast with you again?” he asked, feeling cranky and wanting to lash out at the mutt.

  “Yes.”

  “Care to tell me why my wife is hopping out of bed in the middle of the night, and you visit her?”

  “That’s not your business,” Luykas growled, realizing Mat was overstepping his bounds as a husband. A female was allowed dalliances outside the family bed to test the waters with potential lovers and how they might fit into her family. “It’s also not what you think.”

  “You’re bonded to her. It’s going to get there, eventually. How long have you known Bryn has been essentially missing while you’ve been moving in on—”

  Luykas tackled him. He was bigger, able to take control of the fight before Luykas was able to pin him to the ground. He got the mutt on his back, and ready to punch down at the white tatua on the male’s face.

  Someone ripped him off Luykas. He went swinging and met a punch to the gut, forcing him to double over.

  “Move along, soldiers!” Alchan roared over his head. “Luykas, get up, you fucking idiot. Mat, if you move, I’ll fucking put you back in the dirt.”

  Mat didn’t move. Alchan could do more than put him in the dirt. The bedru king could and would gut him if Mat challenged him now. He could hear Luykas pushing out of the dirt and dusting off.

  “How dare you—”

  “Luykas, you do realize it looks bad to sneak around with a female while you know one of her husbands could be dead, and not telling her or her family, right?” Alchan suddenly sounded emotionless. His tone was contained, losing the viciousness it just had. It scared Mat more than the anger. Alchan never lost his temper that quickly. A calmness like this from Alchan meant he was willing to kill one of them if he didn’t get his way. “Mat had reason to call you out.”

  “I’m not aiming for the mayara. We’re not sexually…” Luykas seemed like he was about to start stuttering. “Fuck. She’s going to kill me for not saying something this morning.”

  “Damn right.” Mat growled softly. Something thumped his back hard, and he realized Alchan was still standing over him. By the sharpness of the hit, it was probably his elbow.

  “Mat, you overstepped. You’re angry, I understand, but Luykas isn’t preying on Mave. You know she would never allow it, and I would never allow it,” Alchan said patiently. “Now, if you two can compose yourselves, I’m done showing off for the soldiers and want to get this over with.”

  “Yes, sir,” Mat mumbled. The elbow left his back, and he was able to straighten up. Disconcertingly, he remembered he was taller than Alchan, but Alchan’s powerful nature made him drop his eyes the moment the king’s amber eyes found him.
>
  “I’m sorry, Matesh,” Alchan said gently. “Luykas didn’t mean to seem…”

  “I know. I was speaking in anger,” Mat said quickly. He didn’t think Luykas was a bad male who would position himself like that. He dragged his gaze off Alchan and found the mutt, who now had a long dirt streak across the side of his leather breeches. “Luykas, I’m sorry.”

  “Me too,” Luykas mumbled. “We should talk later. Me and you.”

  Mat lifted his chin in curiosity as he eyed the mutt commander. “Okay. After dinner.”

  “Perfect.” Luykas patted down his breeches.

  “I’ll meet you all at the females’ training field,” Alchan said sharply and jumped up, leaving them to their dramas. Luykas looked up after him, sighing, and followed him after a moment.

  “Uncle?” Mat moved over to Leshaun. “Don’t be angry with me.”

  “I’m not. Males get into scuffles sometimes. Plus, he attacked you, and you handled it well. Don’t insult his honor, though. You know he has a lot to prove here, especially with all these new faces that don’t know him. Fighting with a pure Andinna, of which the majority of us are, doesn’t look good for him.”

  “I know, Uncle,” Mat agreed. “Mave’s just had me worried and now this with Bryn? Tell me, what do you think?”

  “I think Brynec is one of our most intelligent Andinna when it comes to subterfuge, to information gathering, to killing in silence, and getting out of situations most Andinna have no chance to defeat. I think he’s been taken and is looking for a way to escape. I don’t think he’s dead.”

  Mat nodded slowly. Yeah, Bryn was all of those things.

  If anyone could survive alone, it was him.

  10

  Mave

  Mave’s chest tightened to the point she wondered if she was going to stop breathing. It would be almost preferable to the pain. It would be easier—if she fell and suffocated, the pain would end.