The Enemy's Triumph Read online

  “You’ll call him by his title,” Rain warned softly. “Or you’ll answer to his guard.”

  She jerked back, narrowing her eyes on him, studying him, and making her judgment about his character and his strength. Finally, she nodded. “Of course. Tell His Majesty I’m grateful he’s willing to address the problem as quickly as he can.”

  “I’ll relay your message,” he promised. “Is there anything I can do to help? We have horses that might help drive them to safer pastures. I can ask more of the outfit to come and assist.”

  “We could use another dozen heads to help push the herds closer,” she explained, her tone remaining respectful. “And I would like to keep them to help guard. We can’t take many hits to our cattle like last night.”

  “Of course. If that’s all, I need to report.” When none of them said anything, he launched back into the air and headed back toward the city. He landed on the roof of the meeting building, knowing Alchan would be there now. His meeting with Nevyn would require the maps. He found them in the same room they had just thrown a party in the day before.

  “The warriors handling the livestock would like a dozen heads to help move the herds and guard them in case there’s another wyvern hunt,” he announced. “Aside from that, it’s a lot of people still asking when they’ll learn if they’re staying or going.”

  “Thank you. Varon, would you ask around and pick twelve males to help them?” Alchan looked up from the maps, staring at the mute to get an answer.

  Varon nodded and started walking out. As he passed Rain, he touched Rain’s shoulder gently and squeezed just enough to notice. It was definitely a sign or signal of some sort.

  “If that’s all, sir, I’m going to go visit my father,” Rain said loudly.

  “Go ahead. Nevyn and I will be trying to figure this out for the rest of the day, it seems.”

  Rain started to walk out, amazed by Alchan’s ability to remain focused. Rain knew his own mind tried to blank out sometimes when he was in the same room as the king, thinking about what they did when no one was watching.

  He launched from the room, noting Varon was already long gone, and took a short flight to Mave’s home, landing on the roof there as well.

  Going inside, the first thing he heard was yelling. With a sigh, he prepared himself for whatever dumb thing his father did to piss Mave off.

  4

  Mave

  It should have been another normal day, but Mave realized it wouldn’t be when she caught Zayden on the rooftop about to take off.

  “What are you doing?” she snapped, glaring at him as she stomped toward him. “The healers said no flying until you’re confident with your balance with your two feet on the ground.”

  “I’m bored sitting around. I can get back in the air faster if I just practice in the air,” Zayden said, glaring back at her. “I have the right to make these decisions for myself. The healers can say whatever they want.”

  “Zayden, it’s only been a couple of weeks,” she growled. “Are you crazy? You still bump into the fucking walls when you try to walk down the hall. Do you really think you can safely fly?”

  “It’s already been fucking two weeks. If I don’t get back into the air, I’m going to lose my fucking mind,” he snarled back. “Why don’t you go back inside and bother your husbands?”

  Something about that statement irked her. She wanted to reach out, grab one of his horns, and drag him inside.

  “My husbands are working,” she informed him curtly. She took another step toward him, and he took a step away.

  “You don’t get to tell me what to do,” he reminded her once again. “Now, if Alchan decided to show up here and order me to keep my feet on the ground, I’d listen. But not you.”

  “Why not me?” she demanded, her anger growing hotter by the moment. Every word that came out of his mouth was digging him a deeper grave.

  “Because, contrary to popular belief, I don’t answer to you. I answer to Alchan. Maybe Luykas. You aren’t in charge of the Company.”

  Taking a deep breath, she willed her anger to recede or at least let her think clearly.

  “Please, don’t get yourself hurt,” she said calmly, watching him.

  “I just want to try,” he said, looking away. “This rooftop to the next. That’s all.”

  “This is stupid. Please don’t be an idiot, Zayden.”

  “I’m not going to fall down to the streets. I know how to fly.”

  Before she could say any more, his wings opened, and he jumped into the air.

  “ZAYDEN!” she screamed, pissed that he would openly defy her when they both knew she was right.

  Flying was an intricate skill. An Andinna’s tail was important to maintaining balance in the air and helping control the direction of flight. Mave learned the hard way that some things came innately, but others needed to be practiced. When she was finally given leave to get into the air, she could hover, but it was clunky and hard for her to understand her own body and get turns down. She met more than a few trees, much to the delight of those helping her learn, one of whom was Zayden.

  So, she watched him go into the air, confident but wary as well. When he dipped to make a small turn to the building next door, he veered, the remainder of his tail swinging out wildly to compensate, but it wasn’t enough. He dropped several feet.

  “GET DOWN HERE!” she roared as she realized he wasn’t going to call it quits. Her heart jumped into her throat as he fought for control over his own body.

  Then he fell, his wings losing the air.

  Mave cursed in the most colorful way she knew how, feeling like one of the sailors of Sen’s crew. She ran to the edge of the roof and jumped, spreading her wings to catch enough air for the controlled fall. She landed next to him and cursed more as she realized he wasn’t moving.

  “Zayden? Please don’t be dead. Fuck.”

  Reaching out, she tried to touch his shoulder. He smacked her hand away, snarling.

  “Should have been with the fucking Company,” he growled. “Don’t want your pity, Skies damn it. Get away from me.”

  It was like being stabbed. She stepped back, letting him get himself off the pavement. Hurt and anger warred inside her. Once he was on his feet, she watched him try to walk. She could also see the bruising start on his entire left side and raw patches of skin where he hit the stones and must have slid. None of the males of the Company were wearing much for clothing these days. Everything Zayden had just done to himself was fully on display.

  He started to fall, and she reached out again. This time, when he snarled, she put a hand over his mouth as she wrapped another arm around his waist.

  “You’ll shut up, you fucking stupid pigeon,” she snarled in his ear. It wasn’t hard since he was leaning over in pain. He should have been able to stand taller than her, proud and unreachable like every other fucking Andinna male, but he’d done this to himself, and now she didn’t have to work to yell at him. “If you do everything I say for the rest of the day, I won’t leave to tell your son how fucking stupid you are…or Alchan, although he probably needs to know one of his warriors can’t even follow simple instructions.”

  Without letting him argue and knowing he couldn’t really fight back, she hauled him to the ground level front door of her home and forced him back inside. She kept her grip strong as she dragged him to a couch and shoved him down on it.

  “You’ll stay right fucking there until I get back with something to clean you off.”

  “I can do it myself. It’s not the worst fall I’ve ever had,” he said, trying to push himself up.

  “You’ll stay right fucking there,” she ordered, glaring down at him. “There was no reason for that.”

  “I’m a healthy male in my prime. Fuck, I’m younger than one of your husbands. I have the right—”

  “Don’t get fucking stubborn with me, Zayden!” she roared. Again, bringing up her husbands. Always with him. He always reminded her she had males, and that meant somet
hing. “Stay there!”

  “You’re not my commanding officer or my healer!”

  “Then I’ll go fucking get them!”

  “You…you know what it’s like not to be able to fly. I can work through this on my own. I don’t need the babysitters. I’m tired of it. I’m a grown-ass male, and if I have to take some knocks to get back in the air, that’s what I’ll go.”

  “Yeah, you’re a grown-ass male who can’t even remember that sometimes other people know better than you,” she snapped. He tried to stand, and she put a hand on his chest, pushing him back into the cushions of the couch. “You’re not going to move. Is that clear?”

  “You don’t command me, Mave.” He literally snapped his teeth at her, the Andinna canines on full display. She never paid much mind to them on a normal day, but he was making his message very clear. If she wanted to keep him right there, she had to be willing to fight for it.

  “What is going on?” someone asked to her right. She watched as Zayden’s face paled.

  They turned at the same time to find Rainev staring at them with concern.

  “I didn’t do this to him,” she said quickly, releasing him. “He decided to try to fly and went from the rooftop to the street.”

  “My landing was a little rough—”

  “That’s one way of putting it,” she muttered, cutting him off. “He fell.”

  “I landed.”

  “On your fucking face,” she growled, looking back down at him. He eventually dropped his eyes. Satisfied, she looked back at Rain, only to feel a stab of guilt.

  Rain was still quiet, staring at them. He stepped closer, his eyes falling, probably to look at the damage his father did to himself. Mave’s guilt only grew as the emotion left Rain’s face.

  “I’ll get his healer,” the young male declared before turning and walking out.

  “Now look at what you’ve done,” she snapped, glaring at the male. “If you just—”

  “Mave, if you don’t back off right now, I’m going to pick a fight I won’t win,” he growled back at her. She removed her hands from him, knowing tempers were too high to test that. He tried to stand again and groaned before collapsing back on the couch on his own.

  “You stupid fucking male.” Shaking her head, she walked out of the room toward the kitchen. She stoked the small cooking fire and filled a pot with water, heating it over the fire. While that was going, she went upstairs to find any small rags to start cleaning him up. When the water was heated, and she had what she needed, she went back into the room to find him staring at the window.

  “I’m not letting the healer help you speed this up,” she explained as she put the water down at his feet. “You fucking deserve this.”

  “Fine.”

  Since he wasn’t arguing with her anymore, she wet one of the cloths and started her work, gently rubbing out dirt and small stones from the open areas of his skin. She worked quickly, used to this sort of healing. This had been everything she had in the pits, and even then, she didn’t have hot water or the ability to get it.

  His breathing was steady, a good, consistent rise and fall of his large chest. Mave could appreciate his good looks if it weren’t for his stupidity, and could almost see how a male like him got a wife and had a child if it weren’t for her anger with him at that moment.

  Zayden, a good-looking idiot, out to make sure everyone meets an early grave just like him by practically falling off a building.

  She wasn’t surprised by her own attraction. She was surrounded by attractive males, for good or ill, and sometimes, she privately enjoyed the view. Sexual attraction was easy for her to find even when she had been in the pits. It was something she could own, and no one could take away from her. It gave her one very small comfort, even if it normally backfired when acted on.

  “You’re going to scar,” she whispered, looking over an abrasion on his left shoulder.

  “Who cares? I don’t.”

  Sighing, she kept working quickly, wanting to get out of his space and away from his strange negative energy. Something had him upset, and it felt like it wasn’t only his tail or not being able to fly. She either needed to leave or say something. Since she couldn’t leave yet, she decided to try to talk to him a little more.

  “I care. Don’t be so daft; you think no one gives two shits about you, including me. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but I don’t like seeing you throw yourself off a building—”

  “I would have been fine dragging myself to my healer,” he growled. “You didn’t need to do this.”

  Mave heard the door open and close behind her but didn’t turn to greet Rain or the healer. She was grateful because her patience was running out.

  “See?” Rain said softly. “Look at him. He needs someone to speed this up.”

  “Son—”

  “No, Father, I don’t want to hear it,” Rain snapped behind her. “I know for a fact that Mave would have told you not to do this several times before you tried. Unless you did it without telling anyone, in which case, you’re still an idiot.”

  The healer approached, and Mave growled.

  “He’s not getting any help. He can suffer,” she said softly.

  “Are you…Rainev?” The healer looked at everyone’s favorite mutt for confirmation.

  “If that’s what Mave wants,” Rain agreed. “You can look him over and make sure nothing is permanently damaged.”

  “Of course.” The healer went to work. Mave finished what she was doing and moved away. Zayden’s face was red, anger and embarrassment warring on his face. Turning to his son, Mave sighed.

  “Rain, let’s go to the kitchen while the healer works. Male, I’ll know if you do any healing for him. Don’t think about it.”

  “Of course, Champion,” the healer said softly, purposefully not looking at her.

  She didn’t need to grab Rain or haul him around the same way she had to with Zayden. He followed in silence.

  “Do we tell Alchan?” Mave asked, wondering if that was her next step.

  “I can, but he’s not going to give Zayden any more punishment than we’ve already dished out. He’ll call Zayden an idiot the next time he sees him and move on. He trusts everyone in the Company to know their own limits and plus…” Rain gestured at her. “He already has at least two people who are going to put my father in his place. You and Mat can more than handle him.”

  “Apparently, you can too,” she pointed out, smirking.

  “He’s my father. Sometimes, only I can guilt him the way he needs to be guilted. I’ll say, I wasn’t expecting to walk into this today. Can’t believe he’s being such a fucking idiot.” Rain sighed as he fell into a chair at her table. “So fucking stupid.”

  “He’s always been stubborn,” Mave pointed out. “I couldn’t talk him down from trying.”

  “I’m amazed you didn’t haul his ass inside, anyway,” Rain muttered, looking away. “Why didn’t you? You knew how it would end, especially in a city like this with so much stone and danger. The soft forest floor is better than this. He should have waited until we got out of Kerit, at least. I would prefer if he waits until we get back to the village.”

  Mave thought about it. Something Zayden had said made her step back. She hadn’t liked it, but she had stopped trying to order him, stopped trying to control him. Realizing what that was, she sat down across from Rain and sighed as well.

  “He’s not my male, Rain. I don’t get to control him the way I can with Mat, Bryn, or Luykas. Not that I want to control them, but…”

  “I understand,” Rain whispered. “I know. This is a weird situation. I’m relying on you to help keep him healing and his feet on the ground when in the end, you have even less ability to do that than me.”

  “I regret it,” she admitted. “When I saw him go down and knew he was going to hit the pavement, I nearly had a heart attack. When he didn’t move for a moment, I felt awful. But in the end, if he needs to learn his current limitations the hard way, he h
as the right to do that. Other than Alchan, there’s no one else, in his mind, who can tell him what to do or not do.”

  “And he’s right,” Rain said, rubbing his face. “He reports to Alchan and Luykas, not any of us. Just like the entire Company. If Luykas had been here—”

  “He would have considered Luykas was acting as my husband, most likely, but it might have worked,” Mave finished, stopping Rain from thinking Luykas could have definitely stopped it.

  “I’m done,” the healer said loudly, walking in. “He’s grounded until those heal and even further. He gave himself some nasty bruising and might have pulled something in one of his wings—”

  “Skies damn him,” Mave snapped. “How long?”

  “I recommend another month, at least. Simple exercises. Still practicing his new life with his tail, of course.”

  “We should be well on our way to the village by then,” Rain pointed out. “That nulls the two weeks he’s already done, too.”

  “It is a couple of weeks longer than initially planned, but he went against my advice and injured himself. He needs to keep his feet on the ground a little longer. Try some sword practice with him. He might find gaining his balance back easier if he’s doing something he enjoys.”

  “I’ll do it,” Mave offered quickly. Rain frowned at her, so she explained. “I don’t have much to do right now. I have all the free time to do some physical therapy for him.”

  “Why wasn’t this something you recommended to begin with?” Rain finally asked, turning to the healer.

  “We did. We told him that it would be faster to try keeping his feet on the ground and practicing with another warrior since it would teach him his new balance better. If he had done that, he would have been able to try flying two weeks from now and not a month from now, but it’s obvious to me, all he’s been doing is wandering around the house and feeling sorry for himself.”