TWO

Cadmos stood just behind his mate, surveying the captains who attended at their call. He silently noted the different conversations happening, each in their own corners. None of them were foolish enough to speak an ill word against him or Melyssa while in the same room with him, but still, his ears took in every scrap of conversation, while his clear blue eyes scanned the hall.

“He’ll be the last to arrive.” He said to Melyssa, his words traveling on their own tightly controlled current of air directly to her ear so that she would be the only one capable of hearing him. The words whispered through the pure white tendrils of her hair as it fell around her shoulders, but another breeze tucked it back for her just as quickly. “I have to wonder if little offenses like this give him any kind of satisfaction.”

“I am sure they do.” She wished at the moment she could hear everything her mate could hear. Her skills with flame were very different from his with the air. “Even if he is the last to arrive, he will still be here. That’s all that matters to me.”

He pretended to look over the maps laid out in the center of the room on the floor, a huge depiction of the vast territories around which their lives were built. In the north were the Seven Isles upon which they lived. The long archipelago of the Burning Reef stretched roughly east to west in a kind of belt just to the south of the Seven. Finally, the sprawling land mass of the Genovin Kingdom sat still farther to the southwest beyond the edges of the Reef. It was all the world they knew, and all the world they needed.

He walked along the part of the map where they were about to send their fleet, but still spoke to Melyssa and listened to the conversations going on around them. “Most of them are eager to volunteer.” He smirked, a private expression only for Melyssa to understand. “If I had known killing Naisa and Kensin would make the rest of our subjects this eager to please, I might have suggested doing so years ago.”

“We will never know the difference it could have made.” She followed after him slowly before she stopped on the depiction of the Burning Reef. She looked up and across the entire room once more. There was a small group of wolves that weren’t familiar or socializing with anyone else, but she expected that. “Even Hassir wasn’t the last to arrive.” Melyssa hadn’t called the meeting until after the ship from the Reef had arrived, since she wanted all of those under her reign to be in attendance. They would need the feral wolves of the Reef to destroy the Genovin, after all.

Cadmos raised his eyes from the map and took a good look at the wolves she mentioned through strands of light blond hair that fell in his eyes. Rather than adopt the formal robes suited to their element as subjects of the Isles, the wolves of the Reef wore clothing made from tanned leather, supposedly from their own kills, according to Reef tradition. Two of them were even in attendance in their wolf form, sitting near their master on the floor and keeping an eye on the room.

Hassir, lord of the Reef and grandson of the wolf that Cadmos and Melyssa had killed in order to bring the Reef under their rule, stood at the center of the delegation from his homeland. He was clothed in dark leather just as the rest of them. Nothing set him apart from his companions as their lord except the brilliant red hair for which his line was known. It was cut short against his scalp and trimmed close against his face, leaving the harsh lines and hard set of his jaw well defined beneath his beard.

“The fact that he came at all says that he still knows what’s best for his people.” Melyssa heard a faint growl behind her mate’s voice. He hated the Reef just as much as she did, for reasons she had never quite understood. “He’ll do as he’s bid.”

“That’s what dogs do.” She indulged in a self-satisfied chuckle as she glanced over at her mate. “We just need to make sure they don’t make a mess of the furniture in the process.”

As Daiva, Destin, and Dola climbed the stairs toward the meeting, Daiva took notice that Cadmos made sure they were well in his element by being in a part of the castle that was high and lined with windows. As high as they were, though, she could see some of the ships in the distance whenever they passed a window, and one in particular caught her eye. She hadn’t grown up with Oceanborn as parents without learning a thing or two about the ships that belonged to the Isles. “Isn’t that ship from the Reef?”

Destin was distracted by his thoughts and hadn’t been paying attention to the call of the sea far below and beyond, but he followed his sister’s glance and quickly picked out the vessel she indicated.

Unlike the broad, stately ships of the Isles that Destin knew, the design and construction Destin himself had overseen for years, the ship from the Reef was long and narrow, with runners out to either side that allowed it to sit high in the water. They were faster than the ships of the Isles, most of the time, but they were also much less sturdy. “It is. I wonder what Melyssa called them in for.”

Daiva looked up the remaining stairs, and as she looked at each step of stone, her thoughts flooded with memories. When she was younger and playful, she remembered knocking Devon and Destin down similar stone stairs by shifting the marble. She also remembered the trek up granite stairs only to see her parents and her brother die in front of her eyes.

Now she thought about what might wait for them above, and who, if the Reef was now also in attendance. Other than the Queen and her youngest son, Daiva hadn’t seen many Fireborn around the Isles. She also didn’t know much about the Reef, except for their reputation of ruthlessness and as a Fireborn haven.

How the Reef could maintain that and still be controlled by a truly insane wolf like Melyssa was beyond Daiva’s logic. Their reputation led her to believe the Reef should be ruling the Isles, not the other way around. “She must be quite serious about taking over the Genovin.” Daiva mused, as she wondered if she could find a way to talk to the representatives from the Reef. She and Destin could benefit from that kind of firepower. “Maybe we can…”

“Not here.” Destin cut her off quickly as he felt a breeze from Dola whip around them, further obscuring what his sister started to say. He gave her a quick glance, though, to let her know that he’d thought the same thing. “Her Majesty is very serious about many things. I’m sure the violence of the Reef’s fighters will be a welcome addition to any kind of attack she’s planning. That is all Melyssa knows how to do, after all. Live on the offensive.”

Daiva kept her gaze on the stairs as they neared the entrance. “That is if the actual fighting ability of the wolves living on the Reef is more than just a tall tale.” She wasn’t completely convinced of anything, especially since she didn’t know any wolves personally from the Reef. “They sound more like crazed beasts than anything else, we know what happened with…”

“They may be crazed, and they are certainly beasts, but their reputation is not just hearsay.” He felt much more comfortable talking about the Reef than about anything else, under the circumstances, so he glanced out a window at the ship again, noting several wolves moving around on deck waiting for their lord’s return. “I saw one of their Skyborn decapitate a man once with a solid column of air. The rest of the body was left spinning like water down a drain, while the wolf who’d done it couldn’t stop laughing. They are not to be trifled with.”

“I am not afraid of them.” She stepped up behind her brother near the doorway. “Other than watching you, Taimon, or Kaia die, there’s nothing left in this world that can scare me.”

“Well then when I die, I’ll try and make sure I’m out of sight.” He gave Daiva a final glance, then stepped into the meeting chamber as every eye in the room turned toward them.

Cadmos was already looking toward the door, having smelled the three of them before they got anywhere near the chamber. “You were summoned hours ago, Admiral.”

“And I am here now, Majesty.” Destin quipped without backing down as he strode to the center of the room, leaving Daiva and Dola behind as he approached. “My queen.” He said coldly to Melyssa as he bowed near the edge of the broad map, then rose to wait for whatever instructions she’d called the captains together to give.

Melyssa looked down and watched him as he rose and backed away, though she was quick to begin addressing all of her captains. “I have called you together so that we can discuss the strategy that has been devised for an attack on the Genovin. I know we cannot enter battle with them lightly or quickly, but I also know that we will not be successful if we try to hold a war entirely on their homeland. We have to find a way to draw them out, to weaken them, and then attack them in waves.” She looked down at the map underneath her feet carefully.

”It has been decided that we will commit less than half of our forces to mass patrol north of the Genovin’s nearest shores. It may prematurely draw some of them out, believing the gathered force to be all we can muster. If it is, then we will destroy those who are drawn out and take whatever ships they have that are functional. It may help us to gain access to their homeland if we can get in close with their own ships.”

The Queen continued on with her initial plans of attack with all of her captains listening carefully, but Daiva remained back along the wall, her dark grey eyes scanning the room. She looked over at the small group from the Reef several times as her fingers ran against the smooth stone behind her. The stone rippled and shivered underneath her touch, and several times it cracked and shook some pebbles down onto her before she sealed it up again, making it look as though nothing had happened.

How was she going to talk to the impatient-looking Fireborn wolves if Melyssa was just going to send them off on a ship? What good would Fireborn do out on the water anyway?

The one who stuck out most to her was a man with shocking red hair and black fur lining the edges of his clothing around his shoulders, who looked increasingly bored as Melyssa continued to talk about her plans. Several of the other captains rushed to chime in and make themselves seem useful in the conversation, but the Reef captain remained silent. There were several small arguments about which direction to sail first and who should be sent, but Destin only watched the flow of the arguments and listened to all positions.

Eventually an unexpected sound entered the chamber, and Daiva could see, as those talking over each other subsided one by one, that it was coming from the red-haired wolf from the Reef. He was leaning back against the same wall that Daiva was touching, with his arms folded over his chest, bouncing with the low chuckle that escaped him, and which had silenced the room.

“Is something funny, Lord Hassir?” Cadmos’ voice came irritably from the center of the chamber, standing over the map’s depiction of the wolf’s homeland.

“Oh yes.” The wolf responded in a deep, hissing voice as he raised his eyes to look at the rest of the gathered captains. His red eyes seemed to glow with a fire of their own, and he stepped up through the others to approach the king and queen, impeded by no one.

“Something is very funny. Because just before I came to answer your summons, your majesty,” he came as close to spitting out the title at Melyssa as he dared in a formal setting, but no one missed the acid in his tone, “my sister received a report of several ships that stopped on their way north. They claimed to be merchant vessels headed for the Shield Isle delivering Genovin wine, but Asira thought they were too well armed for merchants.

“When her Oceanborn fleet followed them south, she found a fleet of thirty more ships, all crewed with soldiers, moving westward along the Reef. Appears they were looking for a place to cross our borders and come north to pay you a visit.” He shoved one of the other captains out of the way to free up a spot on the map, and spat on the floor at Cadmos’ feet, pointing at the spot afterwards. “There is where she found them, and if you want a fight, that is where you’ll find it.”

“And you decided,” Melyssa said slowly, as if she was speaking to a wolf with no intelligence whatsoever, “that you wanted to withhold this information until you thought you could pass it off as entertainment?”

“You did not ask for a report upon my arrival.” He shrugged, as if he was speaking to a wolf who didn’t rule over him and his kingdom. “I am tasked with the safekeeping of my people and protecting the borders of your territory. I have done both.”

Melyssa’s own fiery eyes locked with Hassir’s, and no one missed the shimmer of heat that rippled off her skin as she thought about ways that she would love to incinerate the wolf in front of her with her own flames. “Reports of such events should be offered willingly, not upon command. You should…” She felt a slight breeze across her skin from Cadmos to remind her to not push for a battle right there in the middle of their meeting, so she averted her gaze back down toward the map. “We should break momentarily so that we can all consider this new information. We will reconvene shortly.”

Hassir inclined his head in the most condescending way imaginable but didn’t move from where he stood. Clearly, though Melyssa might have a mate to keep her under control, Hassir had no such restraint. “As you command, Majesty, of course.”

Several of the captains left the room to go to another where food and wine were prepared and waiting for such a break, but Daiva didn’t even look for her brother as she remained against the wall. Against whatever her brother thought about the situation, she decided to approach the Fireborn as they eventually made their way across the room.

“I do not think we have met.” She stepped in front of Hassir and blocked his path.

He looked her up and down once, his red eyes burning into her own as he took in the various details of her face and hair. It was an uncomfortable moment of silence as he studied her, but he let it go on for a long while before he spoke. “You entered with the admiral, Destin. You sail with him?”

“I intend to this time, but usually, no. He is my littermate.” Daiva studied him as well, though she wasn’t sure what she thought she would find. He didn’t seem crazy, but he didn’t seem altogether sane either. It was difficult for her to pin down, even if Destin said they were ruthless and a bit unhinged.

“Daiva.” He dug the name out of his memory, since he briefly became acquainted with her Fireborn brother when he visited. He watched her closely without attempting to walk away or brush past her. “Do you have some personal vendetta against the Genovin, then, or do you simply not trust your brother to do his duty as he’s been commanded?”

Daiva stared for a moment in silence before she looked past him at Cadmos and Melyssa. The king and queen seemed to be in a heated conversation, but she knew the Skyborn was still capable of hearing things she didn’t want him to hear. “You could say that I have a personal vendetta.” She left the reply hanging, since she didn’t care about the Genovin at all, and her vendetta was certainly not against an island of Earthborn wolves.

Hassir turned slowly to see where her glance fell, then turned back around before grinning broadly, in an expression that would have made most wolves look at least marginally friendly. For Hassir, though, it only made him look more vicious. “Don’t we all?” He asked without expecting a reply, then cocked his head to one side toward the room where food had been laid out. “Walk with me, Stoneborn.”

She walked beside him in silence but exited ahead of him, though she wasn’t sure exactly where he was headed. What she didn’t do, however, was look around for her brother, since she didn’t want him to stop whatever conversation she was about to have with the Reef. They needed the Reef. Or at least some help.

“I understand that your brother is a capable leader.” He looked over the wine and passed it without even considering it. He instead grabbed a hunk of bread and dipped it into a sauce, shaking his head at the food the entire time. “If the Genovin have thirty ships and there are a paltry ten in the fleet of the Isles that are anywhere near those of the Genovin in size, do you still think he can win?”

“If anyone can, he can.” She looked over the table as well, but she didn’t pick up any of the food. It was more satisfying to hunt when she felt anxious. “Which is why I am sure she will send him out in the front, hoping for a truly miraculous victory. Or, in the very least, for his ship to sink to the bottom of the ocean in his efforts.” She looked away from the food and at the Fireborn again. “You don’t seem to care in the slightest if he can win or if he cannot.”

“I don’t.” He took another bite of the bread, moving along down the table and picking up various pieces of the offerings as he went, without actually eating very much of it. “Melyssa will never conquer the Genovin, as she believes. It doesn’t matter whether she loses her ships now or loses every fighter loyal to her later on their soil. Which makes the outcome of this fight pointless, unless her ambition is to anger the Genovin enough to attack us here in your home. Besides,” he finally looked back at her, “though I may have respected your parents, I do not know Destin. I have no reason to wish him alive or dead.”

“I can understand that logic.” She looked away from the table, but this time when she looked for her brother, he was nowhere to be seen. “You are a wolf with nothing to lose, it seems. Why are you here if you clearly support no part of this?”

“Why are you?” He shot right back at her, and when she looked back at him, he was only a few inches from her face, holding the remains of a slice of fruit on one hand near his chin as he looked back at her. He was almost exactly her height, and the haughty manner in which he bore himself made her easily forget their similarity in stature. She could feel the heat rippling off the man wherever he walked, feel the power that seemed to resonate from him along with the heat. He was filled with untapped potential, barely restrained in polite company.

Daiva didn’t back away, and she didn’t look away again when he challenged her and shot the question back at her. “Because no one is going to feel the weight of their crimes unless they are made to pay for them.” She knew it was vague, but she also knew that too many people could be listening. While she didn’t care if someone came after her for the anger she felt toward the king and queen, she did not want Destin to have to lose another sibling.

Hassir chewed a bite of the food in his mouth slowly, but his lips turned up in the same slow grin that she’d seen a few moments before. If her own lost brother hadn’t been a Fireborn, it might have been unsettling to be on the receiving end of such a vicious smirk. Instead, it was almost comforting, as if some kind of barrier had been erased between them, and they could speak a little more freely.

“I too, intend to sail south with whatever force Melyssa intends to command after your brother. My sister’s waters are the ones that have been violated, after all. It is only correct that I should defend her rights. We’ll have more opportunity on the way to discuss exactly how steep a price is fitting for such heinous crimes.”

“I am sure we will.” She wanted to smirk herself, but she didn’t want to seem too confident before having a frank and open conversation with the Fireborn. He could be talking about anything, or anyone, really. “Are there any supplies that you need for your ship or your crew?”

“We’re quite well equipped, actually, but if there is anything I require, we’ll be sure to let your brother know before we depart.” He didn’t sound concerned at all that they were most likely going into a fight in which they were terribly outnumbered. They might as well have been talking about the weather or planning a hunting excursion farther inland for the afternoon.

He glanced past her for a moment as someone called for his attention, and took a final bite of the table’s offerings before he started to move away. “This has been a very informative conversation, Stoneborn. I look forward to continuing it, but there is business to be done here first.”

“My name is Daiva.” She reminded him as he walked away, since she didn’t want him to think that she was just any wolf that would be dismissed so easily. He knew her name already, and he would use it. “I am sure you have not forgotten.” Daiva watched him for a moment longer as he moved away, business or not.

He stopped when she snapped at him, and turned to look over his shoulder at her, the grin on his face showed approval of her tone, rather than being insulted. “I forget nothing.” He growled over his shoulder at her, then continued away from her to rejoin his companions without saying anything else.