Dreams of Fury: Descendants of the Fall Book IV by Hodges, Aaron (most important books to read .txt) 📗

present. Amina had not even allowed Zayaan into the meeting, claiming she would not recognise the authority of traitors, though the old advisor had run the city in her absence. It was a miracle she’d consented to the presence of Erika and Cara. And now they were late…

Lukys sighed, sharing another glance with Sophia. How far he had come since his arrival so long ago in Fogmore, when he’d first faced the Tangata. Romaine had saved his life that day, a whirlwind of power that had shielded him from death. How he missed the man, his strength, his conviction that what he did was right. Even now, he wondered what the man would think, how he would judge Lukys’s decision to parley with the Flumeeren Queen, despite everything the woman had done, the atrocities she had committed….

He would understand, Lukys, Sophia interrupted his thoughts.

Would he? Lukys murmured, staring at Amina now. She betrayed his people, destroyed his nation. She was probably behind the death of his family. No, I think Romaine would have killed her the second she set foot in this city. Who is to say we’re right, to keep others from their vengeance?

It is as Nguyen warned us, she replied. A ruler must set aside personal convictions, their own grievances, for the greater good of their people.

The words whispered into Lukys’s mind, granting him strength, quieting the voice deep down and finally he nodded. We will find a way to save your people, Sophia, he replied, recalling their conversation in Perfugia. I promise.

I know, Lukys, Sophia said in response. I believe in you, in us.

“Well!” Amina’s voice broke suddenly over their conversation. “Had I known this alliance would involve so much standing around, I might have chosen war after all, and spared myself the boredom.”

Lukys ground his teeth. “We are waiting—”

“I’m done waiting,” Amina snapped. She strode the length of the chamber, passing Nguyen and Lukys and Sophia, crossing directly to her throne. There she paused, glancing pointedly at the others, before lowering herself onto the velvet cushion. Crossing one leg over the other, she entwined her fingers and arced an eyebrow in Lukys’s direction.

“It seems the good Archivist will not be joining us after all,” she continued. Lukys narrowed his eyes, suddenly suspicious that the woman had done something to Erika, but she continued before he could question. “I suggest we begin, unless you’d prefer we wait until your Tangatan friends breakdown the gates.” The queen looked pointedly at Sophia as she spoke, and they could both sense the emerald of her hatred.

A soft growl, barely audible, whispered from Sophia’s throat, but to her credit, she did not rise to Amina’s bait. Instead, she took a moment to gather herself, then nodded her consent.

“I agree,” she said firmly, looking to Nguyen and Lukys. “We can apprise the Calafe queen later of what we discussed—for now, there are urgent matters that must be addressed, before Maya seeks a final confrontation.”

After a moment’s pause, Nguyen inclined his head in concession, though Lukys read his concern in the yellowish tinge of his aura. Letting out a breath, he clasped his hands behind his back and positioned himself in the centre of their circle, attempting to draw the attention away from Amina.

“Very well,” he said, his words echoing from the high ceiling.

Beyond the throne, a great map of the valley around Mildeth had been laid out by the citadel staff, complete with tiny statuettes representing the warring factions. He moved to the edge of the map. Nguyen and Sophia joined him, and with an accentuated sigh, Amina abandoned the throne to stand with them.

The map had been updated in the night to show Amina’s troops in the citadel, along with the arrival of the Tangatan army. Maya’s forces seemed small beside their own, representing as they did numbers rather than raw strength, but those numbers were deceiving. The Old One had already surrounded the city by land, ensuring there would be no escape into the foothills. Lukys might have thanked the gods she had no naval ability, but…

…the gods themselves, the Anahera, would harry any attempt to flee by sea. Such was the power of Cara’s people, it wasn’t beyond reason to believe a single Anahera might sink a dozen ships….

Lukys shook himself. It would not come to that. They would make their stand here.

“With your soldiers, Amina, we should have the numbers to hold the walls for a time,” he said softly. “Only…” he trailed off, glancing at the queen.

“Holding our own is not enough with this creature,” Amina finished for him.

She crossed her arms, tapping one finger against her elbow as she stared at the red figurine placed in the centre of the valley, where their scouts suggested the Old One had stationed herself. Lukys frowned at the queen’s words, wondering what she knew.

“My mother…revealed certain truths to my father, before he put the demon down,” Amina elaborated with a smile. Lukys’s stomach twisted, and he decided he was pleased that Cara had not come. The ‘demon’ Amina spoke of had been Cara’s mother too. Amina’s father was the reason she had never returned to her people, to her first daughter…

Gritting his teeth, Lukys did his best to ignore the comment and nodded. “We are aware,” he said, still staring at the red statuette.

Surrounded by the dense ranks of Tangata, Maya’s position was unassailable. But he still carried Isabella’s words in his mind, that perhaps there was a way to manipulate the creature, to separate Maya from her followers—before the worst came to pass.

“According to Erika, the Old One may already have been with child a month ago, when she invaded the Anaheran city. The…gestation of her kind could be as short as three months, before the Fall.”

Amina lifted an eyebrow at that. “That is more than my mother knew,” she remarked. “My father made sure of it. How could you know such details, Sovereigns?”

Lukys pursed his lips at the scorn she placed in the word ‘Sovereigns’, but he