Blood of an Exile (Dragons of Terra) by Brian Naslund

Author:Brian Naslund [Naslund, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250309648
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2019-08-05T15:00:00+00:00

18

ASHLYN

Almira, Castle Malgrave

Ashlyn sat on a canopied balcony built along the inner wall of Floodhaven. She had spent every morning there for the last two weeks, watching the arrival of the wardens of Almira who’d come for her coronation. Her father had told her once that it was good for a warden to see his liege as he entered the capital. It reminded him who he answered to if he misbehaved.

Ashlyn was doing it for a different reason. She sat with her leather-bound ledger in her lap taking an inventory of the traffic into the capital. Presently, Crellin Nimbu was riding at the head of fifty wardens. He was a relatively poor small lord who ruled Otter Rock and a few other villages in the Blakmar province. None of his wardens wore the same type of armor or rode the same breed of horse, but all of them wore yellow cloaks and masks carved into the faces of otters to show that they were sworn to Nimbu. Most of the masks looked freshly carved.

He’d most likely hired the new wardens in anticipation of the profits he’d receive from the dragon that Bershad killed for him at Otter Rock. If the money fell through, or the wardens found better pay elsewhere, they would drop their new otter masks in the mud and make different ones. Among the small lords, a warden’s loyalty was almost as temporary as a mud totem set next to a river’s edge on a rainy day.

Truth be told, loyalty wasn’t much stronger for the high lords. They just paid better.

Kira would have liked watching the wardens arrive—she always adored the fanfare of Floodhaven court. During feasts, she would flit from table to table, chatting with different lords and laughing at their jokes. Everyone liked her immediately—it was one of her gifts. Ashlyn felt a pang of sadness when she realized that feasts and royal audiences were pretty much the only time she’d seen her younger sister in the last seven years. They’d never spent much time together as children, but once Ashlyn became the Malgrave heir, they’d become strangers. On the surface, Ashlyn appeared to be the loyal and protective older sister—the queen who was willing to launch a fleet and an army to help her family. But Ashlyn didn’t feel like a good sister. If she had to choose between rescuing Kira and stopping Mercer, she knew what her choice would be. That knowledge made her feel ugly and cold, but it didn’t change her mind.

Ashlyn faked a smile and waved at Lord Nimbu as he passed below the portcullis. He saluted her with a violent double tap on his chest. Ashlyn rolled her eyes—she’d never shared Kira’s enthusiasm for elaborate displays.

She ticked off the new wardens in her ledger. One slash at a time, her army was being assembled.

Ashlyn leafed through the pages and worked out a quick sum of the wardens who had arrived so far. Small lords had been pouring into Floodhaven from the Atlas Coast for weeks.

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