CHAPTER 46

COMMANDER RYATT

As soon as we land at Highbell Castle, Lu hops off and rips down her face covering. "Well, I guess the where the fuck did Slade go question is partially answered," she says. "He's definitely been here."

"Yeah," I say, still reeling at what we saw from the air. There was a huge patch of snow right outside Highbell City that was decimated with rot. The mountain was much the same, and the scent of death seems thicker in the direction of the castle.

Not looking forward to seeing what's inside.

I leap off the back of Lu's timberwing as the others land in the courtyard with us. When Lu pets her beast, a pang goes through me. Kitt was a good bird. I hate that her corpse was left in the cold to gather frost. She deserved better.

When all this is over, I'm going to build her a proper pyre, along with all our soldiers back at Cliffhelm. Make them a fucking monument for their sacrifice. Ensure I pay proper respects.

Especially for Maston and Finley, because we owe them everything.

I sent word to Isalee and Warken, making sure all of their remaining family members have more gold than they know what to do with so they're taken care of.

Judd dismounts his timberwing too, fingers working to unhook the pannier between his and Osrik's beast. "Did you see that?" he says with an impressed grin. "The whole land was rotted!"

"How could we not fucking see it?" Osrik grumbles before he reaches up and plucks Rissa off the back of his timberwing and sets her on the ground beside him.

"Maybe he's here," Judd says, as Digby unbuckles from Judd's saddle and lands next to him.

The guard starts helping some of the Elites out of the panniers, but I notice he's pale as a sheet. I inwardly curse myself. I didn't even consider what it might be like for him or Rissa to be back here. Especially in these conditions.

Highbell is ruined. The whole city charred, the forest burnt to a crisp. Every inch of it empty and rotted. It must be difficult to see it like this.

The castle doors open, and out walks Manu with a couple Third guards. They reached Highbell before us, while the Wrath and I tracked down some stragglers trying to hide.

They were easy pickings.

"How many fae did you have to deal with?" I ask, though I already know the answer.

"Surprisingly…none," he says, just as Lu comes up to join us. "We spoke to the survivors inside. Apparently, King Ravinger came through and cleared out the city before he and Queen Malina left."

My attention sharpens. "Queen Malina? The two of them went to Seventh together?"

Manu nods. "That's what the people inside said."

"How long ago?"

"I'm not sure how many days exactly."

Lu's gaze flicks to the castle behind him. "How many survivors are here?"

Guilt spreads over his face. "About a hundred."

My guts twist with the implications. Highbell used to be home to hundreds of thousands. Just like Ranhold, the fae have devastated this capital. Wiped out the whole city, taking out entire family lines.

Generations of Oreans, gone.

But we are fighting back. With the battles at Breakwater, Cliffhelm, and Ranhold, Orea has managed to come together and beat them back.

And here in Highbell, where we expected great difficulty in encountering more of their army, where we'd expected a firm fae foothold, we've arrived to see they've already been knocked away by my brother.

There's no time to waste. We have to keep pressing in, keep fighting back. Because against all odds, Orea is actually fucking winning.

The rotten trail of breadcrumbs Slade has left is a balm to my scorching worry. He was here. I don't know what the hell happened, but he was here, so I'm going to pray that he made it across the bridge. That he's found our mother and Auren and he's bringing them both back.

Hope has started to billow.

"Did your sister and Thold decide when we leave for Seventh?" I ask Manu.

"Early tomorrow morning. I'll send someone out to get your timberwings fed and watered in the perch. And despite the lingering stench, the castle has already been cleared and cleaned. There are plenty of rooms for everyone to rest until we leave."

I nod and look back at Lu. "I'm going to go speak with some of the survivors."

I'll feel more reassured once I get confirmation with my own ears that Slade was here. That he did actually head for Seventh. I know he's the most powerful person in Orea, and I've been trying to tell myself that he's fine, but it's a fucking relief to have proof that he's not dead in a snowy ditch somewhere. Something had to have happened for him not to have shown up to Ranhold, but even so, he made sure to help rid us of the threat here.

"I'll meet you all in the dining room at dawn," I tell Lu. "Get some rest."

"You too, Commander," she says, and then I turn and follow Manu into the golden castle.

"Alright, I'll say it," Judd drawls from where he's plopped on a dining room chair with a plateful of food in front of him. His yellow hair is still wet from washing. Everyone, him included, looks so much better now that we've all had a full night of sleep without danger banging down our doors. "Highbell Castle actually looks pretty fucking amazing."

Lu snorts from where she sits next to him, mouth nearly bursting with a huge bite of food.

"Look at it," he goes on, motioning a hand around the room. "It's all so… gold ."

"What did you think it was gonna look like, asshole?" Osrik says as he keeps piling food onto Rissa's plate. Her blonde brows go higher and higher with every spoonful he shovels on until she elbows him and makes him stop.

Judd looks over at Digby where he sits at the middle of the table. The guard keeps shifting in his chair, like he's uncomfortable to be in the formal dining room. Not that there's much formal about it anymore. Chairs are mismatched, flatware missing, curtains ripped off the walls. It looks like the looters managed to make off with quite the stash.

"Dig, how long did it take Auren to gild this whole place?"

His brown eyes flick around the room, and Rissa watches him, thoughts seeming to churn through her eyes. "A long time, I suspect," he says quietly. "I should have recognized it was her doing it. Midas was always secretive, rooms always closed up when he worked on them."

"The cage was probably a tip-off," Judd replies, gnawing off a hunk of bread.

"It should've been," Digby replies grimly.

"It's disgusting, what he did to her," Rissa says, her mouth pinched. "How she was treated…"

I don't think she's only talking about Midas.

"It's alright. Gildy got the last laugh. Midas is in a nice little golden tomb for all of eternity," Judd says jovially. "I'm going to make it my holiday trip to go see him every year and laugh my ass off." Rissa smirks at his words as he gets up from the table. "Alright, I'm going to go make sure our Elites are ready to go," he says before swiping the goblet in front of Lu and draining it down.

"Hey!" she says.

He gives her a salute. "Too slow, Captain. Which is why I always win."

"You do not ."

Judd hums. "Say that to the wine barrels. And the fight circle matches. My numbers are far superior."

"You padded those numbers," she argues, getting louder as he heads for the door. "And I'm the one with the longest running barrel time, and you fucking know it!"

His laughter echoes in the room as he walks out.

Lu groans and frowns into her empty cup. "He's going to be insufferable."

"When is he not?" Osrik says with a cocked brow.

Chuckling, I push away my plate of food and then glance around at everyone. "Listen," I say, sobering. "We've had strategy, timing, and fucking luck on our side so far. But we don't know what we're walking into when we get to Seventh."

They chew on my words as much as their food.

"But even though our numbers are down, we're in the best possible position we could be in. We're so fucking close I can taste it. If we can pull this off, then the rest of Orea won't become what Highbell and Ranhold have."

Osrik shrugs. "Then we fucking pull it off."

Everyone nods and I lift my cup in a toast. "We fucking pull it off."

Because if we don't, all of this was for nothing.

When we gather at Highbell's barracks, the yard is already full of growling, antsy timberwings. King Thold is with his Elites, Queen Kaila with hers. The Wrath with ours. A group of Second soldiers decided to stay with us too, with their fleet of beasts.

Everyone is dressed in full armor, save for Manu, who's staying behind here in Highbell with the rest of the survivors.

I've counted heads multiple times. We're nearly a hundred strong, and we're lucky we've managed to scrape together this much after all our combined losses. But a hundred isn't a lot. Unless Slade managed to clear Seventh too, we could be vastly outnumbered. Especially considering we're traveling to the source of the invasion.

I don't know if it'll be enough. But we have to make it be enough.

Like Osrik said, we fucking pull it off.

And we do it with what we've got.