56. Brett

Memnon was... well, he wasn't a bad fighter.

But he wasn't the fighter he thought he was, either. He was too arrogant, at his center. Too inclined to believe in himself and his upper hand. Given that he'd knowingly forced me into a fight when I was exhausted, that had been the plan. Let him get in a few hits. Fight the defensive fight. Look like I was scared.

Then, when he let his arrogance run away with him and went in for the kill, knock him out and end the fight. I didn't much want to kill him—killing anyone was outside my preferences, always. Even when it was someone I disliked, like Memnon.

Then he'd brought knives into the fight, and it had taken away most of my options. Hard to knock a man out when he was swinging a knife in an attempt to gut you.

Memnon screamed as the Ravens swooped down from the sky, swinging his knife at them, but he didn't hit a single one.

Because Ravens were too smart for the likes of him.

As they tore into his flesh with their claws and beaks, a bigger Raven swooped out of the sky, and between one breath and the next, she was Minerva.

For the first time since Memnon had started speaking, I felt like I could draw a full breath. Minerva was alive. She was fine.

And by the look on her face, she was incredibly angry.

"I challenge your challenge, Memnon of the Eagle Clan. I challenge your honor. I challenge your lies. Brett warned us of your duplicity. His love warned us that you tried to have Brett assassinated for defending himself from your wretched murderous daughter. We were watching for you. We knew you would come."

A piercing cry came from a spot on the roof of my house, and she shot an indulgent smile up to the small falcon perched there. She motioned to him. "You never even saw Peregrine when you moved on us. He warned us a day before you arrived. You burned an empty village, and we watched you do it. Our homes. Thinking we were inside." She laughed, a sound I'd never heard so dark before. "You didn't even notice there was no one inside. I never imagined I'd be so disappointed in someone I managed to deceive, but really, Memnon. You truly thought we all slept through our demises?"

She waved a hand, and as one, the Ravens pulled off him, scattering to spots on the ground nearby, all watching him with angry dark eyes.

"We were waiting for Brett to come home, to speak with him and Killian before the next council meeting. Two weeks. We weren't expecting you to try this nonsense before that." She turned and snatched Memnon's knife out of my hands, tossing it in the air and catching it underhand. "You lied to challenge my best friend for your own actions. Your challenge was met and disproven. Now, you answer to me, for burning my people's homes. For attacking my best friend unwarranted. For all your disgusting attempts to gather more land by lying and cheating and attacking with one hand while pretending to shake in peace with the other."

Memnon shoved himself up, shaking his head. He was bleeding from scratches and gouges all over his body, and couldn't possibly hope to beat Minerva. Hell, he couldn't have beaten her in a fair fight before being wounded. She was Minerva.

But as I'd always thought to myself, I'd rather fight Killian than Minerva. Sure, I would lose to either of them, but Killian was straightforward. He would beat me in a fight. Minerva would destroy me completely first, as she had Memnon. Even if he lived, he couldn't hope to retain his position in his clan or on the council. He'd been proven a traitor and a liar in front of the entire council.

"You're wrong," he hissed. "This monster murdered my innocent daughter, and now he's t-t-t?—"

He broke off, brows drawn down, confusion covering his face.

"The sky is—" This time, I couldn't even try to say yellow. My lips simply wouldn't form the word. "The council is all here, together. You can't lie anymore Memnon."

He apparently did truly believe Clio had been an innocent, which was strange. "And your so-innocent daughter tried to murder me. Her death was justice, not murder."

He screeched, the sound coming out more Eagle than man, and threw himself toward not Minerva, but me.

The problem with that, for him, was that Minerva was between us.

Minerva, who had just challenged him.

And perhaps more than either of those things, there was the fact that Minerva had no compunction about reaching out with the knife she'd taken from me, Memnon's own knife that he'd intended me to die by, and gutting him as he rushed me.

He stopped short, his own blade cutting through him like a serrated knife through a loaf of bread, his guts spilling over and onto the stones beneath his feet. He looked down at the gory mess, then up at Minerva, as though the very concept of his own death was a foreign one.

She planted a hand in the middle of his chest and shoved him off the knife. He landed on his back with a strange hissing whine as the breath left his lungs. He tried to gasp another breath in, but struggled.

Once.

Twice.

Silence reigned in the street for a moment, before Minerva's strident voice broke it.

"The Eagle is dead. His clan betrayed all of Nemeda, so I declare the Eagle broken. Do any deny my claim?" She stared at the Falcon chief, black eyes boring into his soul.

He took a step back, shaking his head.

Nestor of the Duck Clan nodded. "Then Eagle lands are forfeit. They now belong to the Raven, to make up for the wrong that was done them by the Eagle."

"Only half," Minerva corrected. "I cede half of the gained lands to Chief Brett and the Hawk. Without his forewarning, we wouldn't have been as ready for them, and some of my people would have died at the hands of the Eagle. Everyone should have such loyal friends and neighbors." She turned to me, bowing, still naked, but no less regal and proud for it. "I owe you everything, my friend. As always."

I stepped in and wrapped my arms around her, ignoring the dagger and blood. "I'm just glad you're alive. I was so afraid, when he said the Raven had been attacked."

"We were all worried," Balthazar agreed.

Minerva didn't seem to know what to make of that, but she smiled at him, and embraced me freely. "I'm sorry I didn't approach you before," she whispered. "I had someone watching you and I know you were worried, but we knew he was here with the council, and we needed to know what Memnon's game was."

I shook my head. "Don't care. As long as you're fine. And we're fine. I'm sorry about your homes."

She ruffled my hair as she pulled back, laughing. "How very Hawk of you, worrying so much about home and hearth. We're fine." She surveyed her clanspeople, all still in Raven form, and smiled at them. "We are Raven."

As one, they cawed their agreement.