Stormcaster (Shattered Realms #3)(114)

Tell her people don’t “have” dragons.

“Let me handle this.”

Gray was looking from one of them to the other as if she suspected that she was being left out of something.

“I am more of a scout,” Jenna said.

“Who are you scouting for?”

It was striking how quickly Gray turned the conversation, as if she were used to questioning prisoners, issuing orders and having them obeyed.

“I ask the questions, you answer,” Jenna said. “Isn’t that how it works in an interrogation?”

“Is that what this is?”

“Where are you from?” Jenna said. “You’re not from around here.”

Neither are you.

Jenna lost patience. “Cas.”

Cas straightened his neck, bringing his head to within a few feet of Gray, so that his fuming breath swirled around her. The captain skipped back a step as Jenna caught the scent of scorched wool.

“It seems . . . very well trained,” Gray said, then leapt back again to avoid a gout of flame.

Trained? Cas’s scales rattled as he bristled.

“We’re partners,” Jenna said. “Cas is sensitive about what you call the ‘chain of command.’ Now, where are you from?”

“I’m . . . from the wetlands,” Gray said. “That’s what they call it here. From the mountains in the north.”

“The north?” Jenna’s heart accelerated. The healer was a wolf from the north, too. “What are you doing here?”

“I was captured in the fall of Chalk Cliffs,” Gray said. “The empress brought me back here and drafted me into her army.”

“You don’t shine like the others.”

Gray licked her lips. “No. I don’t shine like the others.”

“How many of you are there?”

“Prisoners, officers, or troops?” She spoke with precision, like a soldier.

“How many troops?”

“Tens of thousands,” Gray said. “More every day.”

“What does the empress intend to do with these troops?” Jenna said. “What is the plan?”

Gray cocked her head, clearly puzzled that the empress’s scout was asking a soldier about the empress’s plans. “The empress hasn’t shared that with me,” she said.

“If you had to take a guess,” Jenna persisted. “What do you think she is planning?”

“If I had to take a guess,” Gray said, “I would say that she plans to conquer the Seven Realms.”

“When?”

“Soon.”

Jenna pulled a scroll from her carry bag. “Sit,” she said, gesturing toward a flat spot on the ledge.

Warily, Gray sat cross-legged. Jenna sat across from her and unrolled the scroll on the stone between them, anchoring the corners with pebbles.

Cas extended his body into a semicircle around them and promptly went to sleep. He still tired easily when forced to fly for long periods or when carrying extra weight.

Gray kept peering nervously at the dragon coiled around them. Jenna touched her shoulder and pointed to the map she’d drawn.

It was an aerial view of Celesgarde. It was all there—the wharves, the buildings, the marble stump that was the beginnings of a palace. The rows of tents represented with little triangles.

Gray stared down at it, then raised her eyes to Jenna. “This is fine work,” she said, as if surprised. “Did you draw this?”

“Yes.” Truth be told, Jenna was rather proud of it.

No. Don’t be taking a liking to this girl. She is the enemy.

“I need to know where the empress stays,” Jenna said, running her fingers over the harbor front. “Is she in the marble palace yet, or is she sleeping somewhere else?”

Gray straightened, understanding dawning on her face. “You don’t work for the empress at all, do you? Who do you work for?”

“I work for myself,” Jenna said.

“You’re planning to attack the capital,” Gray said, unable to hide her excitement.

“I am planning to attack the empress,” Jenna said. “If she is in the capital, then I will attack the capital.”

“Why?” Gray said, leaning forward, her hands on her knees. “Why are you doing this on your own?”

“I’m not on my own,” Jenna said. “I’m with Cas. And I have my reasons. Now,” she said, meaning to put an end to the counterinterrogation, “tell me, Captain: Why do I see a wolf in you?”

It was a tactic that had worked well on the healer, and it did not disappoint now. Gray folded a bit, as if she’d taken a hard punch to the gut, and her face turned the color of ashes. She took two hard breaths, clenched her fists, then looked up at Jenna.

Once again, the wolf was cornered.

“What—what do you mean?” Gray said.

“I fly with dragons,” Jenna said. “You run with the wolves.”

Gray was doing her best to look baffled, but it came off as slightly nauseous.

“You see, I’ve met a wolf like you before. We met in Ardenscourt, but he was from the north.”

Gray’s head came up. “What do you mean, someone like me?” she said. “Do you mean that he looked like me?”