Unhewn Throne 01 - The Emperor's Blades(126)

“Finally, assigned to a position as the Wing’s sniper … Annick Frencha.”

Valyn’s stomach lurched. Annick, who had put an arrow through his chest, who had met Amie on the day that she died, who was concealing a secret dark enough that she might have been killing people for the last two months to keep it safe, who might have brought the Liran cord into the Hole and murdered Ha Lin. The sniper’s eyes were blank as the sky when she joined the group, her face still. There was no telling if she was happy or sad, no telling if she even had the capacity for those emotions.

Valyn extended the hand again. “Welcome,” he said, the word like sawdust on his tongue.

Annick considered Valyn’s hand, shrugged, then took her place at the end of the line.

“On behalf of Eyrie command,” Jakob Rallen said, intoning the phrase with obvious satisfaction, “may Hull guard your approaches and cover your flights.”

The words sounded like a sentence rather than a blessing.

*

“You’ve got an hour,” Fane said, tossing a map onto the bench where Valyn sat, still slightly stunned, with his newly formed Wing.

“An hour for what?” Gwenna demanded, raking her red hair back over her shoulder.

“Figure it out,” Fane said as he walked away.

“All right, leader,” Laith said, gesturing toward the map with a grin. “Lead.”

Valyn scooped up the map. He’d hoped there’d be a chance to talk things over with the group, to establish some basic protocols, but evidently the Eyrie belief in preparing for the unexpected didn’t end once you had your own Wing. In about a month, they would all pass probation and be sent out on missions of their own. Until then … he unfolded the paper, spinning it until the north end faced north.

“It’s an island,” he said, taking in the contours, searching along the bottom of the page for a scale marking out distances.

“He’s going to be a good commander,” Gwenna said, rolling her eyes. “He knows an island when he sees one.”

“Save it,” Valyn grumbled. “It’s Sharn—about twelve leagues south of here.”

“Means we’ll want Suant’ra,” Laith said, turning from the group, heading toward the massive rookery where the birds were tethered.

“Wait,” Valyn shouted. He wasn’t even sure what they were supposed to do yet, but the flier just waved.

“I’ll be back by the time you’ve got it sorted.”

“’Shael can have him,” Valyn said as he turned his attention back to the map. Gwenna was hovering over one shoulder, Talal over the other, and Annick seemed to be reading the entire thing upside down from her seat on the bench. “Everyone, just take a step back,” he snapped. “I’ll let you know when I’ve looked it over.”

“Oh yes, Your Radiance,” Gwenna said, recoiling with a look of mock horror on her face. “We didn’t mean to crowd you, Your Excellency.” She sketched a dubious curtsy. “I’m sorry, but I can’t remember your proper honorific. Do you prefer Sir, Commander, or My Most Noble and Honored Lord?”

Valyn tried to keep his temper. Maybe Gwenna was testing him, and maybe she just didn’t like the idea of taking orders from a Wing leader her own age. Either way, getting in a fight with his demolitions master on the day of Wing Selection wasn’t likely to improve their chances of success at whatever ’Shael-spawned task Fane had thrown their way.

“Commander will do fine,” he growled. “Do you have your kit? We don’t know what we might need out there. Maybe some moles, or some starshatters.”

Gwenna’s green eyes blazed. “Of course. Maybe you’d forgotten that the new Wings always have a test right after selection.”

Valyn silently cursed himself. Between trying to ferret out Lin’s killer and recovering from his exhaustion in the Hole, he had forgotten. Not that he could afford to let the others know that.

“Good,” he said gruffly. “Annick, you’ve got your bow.”

“We’re wasting time,” the sniper said curtly. She gestured to the map.

Valyn bit off a sharp response and returned his attention to the inked lines.

“It’s a grab-and-go,” he said. “There’s a target in the middle of the island—doesn’t say what. We go in, we get it, we get out. Basic.”

“What about the other Wings?” Talal asked. The leach wasn’t paying as much attention to the paper in front of them as he was to the surrounding knots of soldiers. They had maps, too, Valyn realized. Sami Yurl was hunched over, gesturing to his people, then back to the paper. They had the same map, and they were already formulating a plan.