Inferno (Talon #5)(70)
“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “I’ve been wondering the same thing myself, and there’s no good answer, for either side. I just know the Order has to change. We can’t continue as we’ve always done, not with what’s happened.”
“Yeah.” Tristan sighed. “Guess we can worry about it when it happens. If it happens. Because, let’s face it, we’re probably all going to die when we assault that laboratory. I can’t imagine Talon is going to leave those things unguarded, even if they aren’t expecting us.” A smile crossed his face as he looked toward the distant hills. “It’s going to be huge,” he said in an almost wistful voice. “This battle, it’s more important than anything we’ve ever done. At least we’ll go out in a blaze of glory.”
I didn’t answer, and he gave me a sideways look, a grin tugging at one corner of his mouth. “Don’t tell me you’re nervous, Mr. Perfect Soldier,” he said teasingly. “You’re the reason we’re in this mess in the first place.”
“I’m not nervous.”
“No?”
“No.” I was, but not for the reasons Tristan thought. Constant fighting and the teachings of St. George had effectively smothered any fear of dying in battle. We all accepted that death was a certainty, a fact of life for the soldiers of the Order. We had all been trained to give our lives for the cause, and to have no regrets.
I had regrets. I regretted all the senseless killing I had done. I regretted that I wasn’t able to save more of us, and that most everyone I knew would probably die in battle, as Tristan had said. We were both soldiers. We knew the odds. I wished it hadn’t taken the Order of St. George being nearly wiped out to convince them they needed help, that the only way to stand against Talon was to ally with their greatest enemies.
But mostly, I wished I could’ve had more time with a certain red-haired girl. Not that we hadn’t seen each other lately; Ember had taken it upon herself to train the hatchlings to both fight and use a weapon, and had recruited me to help. I had spent the past two days going over gun safety, how to reload and how to shoot, while Ember took them through sparring as both a human and a dragon. A few hours of training wasn’t ideal, but it was better than none at all. At least they wouldn’t be going into battle completely unprepared.
So Ember and I had spent quite a bit of time together, preparing for and getting our side ready for the assault. We’d had a few quiet moments alone, stolen between mission briefings, updates and day-to-day tasks. But with our base of operations so crowded with dragons, soldiers and rebels, even those moments were few and far between.
I wondered what she was doing now. After dinner I’d gone looking for her, only to find a scowling Nettle barring the door to the room they shared. The black dragon had informed me that Ember had passed out on her bed from exhaustion, and that I could just keep it in my pants until she woke up again. Not wanting to disturb her, or argue with a bristling dragonell, I had retreated.
Tristan was still watching me with a dubious look on his face. “I’m not afraid,” I said, staring out over the fields. “I just… Ah, it’s not important. Forget it.”
“Uh-huh,” Tristan said, and I heard the grin in his voice. “I see.”
“What?” I muttered.
“Oh, nothing,” Tristan drawled. “Just… I remember the Garret from two years ago. All you talked about was guns, bullets and killing things. You were about as fun as a used dishrag, and the only thing that scared you more than inactivity was talking to a girl.” Leaning back on his palms, he regarded me with a lazy smirk. “You really are head over heels, aren’t you? It’s kind of adorable.”
“Shut up before I push you off this roof.”
He snickered, and I looked away to hide my burning face. Silence fell, the two of us quietly perusing the countryside, keeping watch as we’d done countless times before. No more words were passed between us; we already knew exactly what the other would say.
“There you are.”
The familiar voice made my senses flare to life. I glanced over to see Ember sticking her head through the attic window Tristan and I had used. Ducking to avoid the frame, she slid gracefully through the opening and walked over the shingles to where we sat in the middle of the roof. For a second, she stood behind me, gazing at the landscape stretching away below us.
“Wow, you can see everything from up here,” she murmured before glancing down at us, a smile crossing her lips. “So, what were you two discussing so intently?”
“Oh, not much,” Tristan said in a gleefully smug voice that fooled no one. “Certainly nothing that would make the Perfect Soldier want to hurl me off the roof.” Abruptly, he rose, yawning and stretching his long limbs. “Well, I’m tired of sitting in one place,” he announced, which was a bald-faced lie; Tristan’s specialty was remaining motionless for hours on end, waiting for his target to show itself. Something he not only excelled at, but actively enjoyed. “Think I’ll patrol the grounds for a bit, see if the guards are keeping an eye out. You two have fun up here.”
He gave me a very unsubtle grin, nodded to Ember, then turned and walked along the roof until he reached the window. After carefully maneuvering his rifle through the frame, he slipped through the opening and closed the panel behind him, leaving Ember and me alone.