Stormcaster (Shattered Realms #3)(113)

Wolf, Cas said, before Jenna could put it into words.

Yes. This girl had the same wolfish aspect as the healer Adam Wolf. While the healer had smoldered, this wolf burned hot. She was wilder, more savage.

Cornered wolf. And then, nudging her back into the shelter of his wing, added, Wolf pack.

Out of the darkness they came, silent as smoke, with their thick gray fur and brilliant, intelligent eyes. Their hot breath froze on their muzzles and ruffs and their massive paws barely dented the earth.

With her attention focused on Cas, the warrior did not seem to notice the wolves all around her.

The wolves gazed at Jenna and Cas for what seemed to be a long time, then turned as one and melted into the darkness. Jenna, awestruck, stared after them.

By now, the warrior was growing restless. “This is your meeting,” she snapped, in Common. “What do you want?”

“Who are you?” Jenna said, the words awkward in her mouth after the ease of communicating mind-to-mind with Cas.

“I’m Alyssa Gray,” the soldier said. “Captain.” She spoke in a clipped fashion, like a prisoner of war identifying herself.

“Who was that?” Jenna pointed toward the canyon with her chin.

“Quill Bosley. Lieutenant.”

“You both fight for the empress?”

With a flicker of hesitation, Gray said, “Yes. I am—was—his commanding officer.”

“Why was he attacking you, then?”

“Because he does not understand the chain of command,” the wolf girl said.

“What?”

Gray rolled her eyes. “Because he has the talent of a turd floating in an ego the size of the ocean.”

Jenna laughed, which took her by surprise. Stop it, she thought. This is the enemy. You must interrogate her, and then you must kill her, so that she doesn’t give you away.

Meanwhile, Gray had been studying Jenna with equal interest. “So—you were riding the . . . uh . . . dragon?” she said, as if choosing her words carefully.

Tell her my name is Cas.

“She doesn’t need to know that,” Jenna said, in their silent speech.

“Yes,” she said aloud.

“I didn’t know that the empress had . . . a flying army,” Gray said, clearly fishing for information. “How many dragons do you have?”

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.