She meant to snarl at him, but the intensity of his eyes had taken all the fight out of her. Suddenly, their closeness seemed the perfect thing to distract her from her anger.
No.
She had to physically shake her head to get the thought out of her mind. He did not need any encouragement for acting like this. Folding her arms over her chest, she stepped away to lean on the nearest tree. “How long are we going to cower in fear away from the fight?”
Tilting his ear toward the sounds above them, he shrugged. “Not very long, hopefully. I don’t think there were many attackers. They probably weren’t attempting a full battle. They probably just wanted to do as much damage to us as possible before we get to the Ember Gate.”
She hadn’t counted many Kessoku either, so his guess was probably right. But she wasn’t about to tell him that. To distract herself, she started counting the loose stones and fallen leaves around them.
She got up to two hundred and eighteen before the noises quieted. He held her back by the arm for another hundred counts before he let her free.
Every step up the short hill was spent glaring at him. She didn’t ease the hardened expression their entire way back to camp, but he seemed decidedly unbothered by it.
Still, when he had shaped a little ridge in the hill to make it easier for her to climb, she hadn’t complained. And she didn’t even pull away when he clasped her hand.
The softness of his thumb brushing across the back of her hand brought all sorts of sensations. Pleasant ones. They all vanished the moment their camp came into view. Dozens of the tents had been reduced to ash. Cots had scorch marks stretching through any wood that remained. A suede bag with a single sock peeking through the opening had completely blackened.
Without thinking, Talise charged forward to find her own tent. The canvas had been burned in places, but the interior appeared untouched by flames. One quick look would tell her if Eben’s journals and the amulet still remained.
Before she could check, someone nearly tackled her from the right. Arms wrapped tight around her, keeping her arms pinned to her sides. Black hair obscured her vision, but it didn’t stop her from recognizing her best friend’s sniffles.
“We thought you were dead.” A sob snuck its way between each of Wendy’s words. After another bone-crushing squeeze, she turned to jab a finger into Claye’s chest. “How dare you take her away where we couldn’t see her. You went against the protection procedures we already had in place.” Wendy’s bottom lip trembled and then she proceeded to wrap him in a tight hug. “Oh, never mind. You kept her safe. How can I complain about that?”
With one arm still clutching Claye, Wendy reached out her other arm and pulled Talise in toward them both. Other footsteps approached while more sobs sputtered out of Wendy’s mouth.
Eventually Wendy released them after an extra tight squeeze. Talise went straight for the trunk and found the journals, the amulet, and even Aaden’s dagger safe.
Now she could finally face the truth she had been avoiding. Just outside her tent, Rio hovered, a grim expression filling his eyes. She took a deep breath to brace herself. “How bad was it? How many are injured?”
“The injuries are manageable. And there were no deaths.” This came from Wendy, whose lip still trembled despite her reassuring words.
Talise let her eyes wander back to Rio. His jaw flexed, as if unwillingly to speak. Intense staring would get him talking eventually. It only took another second, but his lips finally parted. The skin around his eyes seemed to droop as the words came out. “They burned most of our supplies. Clothing, arrows, blankets.” His voice broke over the final word. “Food.”
With her chest tightening in relentless bursts, Talise managed a nod. She didn’t bother trying to speak because that would only let loose a rush of tears.
Rio dropped his head, but he glanced at Wendy first.
She dug a toe into the ground before looking up again. When she did, she wrapped a hand over her opposite arm. Her face showed no trace of a smile when she spoke again, which made her hardly look like herself at all. “We received a message from the emperor. He agreed to send an army to the Ember Gate as requested. He wants to end this war too and even sent us a battle strategy to follow.”
The news could have melted through most of the terror gripping Talise, except nothing about her friend’s body language indicated good news.
Wendy gulped. “But he said we have to return to the palace immediately after we seize the base. All of us. He won’t let you or any of your soldiers stay in the Gate.”
Claye let out a huff. “Well, that’s obviously not going to happen. If we return to the palace, the emperor will just imprison Talise in her rooms again.”
Ignoring him, Talise turned to Rio. “Do we have enough supplies to last until the emperor’s army arrives for the battle?”
Rio nodded. “The cold nights will be hard, but fires will help. We have just enough food to make it until then.”
“No, you can’t.” Claye dropped a hand on her shoulder, looking deep into her eyes.
She stared back without a single blink. “Why did I come to the Gate in the first place? To gain loyalty, to help the people, and to help rescue the prisoners. If this battle is successful, all of those things will be done.”
Wendy tilted her head to the side, twirling hair around one finger. “But Claye’s right. The emperor will most likely imprison you the moment we return.”
Those words were true, but with their supplies lower than ever they didn’t have much choice. Her soldiers needed food. Maybe after they successfully seized Kessoku’s base, the emperor might be open to more negotiating. For now, she’d have to do what he asked.
Letting her mind drift back to Eben’s garden, Talise nodded. Her conviction grew with each passing second. “Sometimes I have to take care of myself, but sometimes I have to take care of my people.” Her heart dropped but the truth remained clear. “We can’t survive the winter without the emperor’s help. If he won’t give it, then we have to return to the palace. I’ll write another message agreeing to his terms and then we can focus on rescuing the prisoners.”
FIVE
AFTER LOSING SUPPLIES AND BEING FORCED TO agree to the emperor’s terms of returning to the palace, anger took hold of Talise. Everyone agreed that they needed to pack up and get moving, in case Kessoku sent another set of soldiers to attack.
They spent the next two days traveling, and Talise had already decided where they would go next. But she hadn’t told the others yet. They would fight it.
At the end of the second day, they made camp near the edge of the forest that sheltered Kessoku’s main base. Since they were still in the mountains, they had enough coverage to stay hidden. Hiding was much easier now that most of their tents had been destroyed.
With even fewer blankets than before, the tents mostly held supplies now. Soldiers slept out in the open next to glowing embers that kept them warm through the night.
When Talise and her friends sat around a fire that evening, she knew the time had finally come to explain her plan. Fyra passed around bowls of watery soup while the others kept glancing at Talise in between spoonfuls.
Talise took a little breath, preparing herself. “I think we need to go into the city by the Ember Gate and do what we can to help the people.”