He coughed, wiped sweat from his brow, and then slowly straightened. “I’ve stretched the ability in the last year. I should have at least one jump tomorrow if I need it.”

“Good,” she whispered.

They trekked back through the woods, avoiding the patrols from both sides of the fight, and made it to the tree line. The camp was almost completely silent this late at night.

She glanced at Fordham. “Are you ready for tomorrow?”

He gritted his teeth. “I did everything I could, short of speaking to my father and sister, which would have only resulted in my capture. But I still had to go. I had to try.”

“I know,” she whispered.

“If they will not surrender, then I will be ready. For tomorrow, we go to war.”

57

The River

At dawn, the contingent of Society members formed up in front of Master Trulian. Many of them were still awestruck at the very sight of him. Kerrigan stood in her riding leathers, her sword strapped to her side. Fordham, Audria, and Roake surrounded her with Alura at the head. She was technically still their leader since she had been responsible for them during training. She didn’t seem much pleased by that assessment as she would much rather be on the front lines, then babysitting the new recruits. Not that Kerrigan could blame her. She was a better warrior by far, considering she’d grown up in a war tribe.

Trulian ambled down the line of soldiers, nodding at people and speaking to the other commanders. Then, he stepped back and addressed the whole lot.

“Many of you have never seen real battle before. Many of you are thinking that this will be like the drills you ran. Many of you are walking in, sure that this will be an easy defeat,” Trulian bellowed. “As someone who has fought this battle before, let me tell you, war is not fun or easy. It is hard, grueling work. They have superior numbers and a thousand years of rage.”

The Society members shifted from side to side at his words. It certainly wasn’t the speech Kerrigan had expected from him.

“I say all of this not to scare you or for you to lose your nerve. Quite the opposite. We are the Society. We are dragon bonded. We were chosen for our abilities. Then, we were honed into a razor’s edge. We are the one thing standing between them and the next city they wish to conquer. It could be yours.” He pointed to someone to the right and then the left. “Or yours. It could be any of our homes, our tribes. The people of Lethbridge did nothing to deserve this unprovoked attack, and the consequences of that are clear. We, the Society, will respond in kind.