“Gal and Brix,” she corrected me. “And all you need to know is that both of them will stiff you on the tally when you’re out drinking if you’re not careful.”

“That is untrue,” Brix, at the edge, called irritably.

“It is very true,” Gal, at Serena’s ankle, stated good-naturedly. “Never start a tally with a gnome. You’ll be paying.”

Brix twisted to glare at Gal. “You need to stop telling these Nadirii all our secrets, Galbdor.”

“I told you when he had a drink with you, or twelve, he would stiff you,” Gal said to Serena.

“I never buy drinks. I have breasts. I press them together, and some fool male slobbers over himself in order to throw coin at my tankard,” Serena returned.

“This is the only time in my life I wished I had breasts,” Brix muttered.

I couldn’t believe it, I let out a little laugh.

I then took a chance and bumped my shoulder to my sister’s.

She did not bump back.

But she also did not draw away.

Prince Cassius

Night Heights Mountain Range

AIREN

Cassius moved to where Mac was standing on the ridge, regarding the slope below.

He stopped beside his captain.

“How many of them are there?” he asked Mac.

“Ten thousand, give or take a few hundred…or thousand,” Mac replied drily.

Cass felt his heart squeeze and his mouth get tight.

He also felt Mac’s regard.

“We have cliffs to the north. Cliffs to the east. Cliffs to the west. The Nadirii selected an excellent place in which their queen could die, it is not easy to get to. But now, the enemy blocks the only way out,” Mac told him.

Cassius said nothing.

“One way or another, we’re going to have to fight our way out of here, brother,” Mac shared. “And the numbers aren’t in our favor.”

Cassius stared down the dark, quiet slope.

No rustling.

No fires.

Well hidden.

Ready for an ambush.

“We attack in the morning,” he decreed.

Mac shifted and Cass knew he was turning fully to his prince.

“Have you lost your mind?” he asked.

He gave his eyes to his friend. “No.”

“We’re outnumbered, likely ten to one.”

“Yes.”

“Frey is with us. Do you intend to use the dragons?”

“No.”

“We need more time to create a strategy.”

“I already have a strategy.”

“Cass—”

“You can come out,” Cass called.

Mac jerked around, his hand going to the hilt of his sword.

“No need for that, soldier. Good gods, you Airenzian blokes are sword-happy,” the man forming from the shadows said to Mac.

He took shape as much as he could lit only by moonlight.

“Hello, Silvanus,” Cassius greeted.

The Zee doffed his hat, bent low at the waist in a mock tribute, then straightened, returning his hat to its jaunty angle.

“Howzit, Your Grace,” the Zee replied.

And with that, Silvanus’s mouth split into a smile that was blinding, even in the moonlight.