Seasons of War

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*****

~ TARKYN ~

"We have to find out if he's communicating with anyone outside the Tree City," Elreth growled, then looked at Tarkyn. "The guard… we sent so many out to find you and to circle their territory when we found it… the patrols… it's why we have so few guards here in the City. I want to believe they'll catch it if any of the Chimera escape their perimeter. But how can we know?"

"We can't," Tarkyn said sadly. "But… I think we'll learn pretty quickly if he's communicating with someone outside. How long has he been here in the Tree City?"

"Two days."

Tarkyn rubbed his chin. "It seems like if they didn't follow immediately, and you haven't had any word of followers or patrols following your trail, I'm guessing they aren't going to be quick to come this way unless he calls them. And he can't if he's not close enough. But it's something we need to be aware of.

"Harth says they've been here two or three months already. They didn't come close enough in that time—"

"An entire season already? How did we miss this, Tarkyn?"

"I don't know," he growled. "I can only assume they're far enough out of the territory that they didn't breach our patrols. We don't patrol the entire WildWood every month, El. We haven't had need to."

"Clearly we have! At least to the East—three hundred of them for three months and we didn't even know?" she snarled, cutting a dark look at Tarkyn who was supposed to have managed the patrols and guards.

"We've never had a threat from that direction. We always assumed with the humans gone the only risk to watch for was a rebellion from within the people—"

"I cannot believe that we're here again!" Elreth growled. "Creator, why?!" she snapped, her eyes skyward. "Why do we have to do this again? I thought this was done?" Then she whipped around to Tarkyn again. "How the hell did they get here?"

Tarkyn sighed, so weary he wanted to weep. But he made himself stand at attention and answer his Queen's very valid queries.

"Harth told me that they came through some kind of portal that opens and closes without a fixed location. She claimed that they couldn't open it again now that they're here. That they're stuck. That the whole idea was to escape the humans."

Elreth's jaw went tight. "That's essentially what Sasha told me, as well," she said quietly.

Tarkyn blinked. She'd been testing him? Cold anger burned in his stomach, but he pushed it down.

"Consider, El, that if it's true… these people may be more like allies than we realized."

El didn't look like she believed that.

"I think we'd do well to take this very slowly," Gar piped up from behind him. "We don't want to create war unnecessarily, especially if there are many warriors like this one. Even if we outnumber them, that male's strength and speed is aligned with the best of ours."

Tarkyn nodded. "Assuming that they're still establishing their society, we'd win in a war of weapons for us to keep a safe distance and take them down without engaging face to face." He hated saying it, but he could see the strategy in his mind—taking advantage of their greater numbers and resources. And avoiding as much Anima bloodshed as possible.

But that was the Captain within him speaking.

The male, the mate… that heart grieved the idea of any conflict at all. They were his mate's people!

"But, El, I have to tell you… if Harth isn't deceived about her own people, it does not need to come to war. These aren't invaders. They're refugees—from the very enemies we defeated ourselves."

"If she's not deceived. But we know the humans are incredibly deceptive. Have we forgotten Hannah?"

"Of course not," Gar growled at his sister. "But we also have Rika—she's been loyal from the first."

Elreth cut her brother a look and glanced at Tarkyn as well, but her expression was unreadable. Her mate stepped to her side, taking her elbow and leaning into her ear to murmur something below Tarkyn's hearing.

When he leaned away, they looked at each other and Tarkyn's stomach clenched. The understanding there, the intimacy in that gaze… it was everything he yearned to share with Harth, and in a rush of emotion, he reached out to his mate again.

'Are you well.'

'I'm safe, Tarkyn. Just come back as soon as you can.'

Tarkyn swallowed. The truth was, he would leave in that moment if he could. But as Elreth seemed to relax just a hair, Gar spoke up again.

"Harth is the key. As Tarkyn's mate, either she's going to win this for us, or be the bridge to make certain the people are peaceful. The creator didn't put them together by accident. There has to be a reason that they connected just as we discovered them."

Tarkyn wanted to hug the male, his brother of the pride. But all of Gar's attention was on Elreth, who was considering that. But then… "If she actually is his mate," she muttered. "If the humans haven't figured out how to… counterfeit our bond. That's what Behryn said, right?"

Then she lifted her eyes to Tarkyn and measured him. Tarkyn held her gaze without flinching, but for the first time in his entire service to the crown, he felt the weighing sense of a judge in the eyes of the royals pointed at him.

She was deciding whether or not he could be trusted. Him. Tarkyn. Her most loyal servant—and servant to her father before her. Since he was little more than a cub.

Anger and disgust churned in his chest. He wanted to leap forward and shake her, demand that she remember his service, his dedication, all the ways he'd been trusted and included in her family because of his proven loyalty. Would she really throw all of that away because he found a mate?

But he made himself stay still and just hold her gaze, unwavering.

"I think you and I need to speak alone," she said.

Tarkyn's heart clenched.