Page 74 of Dragon Eternal (Dragon Kings 4)
Or he could stand beside her with the possibility that he might not be able to save her.
The choice was harder than he wanted to acknowledge.
“I know what you want of me,” she said with a smile. “I want it, too. It’s all I’ve ever thought about. If I leave now, I’ll be a coward. I’m not that.”
He shook his head. “Nay, lass. No one could ever call you that.”
“I’ve never been in battle, though. I don’t know what to do.”
“This willna be the kind of battle you think,” he warned. “This will be another kind altogether. And this kind is infinitely more dangerous.”
She briefly looked at their joined hands. “How?”
“This kind of warfare is the kind most think they’re ready for, but they’re no’. On the battlefield, you can see your enemy coming. You know who they are, and you can prepare. In this arena, everyone is a potential enemy. They’ll close in and surround you without you even realizing it.”
“I’ve never trusted anyone at the citadel.”
He held her gaze. “Doona start now. It doesna matter how long you’ve known them. Their loyalties are to themselves and what will keep them alive.”
“You make it sound as if the Divine will win.”
“I state the facts. Your leader is smart. He dangles the one thing a person wants more than anything in front of them and tells them it can be theirs if they do what he wants.”
She swallowed. “Like my freedom.”
Shaw nodded slowly. “Like your freedom. The soldiers will guard him because that’s their job. The servants are slaves and do it because, if they doona, and the Divine wins, he’ll kill them.”
“Then we don’t go to the citadel.”
He grinned. “That isna an option.”
“That puts us on the Divine’s territory.”
“Lass, we’re already on his territory. I can almost guarantee that if we tried to take a walk in the forest today, they would stop us.”
She lifted her chin. “Then what do we do?”
“We prepare.”
