Page 60 of War Queen
“Goodbye, Adrian,” Mikael said somberly.
“Salar!”
Jarik mounted his destrier and the army started out.
“Salar!” Adrian bellowed.
They disappeared into the night.
“Mikael!” Adrian’s voice carried back.
Mikael watched them leave. Then he turned to wait for his enemy.
Chapter sixteen
Norahheldoutherhand for the most delicate of flakes to land. It melted the moment it touched her skin. It was the first snow of the season. It had been almost three weeks since Mikael had left, but it felt like months. She stood on a terrace in the southern tower. She came here often to watch the sky and wait impatiently for word. A bird should have come already to tell her he’d made it to the Canyonlands safely. Why hadn’t it come? He would know she’d be waiting.
“Tell me about your daughter,” she said over her shoulder to Titus, who stood with Bhastian by the doors leading inside, to the upper south halls. She needed something to occupy her mind between her worry for Mikael and her thoughts of Alexander—gods,she couldn’t fall back into thinking of Alexander right now.
“She’s three months old now,” Titus said.
She could hear the smile in his voice and turned to face him.
“Sarah is her name.”
Norah smiled. “That’s beautiful.”
His own smile grew. “She is too. She looks like her mother.”
“Thank your gods,” Bhastian said with a smirk.
They all laughed.
“I never thought of having a daughter, of wanting one,” Titus said. “But she has my heart. We’re still praying for a son, though. To carry the legacy.”
“What do you mean?” Bhastian asked.
“My family’s served the crown for generations. I want it to continue.”
Bhastian frowned. “Why can’t it?”
“What?” Titus asked.
“Your daughter. She carries your name, no?”
Titus looked at him in confusion. “She can’t be a soldier, though. She’s a woman.”
Bhastian snorted. “Tell that to Katya. See if she doesn’t make you a woman.”
Norah laughed. If Titus were wise, he most certainly wouldn’t say that to the Kharavian captain.
Just then, Bhastian’s eyes darted to the sky. “Salara.”
She followed his gaze to the horizon. And the bird it carried.
Her heart leapt to her throat. She raced back into the castle and down the stairs. Bhastian and Titus followed close behind. Damn the avian tower—it had to be all the way across the courtyard, above the library. It took an eternity to reach it. She pushed against the large oaken doors of the library, not waiting for them to fully open before sliding inside and bounding up the stairs of the tower to where Rector Tusten would have received the bird.
“Did he make it?” she asked breathlessly as she burst in.
