No archangel wanted to destroy an asset when he or she could win it to their side.
“Where is Favashi?” he asked the scout who’d just landed, because if Favashi was close, his plans would have to change accordingly.
“In Astaad’s territory.” The scout’s chest heaved. “She accepted an invitation to attend a festival there.”
Astaad’s territory was on the other side of the world. Even if she left at the first sign of trouble, it would take her considerable time to return. “Prepare your squadrons to storm the palace,” he ordered his commanders. “We’ll take Rohan by surprise.”
Decision made, he sent a message through to Lijuan. As he did so, he thought of the scholar with her translucent brown gold eyes and wings delicately patterned like a bird’s, and of her question about how he could follow Lijuan after all she’d done. He hadn’t punished Andromeda for the impudence of the question both because she was a scholar and as such, curiosity was expected, and because he’d found her intriguing as a woman.
Xi had always preferred intelligence over commonplace beauty. Had Andromeda not escaped, he’d intended to ask Lijuan leave to court her. He wouldn’t have taken the scholar without the scholar’s full consent—that was not the way of a true warrior . . . and it was a rule Lijuan had taught him when he first came into her service.
He’d been a scrawny boy who’d disappointed his warrior parents, Lijuan’s the only court that would accept him. He’d expected to be placed in a minor position and forgotten, but Lijuan had taken an interest in him from the start because of the patriotic red and gray color of his wings, treating him almost as a son. She’d put him into training with the best trainers, into studies with gifted tutors, into etiquette lessons with high-ranking courtiers.
It had taken a hundred years, but by the end of it, he was a man and one respected by others. His loyalty to his lady was also etched in stone. She had changed over the past decade from the wise—if righteously arrogant—archangel he’d first known, into something other, but she continued to treat him with respect and she continued to share her new power.
Sometimes, when he was far from her, he questioned her newly warlike ways in the privacy of his own mind, but he had faith in her. Lijuan had plans for the world and she was a goddess. He couldn’t hope to understand her vision. He could only follow, a loyal foot soldier.
Today, he spoke to his lady and said, “We prepare to take the palace.” Lijuan was the only one who could actually eliminate the threat posed by Alexander, for only one archangel could kill another. “I can’t yet confirm whether he lies within.” Lijuan eschewed modern conveniences like jets, and was currently too weak to constantly travel long distances on her own, so Xi had suggested she wait until he’d confirmed Alexander’s presence.
She’d accepted his advice when it came to Kilimanjaro, but today, her voice was steel. “I will come. You are right, Alexander would not leave his beloved homeland—I shouldn’t have doubted your instincts and sent you to Titus’s territory.”
Her voice faded into eerie screams for an instant, returned pulsing with power. “If Alexander is not below the palace, he will be nearby.” No screams now, only a voice so pure, it almost hurt. “Find him, Xi. I will do the rest.”
32
Naasir climbed a tree tall enough that it allowed him to spy on the village that lay between them and the caves, but there was nothing to see. It was long past the midnight hour, the lights within the homes extinguished and the waters of the lake a whispering mirror under the moonlight. If the villagers had seen the swarm, they probably knew well enough to keep their shutters closed and stay within.
Climbing down rather than jumping, so as not to cause any unnecessary noise or vibrations, he took Andromeda’s hand in his.
“If Alexander is Sleeping here,” she whispered as they began to make their way past the village by skirting the far edge of it, “this can’t be the first odd incident the villagers have witnessed.”
Naasir had his senses focused on possible threats, but he saw where she was going. “You think they are loyal to Alexander and keep his secrets?”
“Like Caliane and the people of Amanat. She took them into Sleep with her, but Alexander could’ve simply brought this tribe with him, trusted them to watch over his Sleeping place.”
“That would explain the number of strong vampires I sensed in amongst the mortals.” Vampires that old and powerful normally chose to work for the archangels, either managing small territories, or working directly in their strongholds.
It was where they found the most challenge.
One or two might decide on a simpler way of life, but Naasir had spotted far more than that when he and Andromeda first came upon the village. He’d figured this was a home village for a group of Favashi’s soldiers who were on leave, but Andromeda’s suggestion made more sense. “Mortals alone wouldn’t have the physical strength to hold back Alexander’s immortal enemies.”
A dog barked at them from the backyard of a small, neat house that blended into its surroundings. When Naasir growled at it, the animal whimpered and went silent.
He felt bad. He usually tried not to scare smaller predators. He’d bring the dog some meat after it was all over; it was only doing what it was trained to do, looking out for intruders.
Turning to Andromeda, he lifted a finger to his lips.
They made it past the village in silence and without problems.
“Even if they are Alexander’s guards,” Naasir said once there was no chance their voices would give them away, “they aren’t locked in time.” He’d seen electronics and caught sight of clothing woven in modern ways.