Chapter 38: BEFORE HE LEAVES

DIANA’S POV

Blackharrow prepared for battle by counting beds.

By breakfast, the infirmary had requested additional family rooms, the kitchens had claimed emergency storage, and military clerks were counting heated chambers near the treatment wing.

The fighting had yet to begin, and Blackharrow was already making room for the wounded.

Diana sat behind her desk and read the requests.

Once, Diana would have found such preparation cold. Valence preferred victories arranged in advance and deaths discussed afterward, preferably somewhere without guests. Blackharrow prepared for wounded soldiers before anyone left the gates, which made the danger harder to ignore even if it was more honest.

Diana approved six additional family rooms for emergency use.

She asked Mistress Hale to keep two chambers unassigned for families arriving without notice.

The housekeeper nodded.

"Done."

Mistress Hale offered neither praise nor argument. The decision simply became work, and Diana was beginning to depend on that.

Outside the household office, military traffic increased through the Citadel.

Armorers moved equipment toward the lower courts, members of the Dragon Host carried sealed assignment tags, medical wagons waited beneath the eastern wall, and engineers loaded tools beside wardstone cases. The Winter Muster was turning into mobilization.

Dragons that had arrived for inspection and reassignment were being prepared to fly north.

The final assignments moved quickly.

Daric remained in Blackharrow with Citadel command and the inner reserve. Captain Arven rode with the line companies. Captain Veyr would take the Dragon Host reserve north behind the first ground column and hold his pairs out of the initial contact unless Raigoro called them forward.

Tavia and the quartermaster’s office continued handling territorial supply.

Raigoro was taking command north.

Before midday, Diana left the Healing and Household Terrace and descended with Alma and her two guards to the lower military court.

Raigoro stood near the departure staging area in battle armor. Diana had seen him armed in Valence, on the road north, and during the ash hound attack, but today the entire court had been arranged for the battle ahead.

Daric stood beside a supply table reviewing dispatch cases.

Three officers waited with horses.

When Diana reached the staging area, Raigoro checked the two Household Guards accompanying her.

"Is there a household problem?"

She wrote:

NO.

He waited.

Diana had intended to ask whether he was leaving.

The armor had answered.

She wrote instead:

HOW BAD?

"We don’t know yet."

That answer again.

Raigoro added, "Numbers increased overnight. Movement is continuing toward the western boundary."

Diana wrote:

SAME AS THE DRAGON ATTACK?

"Possibly connected."

Before Diana could challenge the connection, Raigoro added, "The resin connects material. It does not yet prove command."

Of course.

Diana erased the slate.

Raigoro indicated the covered passage along the inner wall.

"Walk."

Diana went with him while Alma and the guards followed at a distance.

"If the inner emergency bell sounds while I’m gone, you remain inside the Citadel."

Diana wrote:

I KNOW.

"That includes the outer court."

Diana frowned.

"I know you know."

Then why was he saying it?

"Knowing a rule and deciding it does not apply because someone outside needs help are different things."

Eren.

The ash hounds.

Diana frowned.

Raigoro continued. "You do not enter the restricted dragon caverns."

Her hand stopped.

Vharos.

He saw that too. "The restriction stays in place while I’m gone."

She wrote: WHY SPECIFICALLY NOW?

"Because you asked about him the other day."

Mistress Hale talked too much. Then again, so did the dragonkeepers. Possibly everyone in Blackharrow did.

"And because whatever is happening with the dragons remains unexplained."

Diana wrote: HE IS ILL.

"Yes."

I WOULD NOT HURT HIM.

Raigoro read it. "I did not say you would."

That answer caught her.

He continued. "You may affect him without intending to. Until the keepers know more, you do not approach him without their authorization."

The distinction mattered. Vharos’s keepers held that boundary.

Diana lowered the slate.

Reasonable again, which did nothing to make the man less inconvenient.

Raigoro continued. "Do not interfere with command traffic. Household emergency work is yours. Military deployment is not."

Diana wrote: YOU ALWAYS LEAVE ORDERS BEFORE YOU LEAVE.

Raigoro read the sentence. "It would be inconvenient to return and discover no one knew what to do."

Diana wrote one word.

INCONVENIENT.

A horn sounded from the lower gate.

The officers behind them began mounting.

The first time Raigoro rode away from Blackharrow, his absence had given Diana room.

It still did.

Raigoro looked toward the gate. "I may be gone in several days."

Diana nodded.

"If this becomes a larger engagement, longer."

Another nod.

She should have been asking about household reports, which dispatches would reach the Citadel, and when injured soldiers’ families should be moved. Those questions would actually be useful.

They were not the ones occupying her.

Raigoro looked back at her. "You have something else."

Diana hated that he knew.

She wrote: WILL MERIS FLY?

"Not in the first line. Veyr’s company is the aerial reserve."

Some of the tension eased before Diana could justify it. Meris could still be called forward, but apparently not being part of the first contact was enough to matter.

She erased the question.

Raigoro waited.

His armor and sword made it difficult to think of the battle as another report. He had brought every soldier back from the failed boundary, but Blackharrow was already preparing beds because that would not always happen.

Diana wrote: HOW MANY ARE GOING?

"Enough."

She gave him a look.

Raigoro reconsidered.

"Four infantry companies forward. Engineers. Mounted scouts. Six Dragon Host pairs initially. More remain on reserve."

Hundreds.

"We are not marching into a siege," Raigoro said.

She wrote: YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE MARCHING INTO.

"No."

At least he admitted it.

The departure horn sounded again.

Daric approached after the last supply case was sealed.

"You have your field packets."

"Yes."

"Then go. I have the Citadel."

"Keep the inner reserve intact," Raigoro told Daric.

"I heard you the first time."

"Good."

Daric moved away.

Alma joined Diana as Raigoro pulled on his gloves.

"You should go," Diana wrote.

He read it.

"I was already going."

Annoying to the end.

Raigoro turned toward his horse.

Diana almost let him.

Her first thought was that Raigoro might not come back. Only afterward did Diana think of the covenant and what his death would mean for her.

She disliked what that revealed about the order of her concerns.

Diana pressed the chalk down.

Nothing appeared.

She did not have a sentence she was willing to show him.

Raigoro mounted as the gates opened farther and the first Dragon Host pairs launched from the upper platforms, their wings lifting snow from the walls. Before riding out, he glanced down at Diana.

"Stay inside the inner line if the bells change."

Diana nodded.

Then he rode out.

The infantry followed, then the engineers, mounted scouts, and supply wagons.

Above them, Dragon Host pairs banked north.

Diana remained in the lower court until the final military wagon disappeared beyond the gate.

Alma waited beside her.

"You watched the gate longer this time."

Diana wrote:

I STILL DO NOT LIKE BEING WATCHED.

"I know."

The last Blackharrow banner disappeared around the mountain road before the gate closed.

Diana lowered the slate. She still valued the freedom Raigoro’s absence gave her, but she wanted him to come back.