Free Infinity by Andria Buchanan Page A

next week you’ll have the largest fighting force this world has ever seen, my queen.”
    “Good.” I turned to stare at my father, trying to keep my voice calm. “John of Leavenwald?”
    “The Woodsmen have all received the call, Your Majesty.” He bowed his head to me. “Our men are scouring every forest in Nerissette. If there is food there, it will be found and brought to the army. The first of the supply wagons have already left the Leavenwald and should be here in the morning.”
    “Right. Winston, you’re next.”
    “The Dragos Council has met. Our warriors will arrive in the morning with recruits from the villages near Dramera. The aerie is prepared for war. We’ve already begun flying patrols.”
    “And what have the dragons seen from the sky?” I kept my eyes focused on him.
    “The Borderlands is burning,” Winston said softly. “Bavasama has set fire to the White Mountains and any other land that wasn’t inhabited on our side of the border.”
    “What about the places where there were people?” I asked, not really wanting to know the answer even as I asked the question.
    “Six villages and the two largest Firas encampments have been invaded.” Winston turned to stare at Melchiam. “The encampments of the Lumeve and the Candelliere are gone. From what we can see, the people tried to flee from their campgrounds but didn’t have time.”
    “Gone?” I asked a second before Melchiam let out a high-pitched wail, sinking to his knees with his head in his hands. Everyone turned silently to watch as the man dropped his head onto the floor and began to scream, long, terrible screams that sounded like a fire engine on a too-cold winter night. It was raw and primal, and it made the little slivers left of my heart feel like they’d been kicked by a bully in steel-toed boots.
    “You mean they’re dead?” I asked, my eyes wide as I turned away from the screaming man and back to Winston. “ All of them?”
    “Yes.” He nodded, his eyes not meeting mine. “Everyone. They’re gone. I’m sorry. We were too late to reach them. We were lucky we escaped when we did today, Your Majesty.”
    “No.” I shook my head as an all-consuming dread filled my stomach. “No, they didn’t…”
    “The village of Sorcastia is gone, too,” Rhys said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
    Salvachio, the stupid farmer who’d been worried about the field of wheat that Dravak had accidentally burned last year, was dead. He’d been sure that someone would take over the village. He swore that the dragons would try to conquer them. He’d told me once that the dragons wanted to burn the world around them.
    Now, it turned out he’d been right. Not about the dragons, of course, the dragons were on our side, but what was coming for our world. Someone was trying to burn it down around us.
    “Why is the Empress Bavasama doing this?” Arianna asked. “Why, when we’ve signed a peace treaty, is she attacking us? Is it because you have control of the Relics?”
    “No.” I shook my head. “This has nothing to do with the Great Relics. Not directly. This is about the throne. I have it, and she wants it. The Relics go along with that, but I don’t think that’s her primary goal.”
    “So what do we do?” another man asked from the back of the throne room. “Your Majesty, what are we going to do? They’ll come here next. They’ll come here, and we’ll have nowhere to run. They’ll burn us out and—”
    “Where are they? Bavasama’s troops?” I asked, my voice sharp as I tried to hide my own worry from the nobles staring back at me. “Where are they now?”
    “Back over the border,” Rhys said. “They burned everything they could on our side and then retreated over the White Mountains, setting fire to the forests there to prevent us from following.” Rhys kept his eyes on mine, and I could see that his entire face was tense.
    “So this was what?” I asked, staring at the sea of scared faces in front of me.