Relinquish(23)
It hardly resembles the pompous decor that Commander Drakon had used for his office. Gone is the enormous mahogany desk, replaced with table upon table of maps, each one dotted with the location of our troops. The circular room feels smaller now that it is filled with rows of bulky furniture and black-clad men stooped over stacks of paperwork.
The windows have been replaced since I shattered them all the last time I was here. The bookcases have been swept clean of Drakon’s trinkets and filled to overflowing with books that Kyan no doubt feels are vital to our mission.
There is a buzz in the room as I enter, a charge that instantly grips me as Kyan closes the door behind us. Excitement. Apprehension. Elation.
I’m easily swept away by it as I approach the center of the room. Kyan grasps my arm just above my elbow and steers me toward a table with a wide map spread along its surface, the corners curling slightly from use. Two other men converse in low tones as I reach the table.
Toren looks up first and stiffens. His smile is genuine but plagued with tension as Eamon raises his gaze to meet mine. I instantly know I was right about my earlier assessment. He did try to stop this from happening. A jolt of bitterness seals away any welcome that I might’ve considered as I turn to face Kyan with only a nod in Toren’s direction. “What is my mission?”
He casts an uneasy glance toward my friends before pointing to a location on the map. It’s circled in black, a larger circle than I’m used to seeing. How big is that place?
“This is the location of Drakon’s base. It was previously unknown to us, but our scouts in the field have confirmed that it’s not only an operational base, but it’s also the central command for all of Drakon’s operatives in the Midwest quadrant.”
I place my hands on the edge of the table and lean over the map. The base is ideally located among dense woodland. “I suspect that even if we could fly one of our Hover Wings over it, the intel would be spotty at best, correct?”
Color flees from Eamon’s hands as he suddenly grips the table. I glance over at him, confused. “Our Sky Ships,” Toren says, placing emphasis on the name, “have not been able to infiltrate that area successfully.”
It takes me a moment to catch on to my slip, but the instant I do, the contents of my stomach turn to a churning ball of acid. Bastien used to say Hover Wings. I never did. Dang it. Smooth, Illyria. Real smooth.
I choose to plod on ahead and ignore Eamon’s anger. “Why not?”
“Because none of them ever make it back to base,” Kyan speaks up.
I turn to look at him, startled by the tension in his voice. “None of them?”
He shakes his head, his mouth set in a grim line. “We lost four ships already. I refuse to send any more.”
I push off the table and cross my arms over my chest. It doesn’t make sense. What sort of place can have such extensive amounts of firepower? None that we have encountered so far have even come close to being that well stocked. “What does this place run?”
“Everything,” Eamon replies.
I stare at him with a mixture of horror and annoyance and then finally turn away, shaking my head as I try to gather my thoughts as they tumble through my mind at accelerating speeds. “How could we not have known about this, Kyan? This is huge!”
“We know,” he responds. I can hear the clipped tone in his voice and feel slightly mollified. He was just as much in the dark as the rest of us. At least I can be thankful for that. “But now that we know of its location, it won't be long before they strip it down and move everything again.”
“So then what’s the plan?” I plant my hands upon my hips and take in a calming breath. If I stop to think of how close we came to Drakon and let him slip through my fingers, I’ll begin ranting, and it’s not fair to any of the men in the room. They all fought alongside me; their friends shed blood just as mine did. No one in this room is at fault, yet I feel as if the weight of this revelation falls heavily upon my shoulders.
I’m the one everyone looks to for leadership and I failed them. I should’ve known, should've seen it somehow. Maybe if I hadn’t been so weak in dealing with my personal life I would have.
“We’re going to take it,” Toren says in a tight-laced, no-nonsense kind of voice.
I glance over at him and see a hint of the boy I grew up with. Toren was always a natural-born leader. We all saw it and respected him for it. He did his best to guide us as we lived in the caves after the last of the parents did, but when the Caldonians fell into our laps, he knew he was out of his league. Since the day we entered Kyan’s camp, Toren began relinquishing that leadership to him.