The Immortal Queen Tsubame: Ascension by H.D. Strozier Read Free Book Online Page B

doubt an impending war. While Tilila and her husband were better suited gathering intelligence and doing historical research for them that could give them context in future encounters with Tsubame.
    The Romanovs weren’t a magic clan that wasted a lot of time. They started their operation to attack Tsubame two days after Bastet and Devdan finished planning how they were going to use the chaos to get into Tsubame’s compound and find MaLeila. As misguided and greedy as Devdan thought they were, he could see why the Russian Clan was in such a rush considering their first attack had been foiled by Tsubame and then delayed by the failed peace treaty that the Magic Council had arranged. If Devdan weren’t directly involved in the matter, he’d be amused by how threatened the infamously aggressive clan was by Tsubame.
    The Russian Clan was convinced that aiding the now allied factions in a ground invasion with some of their best spies and sorcerers mixed in the army would be the best way to go against Tsubame. People, at the very least could cover their eyes and get over the discomfort of a sandstorm. And once Tsubame had been subdued, they could drop as many bombs and send in as many drones as they wanted to wipe out the remains of the army.
    “The commander is pretty confident that they’ll be able to siege Tsubame’s city and kill her in a day,” Bastet said, disguised as a heavily armed desert soldier. “I hope the Russian Clan is prepared for their plan to go greatly awry.”
    Devdan said nothing as he stared out into the night desert, waiting for word that they would start to approach the city using the cover of night.
    “Not even a huff? A condescending side eyed glance? Honestly Devdan, what’s going through your head?” Bastet asked.
    “I was thinking about the binding,” Devdan replied.
    Bastet groaned. “Devdan, if you’re still nursing anger over that I’ll blow our cover right now and kick your ass because you’re not going to back out of this because you think MaLeila’s no better than your previous slave masters.”
    “It’s not that. Though don’t get it wrong, I’m still only doing this because I’m not letting you go in by yourself.”
    “Then what is it?” Bastet asked.
    Devdan had never been one to particularly care about the particulars of magic and its theory beyond how those particulars would help him achieve using magic, and even that was a rare occurrence considering how innate magic was to him, how easy it was to feel the realm of possibilities with his magic, even if he hadn’t reached the potential to use it a particular way. But he’d be a liar if he said he hadn’t been intrigued by the binding between him and MaLeila and hadn’t gone off to do his own research.
    The very nature of the binding had been weird to begin with, starting with the fact that MaLeila couldn’t just undo it in the first place. He’d heard of situations similar to theirs happening all the time during slavery. Sorcerers who owned slaves would die and bind the remaining slaves to their children just by a will being read out loud, and the child would release the bind and send the former slave on their way. Thus MaLeila certainly should have been able to do the same. And she had tried. Of that, Devdan was certain of, sensing the tugs and yanks on the magical chains as she spent hours on end inspecting them. But it shouldn’t have even taken that kind of effort. And if MaLeila couldn’t do it while actively trying, then it begged the question what had caused the binding to dissolve when she hadn’t been trying?
    “Claude was a powerful sorcerer who was always trying new magic techniques. There’s no telling what caused the bind to break. So stop thinking about it,” Bastet snapped after Devdan explained his initial thoughts to her.
    Ignoring her irritation with him, Devdan said, “What if it’s like the marriage binding?”
    “The marriage binding?”
    “A binding that can be broken by mutual