There was blood in my dreams.
That was the only thing I was aware of as I woke with a scream, the world bursting and shattering around me.
“Get down!” Theron yelled, pulling me off the bed and throwing a blanket over my body on the stone floor. A moment later he was beside me, his arm covering my head.
Glass and rough debris pressed against my body, and my panicked breath was unnaturally loud in the space created by Theron’s arm. “What’s happening?” I cried.
There was a horrible noise above us, and a jerking, tearing motion rocked the floor. I screamed, curling tighter against the rubble.
“There’s a thrice-damned ship flying through the air!” Theron yelled.
Something gave way, and another shower of stone, wood, and glass hit us. Something struck my leg, and I cried out, but the sound was swallowed by a low keening groan as the bunks started to tip over.
Theron was so much faster than I was. By the time I saw the beds moving, he had already grabbed me, shoving me out into the middle of the room. Jagged fragments scratched at my skin, but Theron crawled out right before all the beds tipped and collapsed.
“Where’s Calix?” I wailed.
“Not back,” he said. He looked at the door, totally blocked by beds, and then raised his eyes.
I saw where the noises were coming from. A ship’s anchor tore its way through the roof, wrenching the whole tower with it.
Theron hauled me to my feet, pushing me forward. “We need to get outside!” he roared. The glass and rubble cut into my feet as we ran for the balcony.
We halted when a series of loud, booming cracks sounded out.
“Down!” Theron yelled, pushing me to the ground inside the balcony doorway. I huddled against the wood, and he braced us both in the frame.
The tower lurched and rocked as one final, shuddering boom rang, and I looked up to see nothing but sky. Several long heartbeats later, I heard screams and a loud crash as the roof must have fallen to the ground below.
Soldiers ran out to the balcony, lighting arrows on fire and shooting them. I followed one to see what Theron had meant—there, barely visible, was a ship, sailing in the dark sky. There were still beads of water dripping from the hull, and the black sails were indistinguishable from the night around us. It was moving fast, coming back toward the tower.
One of the flaming arrows struck the sail, and I could see with alarming clarity as the big anchor came back around, swinging on a long rope to strike underneath the lip of the wide square that formed the top of the Oculus.
The top of the tower rocked hard to the side, and Theron grabbed me, slamming us against the wall as the square lifted up fast. A soldier beside us lost his footing, and he cried out. As the floor rose, he seemed to move in slow motion, his arms wheeling backward. “Here!” I yelled, holding my hand out from the protection of Theron’s body.
The soldier met my eyes, but my hand was nowhere near close enough.
And then gravity took him, and he rushed down the balcony floor. I saw him hit the rail and flip off the edge into the night, and I couldn’t breathe.
The tower gave a rumbling protest as the stone beneath us tipped more. A loud groaning noise vibrated through our feet as the floor jerked and slid, and I could see the rope attached to the flying ship drawn taut.
Theron untied a belt from his waist and wrapped the thick piece of leather around us both, tying it tight. “The top of the tower is about to fall,” he told me, meeting my eyes. “We have to get off the tower.”
“What?” I screamed, whipping my head around. The stairs were blocked, the whole floor was tilted up—if we moved off this wall, there was nowhere to go but open air.
“I need you to follow my orders without questioning them, my queen,” he told me. “Can you do that?”
The floor shuddered and wrenched, and I nodded frantically.
“Grab the breastplate as tight as you can. Do not let go of me,” he roared. I wrapped my fists around his breastplate, careful to avoid the pointy ends of the knives.
He turned and leaped onto the balcony rail, wind whipping hard around us and almost knocking him off. The white stone enclosures below us were faint and small and dim in the darkness, and I shook my head wildly.
“No,” I cried. “No, no—”
But he jumped off the edge.
I couldn’t close my eyes. I couldn’t breathe as fear swamped through my lungs, much less scream or thrash or fight. Everything solid fell away, and we were still rising, rising, a tiny bit, and then the feeling changed.
We were falling.
Air rushed around me and we turned, too fast for my eyes to follow.
Theron somehow managed to catch the rope, and the sharp stop flung us around so hard my fists slipped free from him.
I flapped backward, but the leather around my waist jerked and held, digging in deep to my skin. Theron’s face swam above me, and behind that, the dark, looming ship that we now seemed to be attached to.
Theron grunted but gave no other protest, and I grabbed onto him again, my hands shaking, clinging hard. The city looked like a toy below us. My breath was too stuck in my lungs to even manage a scream.
Our weight on the rope dragged the anchor free from the Oculus, but it didn’t swing back in a natural motion. It hovered in the air for a moment, and then started rising upward. I looked to the boat above us, and the fire on the sail went out, dousing the illumination.
As the anchor drew close to the ship, Theron swung a little and caught the edge of the deck with his hands, letting the rope free as he ordered, “Grab the railing. Quick!”
I obeyed, wedged between him and the wood.
“Untie yourself from my waist,” he said.
“No!”
“Quickly, or we’ll both fall,” he said.
Trembling, I broke the knot with clumsy fingers. I could feel his arms shaking with the effort to hold us.
“Go over the rail,” he said.
I nodded, scrabbling for purchase with my feet, catching on his knee. He groaned, but I pushed up a little to jump over the rail of the massive, impossibly floating ship. A second later he was up and beside me, his feet hitting the deck and his arms out as he shoved me behind him. “Don’t, she’s the queen!” he cried.
I gasped. There was a tall boy there, pointing a crossbow at Theron’s chest.
“You’re not,” he said, and I saw his finger curl over the trigger.
Osmost shrieked, flying in talons-first to hit the crossbow away as the bolt flew harmlessly over the edge.
“Damn bird!” the boy yelled, readying another arrow.
“Bast!” another voice cut in.
The boy lowered the bow as a girl climbed the steps to the front deck. I could see other people behind them, but they all looked young—barely older than I was, if even that.
This girl wore dark clothing, with rings and strange designs in chalky white—salt, I realized. That’s what had been all over the shipbuilders. Her dark hair was coiled like a head of snakes, and it was lighter on top from the sun.
But nothing shocked me nearly as much as Osmost swooping in, his wings outstretched, to rest on her shoulder.
“Hello again,” she said to him, and he clicked at her.
“You—you know my brother?” I asked, coming out from behind Theron.
She raised an eyebrow. “Your brother is a hawk?” she asked.
“No. The hawk is Osmost.”
“Osmost,” she said, looking at him again. He ducked a little, and she scratched his chin. “I only know the bird. But I’m guessing you’re the Tri Queen.” She turned to glare at the boy. “And we don’t kill queens on this ship.”
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Aspasia!” someone shouted.
I looked behind her to see a young girl, holding her hands out at her sides and shaking.
Aspasia took off down the stairs before the young girl even got a chance to say, “I’m losing it.”
Aspasia nodded, standing in front of the girl and holding her palms up in the same position. “I’m with you.”
“You’re tired,” the girl cried, sniffling back tears. “I can’t hold this much longer and neither can you.”
“You’re Elementae,” I breathed, coming down the stairs like their power pulled me closer.
Aspasia snapped a glare in my direction. “How else do you suggest we fly a ship in the air?”
A different boy was behind the young girl. “Take deep breaths,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. “It’s not much longer. Just hold on.” He looked up at Aspasia.
The Bast boy came down to the deck as well. “We have to get out to open water. And we can’t take them with us.”
“We can’t just leave Dara there,” the other boy protested. “You know what they’ll do to her.”
Aspasia’s arms were trembling, and the concentration and frustration showed on her face.
“It’s her or all of us,” Bast said.
“Vote,” Aspasia said. “Quickly.”
“Save Dara,” Bast called. Of the ten or so children on the deck, only Aspasia and three others raised their hands.
“I’m sorry,” Aspasia said to the boy. “We have to leave, now.”
“We’re not leaving her!” growled the other boy. “You can’t do this! We’d go back for any of you!”
Sweat beaded on Aspasia’s face. “Come on,” she urged the girl. “Let’s go.”
The girl whined, and a tear shot down her cheek, but she nodded. The boat wheeled, pitching violently to the side before it sailed out toward the harbor, faster than I imagined it could.
“My queen,” Theron murmured to me. “When I say, jump.”
I nodded without further explanation. Especially since I was very sure that I didn’t want to know what that entailed.
As soon as we cleared the land, Theron surged forward, pushing the two girls so they stumbled. The boat dropped like a stone, and Theron yelled, “Jump!” at me as he pushed off one boy, then another child.
I didn’t look back. I just ran for the edge, and I jumped.
The water was as black as the night, shining and moving like a demon below me. I braced for the fall into it, but for long seconds, it didn’t come.
I felt the threads. Even though there was no earth around me, there was nothing for them to hold on to, I felt them surrounding me.
Just before I hit the water, I knew why—the Elementa on the boat had broken my fall. It wasn’t my power I felt; it was hers. So different, but made from the same forces. I wondered if, with that touch, she knew what I was too.
I hit the water, and the cold slammed against my body, covering me and taking me in, stealing my thought and my breath as I fell deeper into the arms of whatever spirits governed the sea.
The power I’d felt—her power—was gone, severed the moment I hit the water. If Theron was near, I couldn’t see him. My brothers, my family were flung far from me, and neither my husband nor his valiant brother were here to save me.
I was alone, and the water was crushing me.
My lungs burned, and I kicked my legs, trying to figure out how to find the surface when everything was dark around me like I was blind. I hadn’t been practicing using my element—not like I should have. I had used this power helplessly to save Kairos and Rian, but I had never believed I would need it to save myself.
I had been so frightened of my own power that I had forfeited my best means of survival.
Clawing at the ocean around me, I fought. I refused to believe it was too late. I was desert born. I was Elementa. I was powerful beyond my own understanding, and I would not be defeated by this.
This wasn’t like the lake in the desert. This water burned with salt, and it was so deep and vast and dark that I seemed to be weightless, and I twisted, unsure if I was up or down or where the air was. I fought the urge to breathe in water and called my power to my hands.
I could feel rocks, bright threads far below me. That meant the air was up, and I pushed as hard as I could.
I broke the surface with a wild, gasping breath as Theron struck the water, swamping me with a wave that brought me under again. I kicked and fought, panicked, breaking the surface again. I couldn’t keep my body aloft, though, and I started sinking.
“Hold on,” Theron gasped, hooking his arm under mine. He drew me back against his chest, lying flat in the water and using one arm to swim as his legs kicked, keeping us afloat.
A light shone on us, and a moment later, a boat appeared. Galen abandoned his oars, other men steadying the boat while Galen pulled me up and out of the water, leaving me in the bottom to cough and gulp for breath. Theron was next, pushing up over the side as Galen grabbed his clothing and heaved him the rest of the way.
Soldiers covered us in blankets and their cloaks, and as I shivered, I knelt by Theron. “Are you all right?” I asked.
“My queen,” he gasped, still catching his breath. “That is the question I need to ask you.”
Relieved, I wrapped my arms around him, feeling shuddering sobs that were some mixture of the cold, my tears, and my utter gratitude rack my chest. “You saved my life,” I told him.
“And he will be very generously rewarded for that,” Galen said, hauling back on his oars. There were two other men rowing in the boat, and Theron and I were wedged between their seats. “Are either of you hurt?” Galen asked, looking down at us as he pulled back again.
“The queen was injured when the tower was attacked,” Theron said, still panting for breath.
“Just scratches, I think,” I said, shaking my head at Galen.
His eyes met mine, his scowl softening a little in a way that made him look … worried. He was worried about me. He swallowed and looked away. “A quaesitor is waiting to see to your needs. I’m sure you have all kinds of cuts and bruises,” he said, his eyes flickering back over me.
“I’m well,” I said, huddling under the blankets and shivering for warmth.
“And you?” Galen asked Theron.
“It will take more than falling from the sky to hurt me,” he said.
Galen snorted. “The quaesitor will check you also, my friend.”
Theron’s hand flopped up from the boat and then fell again. “Bah,” he said. “If something needs stitching, I’ll let you know.”
Galen gave a sharp nod, drawing in a deep breath like he hadn’t for a while.
“Was this the Resistance?” Theron asked.
Galen shook his head. “No. We don’t believe so. They were stealing workers—it’s possible they’re foreign slavers with powers. We’ve heard reports of people disappearing from the communes, but we never knew how they were doing it. Now we do.”
“Damn sorcerers,” Theron muttered.
My eyes flew wide to him, but I didn’t say anything.
“Did you see who they were?” Galen asked.
“No,” I said before Theron opened his mouth. Even if I trusted Galen with such information, I refused to arm my husband with information to help him track a ship full of children.
Theron looked at me. “No,” he repeated. “We never made it on deck.”
Galen nodded, and we all stayed silent while they rowed us back to shore.
There were soldiers waiting for us at the dock, but Calix wasn’t among them, and I looked to Galen. “Where’s Calix? Was he hurt?”
His face went grim as the oarsmen grabbed the dock, looping ropes around little metal bars. He stood, helping me to stand as well. “He’s occupied,” he told me. “But safe. We need to make sure you’re all right.”
Galen helped me from the boat, and Theron behind me. “Theron, go rest,” Galen ordered.
He shook his head. “I won’t leave the queen unattended.”
“I’ll stay with her. Zeph will be here with more guards soon anyway.”
Theron nodded, putting his hand on his side and wincing. “Keep an eye on those quaesitori,” he said solemnly.
Galen chuckled. “Yes, soldier.”
Theron nodded again and sighed, like he could finally relax without me to protect. Galen led me toward the communes, to one of the first buildings that had men running in and out of it. I could see the Oculus, now no more than a spire—the whole top had fallen off.
This building seemed to be the primary military space, and a wide hall that was probably used for meals had been cleared, with sheets serving to section areas off. We walked through it briefly, only to go out another door, but I saw so many men wounded or dying.
Beyond that, there was a long hallway of sleeping quarters, barracks like the one we had been in when all this started, and then giving way to what I guessed were officers’ quarters. Galen led me into one, and a quaesitor dressed in black robes was there, poring over a tray of instruments. I gasped.
He turned, bowing to me. It was not the same man from earlier, but it didn’t change how little I wanted to be in this room. “Fear not, my queen. My art is not intended to harm you.”
Galen put his arms behind his back, looking at me.
I stayed still, not believing him. Whether he knew it or not, his art was certainly intended to harm people like me.
“Please remove the blankets and your clothing, my queen,” the quaesitor said.
“No,” I said immediately.
“I need to examine you,” the quaesitor said. “It will be difficult if you are clothed.”
“No,” I repeated again, raising my chin. “I don’t want your ministrations. I saw what your work involves.”
“Shalia,” Galen said gently. “I’m not going anywhere. We need to be sure you aren’t injured.”
“I’m fine.”
“Many people don’t feel the pain of their injuries immediately,” he told me. “You need to be checked.”
My hands were shaking badly. “Not by him. I won’t, Galen,” I swore. I cast about, pointing at a small mirror. “Give me a moment, and I will check myself with the mirror.”
“My queen, people fear only what they do not know. I promise I will not do you harm.”
Galen’s eyes snagged on my outstretched, shaking hand, and I saw muscles in his jaw tense and flare. “Very well. Leave us, Quaesitor.”
The man sighed, but he left, leaving his tools behind.
“I will wait outside,” Galen told me. “If something needs attention, knock on the door and I will help you.”
He left, and I heaved a breath as the door shut. The longer I stayed still, the shakier and weaker my body felt, and I sat on the bed. There was a pile of things—a blanket, a sheet, a pair of pants, a long shirt, and a stiff black coat. With a shiver, I took my clothes off, using the mirror to check the places I could not see. There was an angry scratch on my leg, and I found poultice and bandages in the quaesitor’s belongings and applied them. There was another wound high up on my side. I applied the poultice, but it fell off before I could get the bandage on.
Frustration curling through me, I pulled on the pants and the shirt, going to the door and knocking. Galen entered and his eyes ran over me. “Well?” he asked.
“Where is Calix?” I demanded.
He looked away. “Not here.”
“Then get him!” I demanded. “I need my husband, and I will not accept the help of those—those—murderers,” I told him.
“You’re wounded?” he realized.
“I need Calix, Galen. Please.”
He drew a deep breath and nodded sharply. “I’ll bring him to you, then.”
I closed the door and went back to the bed, sitting, wrapping myself in the blanket as I shivered with cold.
It was a long while before the door opened again, and when it did, Calix strode in, shutting it sharply behind him. I looked up at him, and he put his hands on his hips, staring at me. “What is it, wife?”
The shivering gave way to shaking. “What is it?” I repeated.
“Yes. What could you possibly want from your evil, cruel husband?”
My gaze fell to the ground as I shook my head. “Skies,” I said. “I was worried about you. I thought, perhaps, you’d be worried about me too.”
“Yes,” he clipped out. “Galen said you’re hurt. Was that some gambit to get me here so you could reproach me again?”
“I can’t dress the wound,” I told him bitterly. “But clearly I should have asked someone else to do it instead of you. You seemed rather particular about people seeing me undressed, but I suppose I shouldn’t have bothered you.”
“Where is it?” he demanded.
I pushed the blanket off, pulling the shirt up to reveal it. “There are bandages and poultice over there,” I said, and looked at his face.
His jaw was working and rolling, and his face was flushed with color, like he was fighting against himself. He went stiffly to the table, taking the supplies he needed.
He sat beside me, and I flinched when he touched the poultice to the wound. Quickly, he covered the wound with the bandage, wrapping it around me to keep it in place.
“Done,” he said quietly, tugging the shirt down over it.
I didn’t move, facing away from him, unsure of what to do.
“Of course I was worried about you,” he said, the words low and sharp. “I saw the Oculus fall and I thought you had died still hating me.”
“You weren’t with me,” I whispered.
“You didn’t want me with you,” he sneered.
I pulled away from him so I could wrap myself in the blanket instead. “Fine. I’m sorry I bothered you.”
“Three hells, Shalia,” he snapped, standing. “I can’t stand you looking at me and thinking I’m some kind of monster.”
I looked at him as he paced about the small room. “Then release those people. In your prison. Let them go.”
“How can you say that? You were nearly murdered by some pirates navigating a ship in the air. You think that’s not sorcery? If I had the elixir, you would have never been in danger. Now, more than ever, I will do everything I can to prevent this infection from spreading.”
“Then focus your efforts on the desert. Consult that book you told me of, with the visions. See if there is more information in there.” And perhaps I could find a way to examine it as well, and discover what secrets it held of the desert, and this elixir, before my husband did something I would regret.
“Impossible,” he said, waving his hand. “The book was destroyed.”
“Destroyed?”
“Yes,” he said. “Along with the trivatis who had the visions in the first place. His visions were sorcery. But I’m sending Danae to the desert to uncover its secrets. If anyone can find this elixir, it will be her.”
“Then stop persecuting people here.”
“I cannot,” he snapped. “We caught one of the pirates, and she will be made an example of when we’re through interrogating her.”
“Why?”
“So my people see that we respond to such sorcery decisively. They killed almost a hundred soldiers, and more workers besides—she cannot be allowed to live.”
I shuddered as I realized why he had been so occupied, and what it meant that he was interrogating her. If the others on that ship were any indication, she was probably just a girl and they were torturing her.
But I knew he needed a better reason to spare her. “So you would have your people see that one woman caused so much destruction? You would be aggrandizing the very power you’re trying to stop.”
He glared at me, and my heart pounded. “You think I should, what, let her go? She committed treason, and she will answer for her crimes.”
“Fine,” I said, standing too. “But privately. Don’t make a spectacle of it. Give her a fair trial and help the country move on.”
He came to me, staring at me for many moments before sliding his hand over my cheek. “It’s a good suggestion. And what about you, wife? What spectacle, what trial do you need to move on?” His fingers stroked my skin. “I can’t ask you to forget what you know of me. But can you stop hating me? Or will you keep turning to my brother, crying in his arms?”
My breath caught.
He laughed, his hand still on my face. “You thought I wouldn’t find out?”
“There’s nothing to find out, Calix. I was upset, and he was there when I didn’t have my own brother to comfort me.”
Even as I said it, the idea of comparing Galen and Kairos felt false. However I thought of Galen, it wasn’t like my brother.
I took Calix’s hand from my face, holding it. “I need to know you still have compassion, Calix. I need to know you’re still a good man, despite everything I know of the past. Stop torturing the Elementae, and that will go a long way in proving it to me.”
“I don’t have to, you know,” he told me, his voice soft and his face close. “It changes little, whether you hate me or not. We’ll still be married, you will still be my queen and mother of my children.”
I looked away from him. I knew that too. My threats, such as they were, were hollow and empty.
“But I don’t want that, Shalia. I don’t want our children to have parents who hate each other. I want your care, and I want your esteem.” A hopeful breath filled my chest as I met his eyes. “I can’t let them go completely—their powers are illegal and confirmed. But I will halt the experiments on them. Does that please you?”
“And you won’t experiment on any others?” I asked warily.
“No,” he said.
My fingers curled around his, and I nodded. “Yes. That pleases me a great deal, Calix.”
“Good,” he told me, moving forward for a kiss. I accepted it, hugging him and instantly missing the gentle comfort of Galen’s embrace.
“I’m sure you’re tired,” he told me, pulling back and holding my hands. “But I want you out of this city as soon as possible. The rest of your Saepia have arrived; I’d like for you to leave with them now, and I’ll follow as soon as my business here is done.”
“I don’t think I could weather another boat,” I told him honestly.
He nodded. “I’ll get a carriage to take you the land route. The trip will take a few days.”
“That’s all right,” I said. “I’d prefer it. Galen will stay here with you, I assume?”
His hands on mine tightened. “I know that there were other things at play, and bigger issues between us, but hearing of you in his arms—it burned me, wife.”
“Calix, nothing—”
“It’s not a discussion,” he told me. “There is work he can do here for a few weeks, or longer. He will stay here, and we will return to the Tri Castles. And I will not hear his name on your lips again. Are you ready to leave?”
I nodded, and he let one of my hands go to bring me to the door, opening it. Galen was outside, his arms crossed, watching the door from the other side of the hall.
“Is everything ready?” Calix asked.
Galen bowed his head. “The Saepia are prepared to escort the queen.”
“We need a carriage.”
Galen gave a nod. “It will take a few moments to procure.”
“Good. Meet me immediately upon her departure. I’ll leave you here, wife,” Calix told me, catching my chin and kissing me again. He paused for a moment, and pressed another kiss to my mouth before letting me go.
“Be safe,” I told him.
“You too.”
He let go of me, and Galen gestured me back toward the large hall.
Galen glanced at me once, but I looked away. Calix was already punishing him for comforting me, and I did not want to make an issue of it or to add anything more to his sentence.
I first noticed Zeph’s arrival when I saw men practically jumping to clear a path for him. He was stone faced as he strode through the hall, a giant of a man making everyone else seem little. He came to kneel to me.
“Oh, Zeph, you know I hate that,” I reminded him.
He stood, scowling down on me. “Yes,” he said. “And when we are not in front of half the army, I will give you a very stately hug instead.”
“Easy, soldier,” Galen told him, raising an eyebrow.
He crossed his arms. “Don’t tell me ‘easy.’ Theron will have bragging rights for far too long because of this night.”
I smiled. “I’ll see what I can do to endanger my life when you are on duty.”
Zeph nodded, satisfied. “We’re leaving this damn city?” he asked.
“As soon as possible.”
They led me outside the hall and into the cool night, and once the door was closed, Zeph caught me up in a hug that lifted me straight off the ground.
I laughed, hugging him back. “I’m all right, Zeph.”
He put me down with a sigh. “From the stories I’ve heard already, I’m not sure how that possibly can be. But I am grateful for it.”
“As am I,” said a voice behind him. My heart cracked the moment I saw him, even before I noticed Osmost wheeling above, and I started running toward him. Kairos took big, lunging steps to get to me, pulling me into a tight hug. “Great Skies,” was the only thing he muttered into my hair as he clutched me.
Tears pressed behind my eyes, but I was hugging him so hard it didn’t really matter if they fell or not—they wouldn’t ever be seen, ever be betrayed, always hidden between us.
He let me go, looking at my cuts. “You should try not to get in so much mortal danger,” he told me.
I laughed. “You should try to be as useful as your hawk.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t encourage him; his feathers are plenty fluffed out already.”
“Looks like we were both late to the fight,” Zeph said ruefully, nodding to Kairos as he let me go and Osmost landed on his shoulder.
“No, I infallibly appear when I’m needed most,” Kairos told him. “You were late.”
Zeph growled at this like an unhappy dog.
“Where’s the hero of the hour?” Kairos asked. “I hear Theron fought off an army of sorcerers for my sister.”
“Three hells, that didn’t happen, did it?” Zeph grumped. “All I get to do is take her for walks.”
“Skies, stop wishing more danger on my head,” I told him. “I thought Theron was resting. Will he join us?”
Galen nodded. “I’ll let him rest a while longer and send him to catch you on horse,” he told me. “If it pleases the queen.”
I looked at the ruin of the tower, where I had almost lost my life. “Yes. Let’s go back to the Tri City.”
I wasn’t so tired that I accepted the carriage, and without Calix there to protest, we all left on horseback. Our pace was fairly easy and gentle, so Theron could catch up to us by the end of the first day.
On the second day, Kairos and I rode close together, talking quietly while Zeph and Theron and the other guards drifted behind us, and I told him of everything I had seen in the communes and the Summer Palace.
“Do you think he’ll really stop experimenting on them?” Kairos asked me.
I drew a breath slowly. “I don’t know. Can Rian find out?”
He sighed. “I’ll get word to him. Do you think you’ll want to know the answer?”
No. Yes. I had no real answer—which was worse: to realize that my husband lied to me, or to never know that he did?
“What about this elixir?” Kairos asked.
“It’s real,” I told him. “He’s seen it before. He used it to attack the islands. I have to talk to Kata again.”
He nodded, glancing at my guards. “I’ll make it happen.”
“Thank you,” I told him. “Did you ever tell Rian of that spy in his camp?” I asked, looking behind me to measure the distance of the guards.
“Tassos?” Kairos said. “I found out who he is. He’s not well-placed enough to be a threat, and besides, Rian seems to suspect that the Tri Crown has put several spies into the Resistance. They won’t learn anything of value.”
I nodded.
“And you must forget such things, little sister. The less you know of Rian’s cause, the safer you’ll be.”
“Yes,” I said. “Safety is so clearly part of my daily life already.”
Kairos gave me a wry look, but didn’t respond, and we rode on in silence.
The next day, we entered the City of Three, and people were waiting for us, shouting and throwing flowers in front of our horses, the delicate blooms bright and whole for a moment before the horses crushed them beneath our weight.