Kingdom of Sea and Stone

“Of course.” Osius nodded and left immediately.

Talia looked up from the nursemaid’s shoulder to address Talin. “You don’t really think one of my men had something to do with this.”

I didn’t want to be the one to mention his name, but someone had to. “Ceren is still on the loose. If he was able to bribe one of the guards, someone could have taken Zoi to him.”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Talin said, but Talia was already drying her tears with a handkerchief and ushering everyone out of the room.

“Perhaps Nor is wrong, but the longer we wait, the farther away Zoi might be.” She ordered a maid to fetch her clothing, and I headed to my own room to prepare for a search. By the time I was dressed in my riding clothes, the sun was beginning to rise, and Osius had called Talin, Talia, and me to join him.

“Nor was right,” he said as he led us to a small room where the guards were being interrogated. “A guard named Dru was approached outside the castle walls last night. The stranger had offered him a bag full of red gems in exchange for Zoi. Dru thought they looked valuable.”

From the look in Talin’s eyes, he was ready to kill the guard, but Talia got to him first.

“What did you do?” she screamed at Dru, who was shackled and cowering against the wall. “Who took her?”

It was unnerving to see Talia, the most composed woman I’d ever met, so rattled. Perhaps she loved her daughter more than I realized.

“Mother,” Talin said gently, though he took a firm hold of her arms. “Please. Let me handle this.”

She was trembling with rage, but she let him take her place.

“What did the man look like?” Talin asked Dru.

He was a large man, but his voice shook as he answered. “H-he was wearing a cloak, so I didn’t get a good look at him. But he was very pale, with strange eyes like two full moons.”

Talin and I exchanged a glance. “We need to go,” I said.

Talin rubbed his jaw between his fingers. “We have no idea where he took her. We need to keep our heads and think about this logically.”

“Logically, Ceren is the one person who has a reason to harm Zoi,” I murmured. “If your mother was going to surrender for anything, this is it.”

Talin nodded and squared his shoulders. “We’ll get the hounds on the scent right away. He won’t have gone back to New Castle, not when it has already been occupied by our men.”

“We should split up,” Osius said. “We can cover more ground that way.”

Talin issued a few more orders, then turned to his mother. “I know you want to help, but I think you should stay here, in case Zoi comes home.”

She adamantly shook her head no. “If she manages to get away from Ceren and hears a bunch of strangers calling her name, she could very well stay in hiding.”

Talin looked doubtful, but he nodded. “Very well. Try not to worry, Mother. We’ll find her.”

I could only think that Ceren must be more desperate than ever before, to risk coming here and kidnapping Zoi. Still, she was no use to Ceren dead, and without my blood or our bond to strengthen him, we just might be able to catch him.

We all went to the stables to prepare our horses. In the distance, I could hear dogs baying in anticipation of the search. The guard had admitted to slipping into Talia’s room and taking Zoi as she slept, bundling her in a cloak and somehow sneaking past the others. He estimated it had been about five hours ago.

Talin divided everyone into groups of three, keeping Talia and me with him. Talia was riding her white mare, and, though she seemed to have calmed down, she looked exhausted.

“Why would he do this?” she asked as we rode out from Old Castle. “He must see that he’s lost. Harming a child won’t change that.”

“I believe he did it to get to you,” I replied. “This is his final attempt to claim the throne.”

Talia’s voice was a disconcerting rasp. “I’ll die before I let that man take my daughter’s throne.”

I cast a glance at Talin, but we had stopped at a fork in the main road. One went north, toward Galeth. The other went west, to the ocean.

Where would Ceren go? I wondered. Not north, surely. Galeth wasn’t going to help him, and Pirot had never been loyal to Ceren. Meradin, even less so. South was Talia’s territory, so that seemed even less likely.

Unconsciously, I found myself reaching for the bond that was no longer there. Like it or not, I knew Ceren better than most, and the only indication he’d given me that he wanted to see anything outside the walls of New Castle was his comment about how he would like to see Varenia again someday.

If my hunch was wrong, we would end up wasting time. But if it was right and he reached the ocean before we did, he could take Zoi on a ship and be on another continent before we realized he’d left Ilara.

“I think he’s going to Varenia,” I said.

Talin turned to look at me in surprise. “What? Why would you think that?”

“When I was at New Castle, he mentioned he wanted to see it again.”

Talia fixed me in her narrowed gaze. “I find it strange that Ceren would say something like that to the woman who tried to kill him, of all people. It almost makes me wonder if you didn’t have something to do with this.”

“Mother!” Talin wheeled Xander around to face her. “Nor would never dream of hurting Zoi. You’re frightened and overwhelmed, understandably. But if you can’t learn to differentiate your friends from your enemies, you’ll never be able to help Zoi. Not just now, but when she becomes queen.”

I was grateful to Talin for defending me, but this wasn’t just about the fact that I would never hurt a child. “I spent quite a bit of time connected to Ceren,” I said to Talia, “through no choice of my own. I do know him, whether I want to or not. And I also know that we don’t have time to waste on petty accusations when every moment, Ceren is getting farther away from us.”

I doubted Talia was capable of looking chastened, but she pressed her heels into her mare’s sides and took off down the road toward the ocean. Talin and I followed at a reasonable canter. I didn’t want to wear Titania out when we had a lot of ground to cover.

“I know you’re frustrated,” Talin said to me after a long time had passed in silence. “But I wish you could be more understanding with my mother. She’s been through a great deal.”

“We all have. And I have supported your cause because I believe you wouldn’t do anything corrupt or selfish. But I can’t say I have those same convictions when it comes to your mother.”