“You can do magic?” My brother sounded bewildered.
I helped him walk toward the horses. “We all can. I’ll explain on the way.”
“How is Doria?” he asked.
That should have been the first thing I’d told him, and I felt bad that I hadn’t. “She lives with us at the palace. She never gave up on you.She’s been insisting this whole time that you were alive and she was right. She misses you so much.”
He nodded weakly and I helped him up onto my horse. We would have to share because I didn’t trust him not to fall off if I had him ride alone. I grabbed some food from my pack and gave it to him. “Eat.”
Io used a rock to climb up on her horse. “How do we find Xander?”
Based on the scroll, I knew we had a large body of water north of us, mountains to the south, and the Carians to the east. Would he head directly west, back to Troas? Would he go in a straight line and try to put as much distance between him and the army as he could? Or would he attempt to disguise his tracks?
Or what if he went north to Cyzicus? He could have chartered a ship and traveled back to Troas that way.
Whatever it was, I had to decide immediately. I knew that the Carians would decamp and come this way. We had to reach him before they did.
Because while the army itself would be slow moving, they could send out hunting parties to search for him.
“Let’s go west and see what happens,” I said. I chose that because it was what I would have done.
Suri took Luna for me, although she didn’t look pleased about it. Part of me wanted to laugh. If she hoped to have a life with Io, she was going to have to get used to small animals.
“What is that?” Haemon asked.
“Luna. She’s an aether dragon.”
“A what?”
“There is so much you don’t know.” I told him how our family was doing, that Quynh had fallen in love and was pregnant, and how Xander had broken Kallisto’s betrothal.
It suddenly occurred to me that Haemon being alive changed everything. “You’re going to be king of Locris,” I said.
“If Artemisia has her way, I won’t be king of anything.” He took another bite of pasteli. “What have you been doing?”
I did my best to recount everything I had been through. I left out most of the details about my relationship with Xander. I didn’t think my older brother would understand.
When I finished he was quiet for more than a minute. And then he said, “You’re telling me that you’re this savior?”
“She is,” Io said.
“I just got you back. I don’t want you to die,” Haemon said, and I had to gulp back the burning lump in my throat.
Because I couldn’t promise him that it wouldn’t happen. The oracle had just told me it would.
And that there was nothing I could do to stop it.
The moment that Xander’s light returned to me nearly knocked me off my horse. I put a hand over my chest, so intensely grateful to know that he was still alive.
“This way,” I said, taking over the lead. “I feel him!”
My adelphia followed me for hours. Xander’s light grew stronger and stronger. We were getting close.
I couldn’t help myself. I urged my horse to go faster. I needed to reach him. Zalira called out after me, but they all followed.
The light took me down a dusty, unpaved trail that led straight to ...
An inn.
