Vi drew her knees up to her chest, pulling them close and resting her chin on them. She stared out at the desert. In the middle of the day, the Waste was blindingly bright.
“I shouldn’t have let her come,” Vi murmured, thinking back to her conversation with Fiera on the birthing bed.
“Why did you? I didn’t question before, but now I’d like to know.”
“She’s studied the crystals, more than I have, with books I didn’t even think to search for.”If there was a next time… She dared think the words. She would be sure to tell Taavin to tell the next Champion to seek out tomes from the Burning Times. Perhaps her instincts to manipulate the crystals were right. She just needed to go in a different direction. “She can make a barrier that I’m hoping will be enough to keep the Knights of Jadar and anyone else out of the Caverns. If no one gets into Raspian’s tomb, no one meddles with it and he’s never set free.”
“She doesn’t look like she’s in a position to do much of anything.” Deneya sighed. “I hope she’ll make it.”
“Me too.” Vi still couldn’t look back at the woman and mother she still felt like she’d condemned to death. Raylynn would grow up without a mother because of her. Now… if Vi wasn’t careful, this world’s Aldrik would as well. Her hand had struck the chords of fate and there was dissonance all around.
“I’ll take first watch and give the horses some water.” Deneya stood. “You should get some sleep.”
Vi didn’t object. She laid back, wiggling as close as she could to Fiera in the small tent without disturbing the woman. They were face to face, and Vi reached out. With just the side of her pinky, she touched Fiera’s open palm. The woman slept on.
I’m sorry,Vi mouthed the words, not daring to say them aloud. She was sorry for so much that Fiera had and would endure. Sorry for what, regardless of what Taavin said was fated, she felt like she was taking from the world—taking from Aldrik.
But if this worked… Perhaps it would all be worth it.
Perhaps Fiera could yet be right.
* * *
Before the dawn of the second day, they crossed into the South. Shrub trees grew up from the Waste. Stubborn grasses became pine-carpeted forests as the canopy stretched higher and higher above them.
Vi still felt a rush tingling through her as the first blustery wind caught her cape, sending it flapping behind her.
“Lyndum,” she whispered.
“Pardon?” Deneya asked quietly so as not to disturb the sleeping woman leaned against her. The horses were moving slower now, due to exhaustion and the new terrain. Snowbanks were in the distance, their vast, blinding whiteness as fascinating as it was unnerving to Vi.
They were out of the harshness of the desert, but stepping into a frosty world Vi had never known.
“This was supposed to be my home in another world,” Vi confessed. “But I’ve never come here before.”
“Just who were you in this other world?”
Vi looked to Fiera. The woman’s head was tipped back and her jaw hung open. She slept more than she was awake. But every time she woke she seemed stronger than the last.
“Her granddaughter,” Vi admitted. “Well, the grandmother of a woman very much like her. I know that’s likely impossible to believe but—”
“I don’t really think so,” Deneya interrupted. “You have the same face.”
Vi chuckled softly. “Everyone told me so. Now I got to see it for myself and… I don’t know, we seem different enough. She’s stronger than I am.”
“Self-doubt doesn’t suit you.”
“Maybe it’s not so much doubt as it is finally being honest with myself about my own limitations?”
Deneya clicked her tongue. “Humility, reasonableness, they’re good traits. Can’t argue, won’t argue. But… I’ve seen a shift in you these past few days. You were so self-assured. Now you seem like you’re doubting each step you take.”
“Failure has a high price, and I’m paying it.” She had some hesitations now, what was the harm in it? “Taavin was right this whole time and I didn’t listen. I might not be able to make up for it now… nonetheless, I’m trying to be more careful.”
“Take care in deciding where to step, so when you do, you’re certain of your path,” Deneya advised. “You keep looking back. Those decisions have been made and the ink in the history books is already dry. Keep your eyes forward.”
Vi nodded, twisting the reins in her fingers. Deneya was right: forward was the only path for them now. Forward into the snowdrifts that stretched across the forest floors from the last vestiges of winter. Forward to the place where every line of fate collided.
“Now, how much longer until we’re at this town you mentioned?”
