“Who knows.” Vi looked out over the branches at the Imperial camp beyond so he didn’t see the truth on her face. “Let’s go.”
“Just where are we going?” he asked, though he was already following her.
“The axe will be too guarded here. We’ll meet them back at the Crossroads and take it from her then—before it makes its way south and into Victor’s hands.”
Vi’s fingers twitched.Soon. So very soon the last of the crystal weapons would be in her possession.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“I am so tiredof trekking across this continent!” Deneya moaned from her bedroll.
“Keep it down.” Despite herself, Vi chuckled. She very much shared Deneya’s sentiment. “There might still be Northerners in these woods.”
“After two nights ago? I doubt it.”
Two nights ago… Those had been the final hours of Shaldan. They’d heard the fighting in the distance, echoing eerily through the towering trees. Vi could almost feel the earth weeping for the deaths of its children as she’d lain staring up at the canopy with wide eyes.
“I wonder what happened.” Vi glanced in the direction of Soricium. “Howit happened, rather.”
“One war looks much like the next,” Taavin said solemnly.
“You’re right. At least we didn’t have to be there for this one.” Vi stared at the fire she kept burning magically between them. Part of her willed Yargen to give her some kind of sign in the flames that they were on the right path. The other part of her was afraid of what she might see. “We should get going for the day. We want to make it out ahead of the army.”
“It’ll take them weeks to move a mass of that size,” Deneya said with a yawn. “We can get a few more hours of shut-eye.”
“We’ve slept late enough.”
“Lies.”
“Don’t you want a bed?” Taavin tried to reason with her.
Deneya just rolled onto her side, gathering more leaves under her head. “Look at this pillow, so lavish. Don’t be jealous.”
“Deneya—”
“Deneya is sleeping.” She snored loudly for emphasis and Vi couldn’t resist laughing. It felt good to laugh. So good that guilt made an attempt to follow it as if to ask how dare she be even remotely happy right now. But Vi shut out the negative emotion.
There was always someone hurting in the world. Someone was suffering every moment of every day. Sometimes, that person was her.
Vi wouldn’t feel guilty for brief moments of joy.
“Shame that we’ll have to leave Deneya behind.” Vi extinguished the hovering fire with a thought and began rolling her own bedroll. “She was such a good companion.”
“Indeed. Certainly did a few things along the way,” Taavin said, packing up as well.
“What were they, again?” Vi asked Taavin with a grin.
“You know, I can’t recall.”
“They must’ve not been very important, then.”
“Perhaps it’s not a shame we’ll have to leave her behind after all.”
“All right, I’m up.” Deneya sat. “And before either of you gets smug, it’s only because you’re both that terrible at teasing. I couldn’t stand to listen a moment longer.”
Taavin laughed and the sound was a recharge to Vi’s system. Between the tense moments of guiding fate and holding the world together with straining threads, there were still traces of normalcy—moments of pretend. These, more than anything, were the moments that kept her human.
She vowed to cling to them until her last breath.
