“Damn it, Raylynn, we have an opportunity and we need to take it. Let’s get out of here!” Baldair shouted. But Raylynn was rooted to the spot, her eyes on Vi. “Raylynn.”
The woman stepped to the prince, who helped her into the saddle. Vi watched the motion, already familiar and tender. She couldn’t help but remember the slip of a girl who came to have her future told by a princess, and who yearned to serve the crown.
Raylynn had Vi’s help then, just as she had Vi’s help now, and didn’t realize it in either instance. Vi smiled faintly and, while they were distracted, stepped into the burning building once more, allowing the fire to close behind her.
“Look, look there!” she heard a man shout outside, followed by a snap of the reins and the gallop of a horse.
“Zira, your daughter is safe for a little longer.” Vi took in the burning inn around her. The moment of tenderness immolated on the flames.
Chapter Seventeen
“Areyou certain about just leaving it here?” Deneya asked as the waves off the coast of Meru crashed against her midsection.
“It’s a mostly sheltered cove, we’ve anchored it at low tide, and no one comes this way.” Vi listed off all the reasons she’d been repeating to herself for the past day while they decided what to do with the sailboat they’d bought in Norin. If Vi’s plan worked out, they wouldn’t need the small vessel again, anyway. “I don’t want to go all the way to Toris and risk someone seeing it docked there for too long.”
“But we risk coming back and not seeing it at all.”
“Then we buy another boat.”
“Oh, right, we’ll just buy another boat, because money can solve all our problems. Perfect princess logic, that,” Deneya muttered as she sloshed up the black sand beach to where Vi and Taavin were waiting. They carried two packs apiece and not much else. Deneya had the heaviest satchel of them all—the one completely filled with clanking gold coins.
While the gold of old Solaris had no meaning on Meru, gold was gold. If they needed to, they could smelt the coins into bars.
“I shudder to think of what your opinions of me would’ve been if we’d met earlier.” Vi held out a hand, helping Deneya free her feet from the cloying sand of the tides.
“Everything happens in its own time, just as it’s supposed to,” Taavin said thoughtfully. It sounded like an echo of his bygone days as the Voice.
They started up the beach toward the lowest point of the sheer cliffs. There was no man-made path, which was why Vi had picked this particular location to anchor. No one seemed to come this way. But she could see a path up the rocks if they were careful.
It was noon by the time they reached the top. Deneya massaged her aching hands and rolled her shoulders while Vi and Taavin stood unbothered. Vi wanted to tell herself it was because the woman carried the heaviest satchel of all of them. But she knew it was more than that.
Vi wasn’t tired now, just like she’d never grown weary on their crossing from the Dark Isle to Meru. It was the same reason she could pilot their vessel through the night and have enough energy come the dawn to adjust the rigging on their single sail.
With every step she took in this world, she was further from her own, and further from the mortal casing she used to know. Whether she wanted to or not, she was truly embracing her new body and purpose.
“The Twilight Forest isn’t far.” Vi pointed when Deneya had caught her breath. “Let’s try to get there before nightfall.”
“Heading for the Twilight Forest, intentionally.” Deneya shook her head. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
“Ulvarth hasn’t yet begun his campaign against the morphi, right?” Vi looked to Taavin, who nodded once.
“Ulvarth doesn’t begin making his moves for a few years yet, usually.”
She turned back to Deneya. “But you still hate them?”
“Hateis too strong a word. Personally, I feel little toward the morphi, good or bad. But I know it’s a tense subject for the Faithful, and Lumeria has made it clear that we don’t want to give a reason for those tensions to boil over.”
“Smart woman,” Vi said under her breath.
They discussed the delicate politics of the Morphi and Draconi as they walked. Vi remembered what Deneya had said in Yon regarding the Draconi and noted the excited fascination in the woman’s voice—rivaled only by the warm tones she used to speak about Queen Lumeria.
Perhaps, when all this was over, Vi could meet the Queen once more, but not as a tired girl. She’d meet the queen as… Vi’s imagination abandoned her when she tried to picture herself beyond the fall of Raspian.
Perhaps she and Deneya and Taavin could continue adventuring, buying skiffs and sailing to the world’s edges. They could go to the isle of Dolarian and see if there were truly fire-breathing, winged beasts or if it was all just lore. Vi tried to imagine herself sailing to the far reaches of the maps in her mind, which was somehow easier than picturing herself sitting comfortably on the Dark Isle.
No matter what, when it came to who she would become, her mind’s eye was blurry.
Borrowed time, a voice seemed to whisper from somewhere within her.
