“What must be done to accomplish our goal might not always be pretty,” Eira answered calmly.
“That was downright piracy.”
“I am a pirate.”
Yonlin opened and closed his mouth, as if the fact was sinking in for the first time. His attention swung to Olivin. “Are we just going to sit idly by and let this happen?”
“For the greater good, sometimes ugly things must happen,” Olivin said begrudgingly. Hardly the endorsement of piracy she would’ve hoped for from her future fleet master.
Her eyes darted between the two men. Did Yonlin know what Olivin intended? When the time came, would Olivin be able to leave his brother’s side?
“Eira… You are a good woman. You don’t hurt innocents.” It sounded like Yonlin was trying to convince himself.
“I don’t delight in it. Nor do I go out of my way to do it.” That much was true. She was more than content to let innocents live so long as they didn’t force her hand.
“Then what do you call that back there?” Alyss had overheard and spoke up. Eira glanced over her shoulder. Alyss’s stare might as well have stabbed daggers straight through Eira.
“I told you.” She slowed her mount and spoke loud enough for them all to hear. “I will give Pillars no quarter. I am here to destroy Ulvarth and the rest of his ilk. The people I killed in there were Pillars through and through. They bore the markings and gladly praised Ulvarth. They were not innocent.” She swept her eyes over them. “But, while my ice covered the town, I did not kill the rest of the townsfolk.” At least not intentionally…if someone slipped on some ice and cracked their head, that was on them.
When she finished, she swept her gaze across them, searching for any signs of objection. There was none, and she turned her attention back to Yonlin.
“Am I clear?”
He nodded mutely.
“Good. Let’s focus on riding; we’ve a lot of ground to cover before nightfall.” Eira tried to soften her tone but she wasn’t sure if she succeeded. It was hard at times to figure out where the lines were when it came to them. When she was their friend, lover, or confidant, and when she was their pirate captain.
Olivin came up beside her this time. “He means well.”
“I know.” She spoke as softly as he did. “But does he understand what this is going to cost? Will he be able to take the shot?”
“Against Ulvarth? Unequivocally.” Olivin’s lack of hesitation reassured her some. “The rest of the costs…I’m not sure about. But I will shield him.”
She studied Olivin from the corners of her eyes. In her periphery, Eira could see a newer streak of white. It seemed every time she drew from the rune on her chest in a significant way, it took a toll on her physical form. But if he noticed, he said nothing.
“Like you shielded him from what you did in the Court of Shadows?” She remembered him saying as much, long ago.
“Something like that,” he murmured. “But know that I am with you.”
Eira nodded. His presence would always be reassuring to her. But if the cards fell, Eira was certain Olivin would do what benefitted Yonlin best, every time. What made the realization all the more painful was that she could understand it. There was a time with Marcus where she wanted them to be everything to each other. Siblings against the world.
But what if she was the thing Olivin wanted to protect his brother from? Where did that leave them?
They had barely made it into the woods to the west of Hokoh when a burst of flame had her horse rearing. She barely managed to avoid being thrown. Frost thickened under the palm that once held the reins as she twisted in her saddle. Cullen’s magic spiked. The earth fractured around Alyss.
“I thought I told you not to come to Meru again, Pirate—” Vi Solaris, Crown Princess of the Solaris Empire, emerged from the shade of the trees, stopping short at the road’s edge. And she was not alone. Her eyes widened. “Eira Landan?”
32
Iknew it. The immediate vindication of seeing Vi emerge from the shadows into the light of the still-smoldering grasses had Eira sitting straighter. The princess wore loose-fitting and filthy clothes. Her hair, usually immaculately plaited, was drawn into a single, thick cord that ran down her back.
But despite the muck and grime, her eyes still shone bright with all the cleverness, determination, and cut-throat nature Eira had always seen in her.
“Your Highness.” Cullen’s initial term of respect became a hasty blurt as two other figures emerged. “Your Majesties.”
Aldrik and Vhalla Solaris looked equally worse for wear. Their wounds, overall, seemed superficial. But Eira didn’t think she was imagining that Emperor Aldrik seemed to favor one side a bit more than the other when he walked.
“Solaris competitors.” Aldrik ran a hand through his dark hair, but it fell messily around his face. A far cry from the usual slicked-back and set style he preferred. “What a stroke of luck.”
