“Oh no…don’t tell me she captured you, too?” Vhalla rested a hand underneath his jaw. The movement was familial. It put a twinge of sorrow between Eira’s ribs.
This would be what brought Cullen back… He would find his path with the nobles in Solaris once more. He’d see the good of it—all the good he could do when he wasn’t solely at the behest of his father. And she…
She wouldn’t stop him.
How could she? If that was the life he was meant for, then she’d be happy he’d found it.
“I am all right,” Cullen assured the Empress.
“We should go help bring order to Hokoh. They look like they could use warming up.” Vi turned toward the city in the distance, still glistening with frost. Eira made more of a conscious effort to relax her magic.
“Lorn is there,” Olivin dutifully reported to Vi.
“Is he?” Vi sounded pleased. “Rebec had said he was going to see if he could solicit help.”
“Rebec is alive, even still?” Even though Lorn had said as much, Ducot still looked for further confirmation.
“She is, last we left Risen. She was the one to help us get out.” A frown tugged on Vi’s lips. “I’ve no idea how long she could last there. The Pillars were relentless.”
“It’s amazing you could escape at all—that you even survived.” Eira allowed the sentiment to carry a bit of weight. Judging by the lift of Vi’s eyebrows, she heard it. “Not that I’m not grateful for it, of course.”
“Never doubt the might of two of the strongest Firebearers to ever walk the earth.” Aldrik placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulder proudly. Vi’s eyes just shone and she allowed her silence to be her agreement. But there was more to it. The woman had Lightspinning powers as well…and could frighten off Adela.
“What are your plans now?” Eira looked in the general direction of Risen. “That magic could be of use overthrowing the Pillars.”
“I know that Meru underneath the Pillars is bad for Solaris. And…” Vi’s words dropped off and her fierce stance relaxed. She followed Eira’s gaze, looking to Risen. “This is personal for me.”
“Taavin.” Eira scolded herself for being so dense. If he wasn’t here with them, then it didn’t bode well.
“They have him.” Vi’s hands balled into fists, white-hot flame licking around them. “They took him when we were trying to get out. He…”
“He stayed behind so we could escape,” Vhalla finished for her daughter, lowering her gaze.
“Since Hokoh is liberated from the Pillars and already has operations thanks to Lorn, we’ll use it as a southern base to collect our forces.” Vi turned back to the city before them. Her resolve was ironclad once more. The trace of emotion and doubt completely evaporated. But Eira had seen it. And she couldsympathize. “Then we’ll move farther on to Parth. We’ll have enough momentum to take it, and we can use their wharf to collect the armada from Solaris and move for Risen in a few days’ time.” Her focus returned to Eira. “Can you get word to Adela?”
“I can.”
“What?” Ducot’s surprise was across his face.
“How?” Yonlin asked.
“I have my ways,” Eira said enigmatically. She and Adela had discussed a system before leaving. Though it had yet to truly be put to the test. “Shorter messages will be better than longer ones.”
Vi nodded. Her lack of surprise continued to reinforce for Eira that her magical abilities extended far beyond what most considered possible. “Can you ask her, now, if she’s seen the Solaris ship?”
Eira exhaled and released the last of her magic on Hokoh. She shifted her focus to the moisture in the air, the breezes that whispered of the distant sea. Her mind’s eye plunged into those cold waters and swam in their currents underneath. Through white-capped swells and out of the bay into the ocean beyond.
Brow furrowing, it took her a minute to locate Adela’s magic. And then two more to find theStormfrost. A tether of power, thrown like a lifeline, raced up the side of the hull, skittered across the deck, and looped up Adela’s cane, coming to a stop on the back of her hand as a pool of dew.
Adela lifted and lowered her cane and Eira could almost imagine her saying,Out with it, girl.
With an invisible hand, Eira wrote across the deck of theStormfrostat Adela’s feet in icy letters, raised from the permafrost on the deck:Solaris ships?
One tap of her cane reverberated through the magical connection. One tap meantyes.
Eira opened her eyes, but kept the connection with Adela alive. “She’s seen the Solaris armada.”
“Are they close?” Vi asked.
