With that, Dagaal pushed to a stand, walking around the fire until he stopped just in front of me. I craned my head up so I could see his fierce yet burning expression. A proffered hand came to rest just in front of my face, and I laid my pale palm in his much larger, much darker one.
“Now, we will retire to our homes to prepare for the journey, and you will tell me of everything that has happened in the last thirty-some years.”
Chapter Eighty-Eight
Solace
The freezing water lapped against the hulls of the small schooners I’d commandeered from Samyr, the wood so white they nearly resembled the chunks of ice that floated quietly past. The only sounds that accompanied our journey were the creak of hulls and sails as the wind blew us ever northward. No words were spoken, no stories told as we drifted closer toward our destination.
Closer to the weapon that will win this war.
My bones ached with anticipation—or perhaps the cold, it was difficult to say now that my immortality was stolen. I held little doubt that the godling acted with the help of my half sister’s daughter.
I gripped my hands tighter, the knuckles popping and aching with the motion, just at the thought of her.
She will die. Slowly, painfully, in front of her mother.
A feral smile tipped the edges of my lips with the thought of her death.
“Goddess,” a soft voice slithered from over my shoulder, and I ground my teeth at its presence.
“Razia,” I barked, never peeling my eyes from the mists that dominated the sea this far north.
“We will make landfall soon.”
“How far away are we from the coastline?”
Razia hummed for a moment, the sound setting my teeth even further on edge.
“A few miles at most,” he purred.
A true smile broke across my face then.
“Halt the ships. I will travel from here,” I hissed, pulling on my Air Magic, intending to float the remaining distance.
“Goddess, if I may, I suggest taking me with you. These people are not . . . kind to outsiders and?—”
“I am agoddess,” I spat, turning to face the sniveling man who dared call himself my “advisor.” He never winced or cowered, simply raised his eyebrows as if I were an unruly toddler throwing a tantrum.
“Be that as it may, you are amortalgoddess.” Razia’s voice was smooth, but the words cut, leaving a jagged wound in their wake. I stumbled backward as if physically struck. “A well-placed arrow or spear while you are otherwise distracted . . .” Razia trailed off, unfolding his hands from his cloak to spread them wide.
I let the magic die in my palms, even as I wished to conjure it once more to wipe the snide smirk off Razia’s face.
Soon. You need him for this, and then nothing more.
I stepped away from the spindly man, leaning on the thin railing that separated the deck from the perilous waters below.
True to his word, the remaining journey was a half hour at most, the coastline suddenly becoming clear as we passed through a particularly heavy cloud of fog.
Calls were made, and splashes resonated as a small rowboat was lowered into the freezing water, ready to carry Razia and me ashore.
The air was charged, anticipation thrumming through my veins as the small boat slowly progressed toward an icy beach.
Despite the fact that Oathic should have been near enough to see from the water, the air was silent, the coastline still.
“Shouldn’t they be watching us?” I hissed, but Razia ignored me, his eyebrows furrowed in thought.
The rowboat came to a sudden stop, jolting as the bottom hit the icy shoreline.
