“Wait here,” I commanded the man who had spent the last hour rowing us ashore.
Immediately, the cold soaked through my boots and thin dress, the chill biting at my skin as the wind whipped at my hair. A small berm separated the icy beach from the rest of the plains. I watched in impassive annoyance as Razia spent a few minutes battling the wind while hiking over it, following in my footsteps.
Teeth chattering in my skull, we crested the top, and I gazed at the plains below, magic jumping to my hands, as if we could snatch the girl by just laying eyes on the pitiful village.
Where I expected ice homes or even animal hides protecting small enclosures, there was nothing. Just a massive expanse of white, fresh snow.
“Razia,” I gritted. “Where. Are. They? Where is my weapon?”
“Goddess, she was supposed to be here. The village was righthere. This is where I left her and—” I cut off his sniveling words with a hand against his throat. His eyes bulged from his head, fingers scrambling for purchase on my iron grip.
“She’sgone?” I cried, voice nearing hysterics. Razia said nothing, just gagged in response, still fighting desperately for his pitiful life—a life I would happily extinguish.
I loosened my grip, Razia dropping like a stone to the ice-crusted snow as he gagged and hacked, desperately trying to catch his breath.
I’ve been thwarted . . . again. Duped. Betrayed. Made a mockery and fool.
Blistering rage built deep in my belly, bubbling over until it ran hot through my veins, obscuring all rational thought.
“That bitch of a half sister,” I muttered. “Shedid this.” I knew the child we took was important to her, but never realized she’d risk crossing the Ice Shelf again just to retrieve her.
It was a mistake I would not make again.
I pulled hard on my magic, Water pooling in one palm as Air swirled in the other. My soul felt like it was cleaving in two from the sheer amount of power I drew, but still I reached deeper, searching formore.
“Goddess,” Razia hacked, crawling toward me, but I aimed a kick at his prostrating form. My boot connected with his nose; a satisfyingcrunchaccompanied spots of blood and a small cry of pain from the sniveling coward on the ground.
“Solace,” he begged, voice muddied by his broken nose. “There is still time. We can still?—”
The longer he spoke, the hotter my blood boiled until my ire released with a bloodcurdling scream. Magic rushed from my fingertips, the power of it nearly knocking me from my feet. I drained my reserves completely, but the outcome was worth the cost. A jet of pure ice shot from my hands, spearing deep into the ground and cleaving it in two with a resoundingboomso loud, it shook the ground beneath our feet.
Tears from the icy wind that followed fell from my eyes to freeze on my cheeks, but I did nothing to wipe them away.
The earth moved and shuddered with violent cracking noises so loud I could barely hear my own thoughts.
“Now,” I said as the earth shifted, the Ice Shelf falling into the dark, arctic waters, creating a pathway from here to Alvor. “We attack them now. They have denied me what is rightfully mine for the final time. Now, I must extinguish their flame. Permanently.”
Razia followed me wordlessly down the berm and into the small boat, a new skepticism and healthy dose of fear swimming in his eyes. The wooden vesselsmelled distinctly like urine, and I wrinkled my nose as I realized the sailor wet himself in fear.
Scowling, I bared my teeth, sending him back to rowing with a small squeak. The cracking of ice and rumbles of the earth followed in our wake, the first strands of the destructive symphony I would rain upon those who dared deny me.
Chapter Eighty-Nine
Peytor
Alight wind blew across the bay, snapping the sails and ruffling the tunics of all those standing on the top deck of the ship. None of the seventy-two Vessels and Mages aboard the twelve Iluulian ships spoke, the impending battle a palpable muzzle.
The unknown was almost as fear-inducing as the silence and heavy fog that swept across the empty bay. Both grew thicker by the minute, causing alarm to ring loudly in my mind. We floated here in the off chance Solace commissioned sailing vessels from Katiska or even Iluul and came around the north, but we’d assessed that likelihood at a very small percentage.
Even if theydidcommand a navy, one of our scouts along the coast would have sent a message via the communication stone I held tightly in my fist.
I’d received no word, not even a whisper of their whereabouts.
Dread settled heavy as the fog slowly rolled across the ship’s decks with purposeful intent, obscuring my sight entirely until I could barely see the deck I stood upon and the rigging I clung to.
My heart pounded and sweat coated my palms as whispers began to float between the six Mage-Vessel pairs I had onboard this particular ship. A quick glance in the crow’s nest and up to the captain’s deck showed the Deucenans commandeering our vessel were just as nervous as my soldiers.
“Quiet!” I barked, my nerves causing me to speak harsher than I normally would. “I need to listen,” I added.
