“Good thing we are, then,” he intoned lowly, moving to embrace me quickly.
“Everyone from Alvor is safe,” he replied as he pulled back, answering my question. My eyebrows rose in shock.
“Not one is injured or dead?”
Talamh shook his head.
“That’s wonderful!”
“It did not come without cost,” he said gravely.
“Yes, the ships. I saw them?—”
“Peytor is lost,” Folami said quickly, as if the words were fighting to roll off her tongue. My blood ran cold, and I chewed my lip.
“I think we would have felt if he?—”
Talamh shook his head. “There were no survivors from the naval attack. We checked the water briefly.”
“Where did you hide?” I asked, avoiding the conversation about Peytor. A shadow passed through Folami’s eyes, but she quickly banished it once more.
“The caves,” she said, her beads tinkling lightly as she moved, gesturing to the mountains to the west.
I nodded, understanding dawning.
“So, what now? Where did they go? What is our directive?” I turned expectantly toward Folami and Talamh. I may be the most powerful magically, but these two knew more about battle and war than I ever would. Trying to formulate some kind of half-cocked plan on my own, expecting them to follow because I was a goddess, would be foolish at best and deadly at worst.
“We move south. Solace and her army passed through midday and headed south of the city. They have a few hours’ head start on us, but it’s our belief she’s heading for Vespera.”
I frowned and scratched my brow in thought.
“But why? Why not just come up from Kiluo?”
“They probably did,” Talamh admitted, hooking his massive hands in his belt. “My best assessment is that it’s a two-pronged attack.”
“They’re going to attack from both directions and overwhelm them,” I whispered with a shake of my head. “We need to try and put pressure on them from the north.”
Talamh grunted in agreement.
“We are few in number?—”
“But we have a goddess now,” Folami said, her intense stare never leaving mine. “That has to count for something.”
I nodded shakily, hoping she was right even as unease tickled the back of mymind. There was something wrong with my powers, like a damper was placed upon them, making it nearly impossible to draw. I only hoped the block was temporary.
“To Vespera, then?” I asked as the sound of stone crunching betrayed the arrival of more survivors.
“We rest for the night here,” Talamh grunted. “But then, yes. To Vespera.”
Chapter One Hundred Four
Rohak
No one spoke, no one breathed as we hid between the undulating terrain and deep within the ancient oaks that surrounded the hills.
Scouts returned roughly an hour ago, hurriedly telling Torin and me that Solace’s army was quickly making its way through the northern part of Deucena after nearly flattening Alvor. I could see the tension in Torin’s eyes, the tick in his jaw, as he processed the potential loss of his friends.
But he knew as well as I did that now was not the time for mourning or grief.
