Tonight, Darion Thorne had left her in an impossible position. Without the crystal she’d demanded, she couldn’t let him or Jordana go free without looking weak and ineffectual as a ruler, not only to the Order but more importantly, to her own people.
She had failed them catastrophically once.
She could never fail them again.
While she might put on a resolute front for Sebathiel and the rest of her court and citizenry, deep down she feared it was only a matter of time before war collided with Atlantis’s shores.
Whether it came from the Order or other enemies on the outside remained to be seen.
The only thing she could be certain of was without more crystals, the realm could not hold out against anyone for long.
She would never willingly take away the colony’s, but what if she had no choice? She didn’t want to think about that awful prospect. And even if the Order decided to use theirs against her, there was still another thing to consider. The matter of the unusual disturbance in the region of the Deadlands.
There was no question that crystals had caused the detonation. One crystal alone could not produce that kind of power. The only questions were how had the explosion occurred, and how long before someone decided to use the crystals for their own destructive means?
Possibly even the Order.
“Has there been any word from General Taebris and his search party?” she asked Seb.
He gave a grave shake of his head. “Nothing yet.”
She frowned. “It’s been days since they departed for the region. Do you suppose anything’s wrong?”
“They’ve got a large territory to search, Your Grace. These things take time.”
She nodded, but couldn’t dismiss her niggling sense of foreboding. “I hope you’re right, Seb.”
“We could send another group after them to join the search,” he suggested.
“No, not yet.” As impatient as she was to locate and recover the crystals, the risks were immense.
Sending more of her men without being certain of the first team’s progress might only be putting additional lives in danger.
Not to mention thinning the realm’s small army even further.
“Perhaps Nuranthia can shed some light on the team’s whereabouts, Your Grace?”
Selene nodded. “Yes, perhaps. Send her in with her bowl on your way out, Seb.”
His face registered a note of surprise at her polite dismissal, but he merely lowered his head in acknowledgment. “Of course, Your Grace.”
A few moments after he had gone, the seer appeared in the open doorway carrying one of her golden bowls. Selene motioned her inside and waited as the woman poured a pitcher of clear water into the basin.
At Selene’s request, the seer opened a window onto the swath of barren, ghostly forest in a forgotten corner of the Siberian wilderness. There was no sign of Taebris or the soldiers who accompanied him. Only an empty woodland utterly devoid of life.
“Perhaps I can illuminate a different area for Your Grace?” Nuranthia asked after several fruitless minutes of staring into the water with no sign of her men.
Selene shook her head. “No, that will be all.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” She reached out to collect her bowl.
“Wait, Nuranthia.” The seer froze. “Before you go . . . there is something else I want to see.”
“As you wish, Your Grace.”
The seer listened without so much as a flicker of reaction before conjuring the vision her queen had commanded.
Then Selene peered into the water at the window Nuranthia had opened for her. It was a vision into the east tower cell.
