I slid onto Res’s back, and we leapt from the side of the ship, sailing low over the water before soaring up above the crowd. Res called out, releasing a final thunderclap of goodbye, before we circled back to the ship.
“Show-off,” Kiva muttered as I dismounted.
I grinned. “It makes them happy.”
“And it gives them hope,” Caylus added.
“I wish it could do the same for him,” I murmured with a flick of my eyes toward Onis. The scraggly crewman stood tying off a length of rope, eyeing Res indiscreetly with a sour look.
Kiva clapped me on the back. “Forget him.”
As I turned, the ship’s healer, Luan, approached me. She proffered a letter. “One of the crowd asked me to give this to you, Princess.”
I took it with a frown. “Who?”
“Someone who’d been paid to deliver it. Apparently, it’s been chasing you through the towns you’ve visited.” She shrugged one slender shoulder and retreated.
I tore the letter open with growing apprehension.
My mother knows where you’re going.
I stilled. Ericen.
My head snapped up, and I searched the retreating shoreline for him, but the milling crowd had dispersed into a frenzy of movement, and the white stone buildings were already growing smaller. If he’d ever been here, he was gone now. I returned to the letter’s crisp writing.
Shearen overheard some of your crew discussing it in Isair. I’m sorry, Thia. I didn’t know he’d followed me, and I had to keep up appearances once he was there. I convinced him afterward that I’d wanted to capture you myself, but I’m not sure my mother believed me. She suspects me, but I intend to stay with her to help you any way I can from this side.
I know you don’t trust me, but I’m on your side. I’m sorry it took me so long to say it.
Take care of yourself,
Ericen
The letter crumpled in my closed fist.
A few moments later, Kiva, Samra, and I stood deliberating the letter in Samra’s office.
Aroch had clambered onto Kiva’s shoulders the moment she’d entered and refused to budge. “I don’t believe him,” Kiva said.
“Surprise,” I muttered, and she batted my shoulder. I held up my hands. “I know, I know. I trust too easily and all that. But what if he’s not lying? What if we’re sailing into a trap?”
“He’s the trap!” Kiva exclaimed. “Razel’s probably hoping we’ll abandon whatever we’re planning or turn aside for Aris or somewhere else predictable.”
“Or he’s genuinely remorseful for what happened and trying to help us.”
“What part ofhe betrayed youdon’t you remember?”
“The part where heletus escape!”
Samra stood abruptly, interrupting our debate. “There’s nothing to debate here. Whether the prince’s warning is true or not, we have to get to Eselin. We’ll just have to deal with whatever we find there.”
Her words cooled my annoyance with a sharp chill.
Whatever we found, it wouldn’t be good.
* * *
The trip to Eselin was charted to take just over three days, two at sea and a final day and a half inland to the capital. Res and I spent the first one flying every chance we could. We’d ditched the bridle and begun practicing using his magic while in flight, something that thrilled Caylus but only inspired more muttered curses from Onis.
