But first, he had togetthere.
If Soren wanted to outrun whoever pursued them, he had to take a different back road. Somewhere no one would think they’d venture. Without conscious thought, Soren’s gaze strayed north.
A person’s greed for power had ruined a country Soren hadn’t set foot in for years, and that same greed was sinking fingers deep into Solaria. He doubted Joelle would believe Vanya would ever allow his daughter to leave the country. But that was precisely what Soren realized he needed to do in order to get them safely to Karnak.
“Would you like a rock sugar stick?” Soren asked, needing to distract Raiah for a bit.
Raiah’s eyes brightened at the offer, and she nodded furiously, some of her discomfort momentarily forgotten. Soren straightened and opened up the side travel compartment where the food supplies were kept. Alida, her household’s majordomo, had slipped in a small cloth packet of rock sugar sticks, the half dozen treats sweetened with different flavors and tinted in all manner of colors. He let Raiah choose, and while she happily munched away on a red one, Soren set about working on their reroute.
He had a map, buried at the bottom of his travel compartment, that showed the northern border of Solaria in detail where it ran up against Daijal and Ashion. In all his twenty-five years, Soren had never crossed it into the north. The wardens’ governor had always assigned him to borders in Solaria since he’d become an active warden.
A warden’s job was to watch over the borders—those between countries and those between the living and the dead. Maps were their livelihoods, and Soren dug his out, using his compass to navigate a route north into Ashion.
Joelle could haverionetkasanywhere in Solaria, but he had to hope she had none in Ashion. If he could get Raiah there by way of back roads, he could try for an airship to take them to Karnak. Ashionens wouldn’t know Raiah the way Solarians would. A quiet, ruthless little voice in the back of his head whispered that if the worst came to pass, at least Raiah would be safe for a time beyond Solaria’s borders and Joelle’s grasping schemes.
Soren pulled the oblong-shaped televox with its filigree-pressed cover from the case on his belt. The shards of clarion crystal forming the Lion constellation glinted in the sunlight. Soren undid the tiny latch and thumbed it open. Small buttons and switches surrounded the metal mesh of a speaker. He tapped out the pattern of Vanya’s personal code, the soft chimes of the televox catching Raiah’s attention.
She reached for his belt with sticky fingers, standing on her tiptoes. “Are you calling Papa?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure if he’ll answer,” Soren said.
The glow of clarion crystals flickered in time to the chimes the televox let out. The sound continued for nearly a minute before it cut off and Vanya’s voice came through, a hint of desperation in his tone. “Soren?”
“Papa!” Raiah shrieked, reaching for the televox and jumping up and down.
Soren lifted his hand higher, steadying Raiah with his other one. “It’s us.”
Raiah’s ecstatic cry wasn’t loud enough to drown out the punched-out sigh of relief from Vanya. “Have you made it to Karnak?”
Soren tightened his grip on the televox. Hearing Vanya’s voice was both a blessing and a curse, to know the other man was alive but not there by Soren’s side. “About that.”
“What happened?” Vanya demanded.
Soren grimaced, looking at the horizon while Raiah danced from one foot to the other, impatient in the way all children could be. “Rionetkasfound us on the train we were riding. More were waiting for us at the next way station stop. I got us off the train, but we couldn’t outrun them. They had racing carriages and an ornithopter at their disposal.”
Vanya sucked in a heavy breath. “Are you both all right? How did you escape? Where are you now?”
“I used a bomb,” Soren lied. “The same sort I used in the quarry. It stopped our pursuers, but traveling through Solaria to Karnak is no longer a safe option.”
“Amir would not harm her or you. He’s promised nothing but safety.”
“I know, and I hope you’re right. But getting there is our current problem. I have some options, one of them being I turn my velocycle back around and head to Calhames.”
Vanya was quiet for a moment, long enough that Soren thought the call had somehow ended before he spoke again. “Joelle is presently in Calhames.”
Soren looked up at the sky, squinting against the sunlight. “I see.”
And he did, in that moment—all the dangers that Vanya faced alone in the capital without him. It made the distance between them even worse, despite knowing the separation was needed.
“Until I can sway more Houses from Joelle’s circle of influence, it isn’t safe for Raiah to be here with me at this time.”
“Does Joelle know where you sent your daughter?”
“She must if therionetkasfound you and Raiah.”
He could hear the banked-down fury in Vanya’s voice even through the tinny, long-distance connection. The rage provided some bit of comfort, despite the situation they found themselves in.
“Traveling through Solaria isn’t safe. Not withrionetkashunting us,” Soren said.
