Tallu’s head whipped around, his eyes wild when they landed on Lerolian. The blood monk looked tired. Three more came through the wall, the last of Tallu’s spies, the last of the army he had used to defeat the Imperium. Tallu didn’t speak, but I could see from his expression that he knew something was wrong.
“Kacha or Bemishu is burning what is left of the Tavornai forests.” Lerolian shook his head. “Saxu and Empress Koque wait to tell you the news on shore, but your enemies have found you. Saxu sent men to the ships we brought, but the forest has consumed them. If the sailors or soldiers left behind survived, they are gone.”
Lerolian looked at Namati, his expression freezing, jaw clenched. For a moment, I wondered what he knew of the ex-imperial general. What had Namati done to him?
But then Lerolian spoke, and it was with the finality of someone who had already convinced a child to destroy their own empire piece by piece, regardless of how many people were hurt in the process.
“You will need Namati and his men,” Lerolian said.
Tallu’s face froze, and I nearly opened my mouth, but Tallu grabbed my hand tightly, squeezing it. He had so much experience with the ghosts. He knew that we could not respond to them.
Tallu needed to be thesourceof whispers, not the cause ofthem. And if a single person turned to another and murmured their questions about Tallu’s sanity, then he had already lost.
Tallu inhaled deeply, and I wondered what he was going to do. I wondered what Iwantedhim to do. My heart broke into pieces.
The terrible thing was that Tallu was right. He could not offer over Tavornai as the sacrifice for Namati’s help and still claim to have united the continent. Betraying those last surviving elves might help subdue Bemishu and Kacha, but it would not save Tallu. We needed another way to secure Namati’s support.
One of the sailors knocked on the captain’s door, opening it when Spider called out for him to enter.
“Imperials are on the shore. The empress is with them. They’re waving a flag of armistice.” He looked at Spider, fixing his gaze on her, as though he could declare his loyalty most firmly by avoiding glancing at Tallu. “There’s smoke on the horizon. Do you want us to kill the imperials?”
“General Namati,” Tallu said, then stopped, turning to look at me. I could see the same conflict that ran through me mirrored in his expression. Then his jaw clenched, and I knew that he was going be the man his entire life had sharpened him to be. “I intend to rid the Imperium of Kacha and Bemishu. Will you be my ally in this?”
“Did your people set fire to what’s left of the Tavornai forest?” Namati asked.
“No. I offer you the chance to put it out. Once and for all. Help us, and Tavornai will be free. I will not give you rule of it, but the Imperium will never again violate its borders.” Tallu’s face was so still that it was only the slightest twitch in his jaw that told me he wasn’t comfortable with the direction we were now forced to take. In another world, maybe he would have lied to Namati and then stabbed him in the back for his loyalty.
Even now, we’d have to be careful. All those soldiers willing to throw their lives into the fire for us, would they be so eager if they knew Tallu wanted peace and not conquest?
“So, will you finally succeed as heir of House Atobe?” Spider asked, her tone rising and falling curiously.
“I will free the Imperium from the leeches that would destroy everything good about it. I will fulfill the second prophecy given to Emperor Wollu.” Tallu looked between Spider and Namati. “This alliance you have built, this freedom to love and protect what is important to you will not be at odds with the future I see.”
“Then let us go to war, Emperor Tallu.” Namati drank down the last of his alcohol. “Let us burn so brightly that anyone who would rise against you knows it is futile.”
Tallu rose, glancing at Spider. He nodded his head, and she clicked her tongue against her teeth again.
“So stubborn to think that you need to try to trick me,” Spider said.
“I would not dare, not when you have given me back a future.” Tallu looked at me, and in his eyes I saw a promise. The corners of his eyes turned up just slightly as though to tell me that the only person he needed to be was the man at my side.
I nodded back at him, then stood myself, striding out onto the deck. Tallu would succeed in the promise, but he might not be fast enough to save himself. I couldn’t save him, but I wouldn’t let the rage that built in me catch fire.
Naî and the forest dragon were still in the rigging of the ship. They turned to look at me, Naî’s smile turning toothy as she saw the expression on my face.
“I need a ride,” I called up to them.
“I am no pack horse,” Naî sniffed. She looked away.
The forest dragon came together slowly, a thousand small leaves dropping out of the rigging and landing on the deck, linking together and becoming a massive body. When it was large enough, I reached to hold tight to its crest just between its wings. Swinging myself onto its back, I saw Namati and Spider come out of the captain’s quarters. Tallu lingered in the doorway, Lerolian at his side, whispering in his ear. Tallu’s face wasshadowed, but he didn’t ask what I was going to do. He didn’t need to.
“Let’s go,” I said to the forest dragon. “Take me to where it’s burning.”
The dragon pushed up into the air, and I felt it tense under my legs, shifting not unlike a Borealis wolf. We sped over the beach, Saxu and Koque raising their hands against the bright sunlight to catch sight of me. Then we swept over what was left of Tavornai. The swamp where we were had been filled with trees, and I was so used to them that when we reached the hollowed-out areas, it was a shock. Massive mudlands stretched out, thousands of stumps where there had once been forests. Charred ghosts of trees where one emperor or another had ordered the forests and villages razed.
I looked over my shoulder, relieved to see that the enormous elder trees I had just finished growing were still standing. The smoke was far in the distance, where Tavornai met with the Ariphadi desert.
We crossed patches of trees, the land drying out as we approached the desert. The trees shrank, growing wider, their branches protecting the earth from the hot sun. And then I realized they hadn’t shrunk, exactly. Instead, they had been replanted, carefully.
