Ione hung her head back.“If you’re trying to goad me into realising I have no plan, you’re wasting your time.I have no plan.Step one isFind Lina; step two isRun Away Together.”
River laughed, incredulous.“Gods, you’re naïve.”
Ione laughed, too, hiccupping and mad, bringing tears to her eyes.She’d harboured thoughts of pretending to be a pilgrim, sneaking around Soliz’s public halls and altars under the guise of praying and leaving alms.Somehow, miraculously, finding Lina.Whisking her away.
This was why Menon left her, she thought, wiping her eyes.She was a child demanding to have her way, daydreaming solutions where there were none.
River dismounted, sighing indulgently like he did when they were younger, when he let her win a game, when he gave in to some whim of hers.He stood beside her horse, waiting patiently for her to slide down from the saddle, let him fold her into his arms.
She did.
“I have no plan,” she whispered into his shoulder, glad for his warmth in the rain, for the familiar scent of him, not yet erased by borrowed clothes and bitter soap.The scent of home.“But neither did Lina, when she sought refuge in Caelos, in Oseidos.She knew how dangerous it was, but she did it anyway.”
River groaned.He was weakening.Across the street, the handful of curious citygoers gradually dispersed, gathering that the drama had come to an end.
“If Lina is still alive, then I have to find her.”She laid her hand on his cheek.“Now, before Saros officially declares war.”
Whatever he thought of her, however stupid this was, River bowed his forehead against hers, his face screwing up like he was in pain.“They’re going to kill us.”
“They won’t.Not pilgrims, not nameless commonfolk bearing – ” She patted her satchel, heard the faint tinkling of coins, her rings, a necklace she found on her mother’s dresser.“ – donations.”
River drew her out of the way of an old woman hobbling past beneath a pink umbrella.“That barely constitutes a plan.”
“That’s why I didn’t count it.”She shrugged.“It’ll get me inside.”
He released her, if only to rub his eyes and sigh.“Soliz will be closed at this hour.”He opened his hands, desperate,Help me.“Can we at least get a room for the night?Regroup, try again tomorrow?”
“Soliz?”The old woman halted, turning; she blinked myopically at them from beneath her umbrella, her back stooped.“Is that what I heard?”
River tugged at her arm, but Ione straightened, fighting to look confident.Or as confident as possible while sopping wet and shivering.“Are we nearby?”Ione asked politely, her voice for guests.She stepped in front of River, concealing the Mahina insignia on his shoulder.“We’ve come a long way.”
“Near enough,” the woman said, squinting up at them with a toothless smile.“I’m heading that way, myself.”She lifted her umbrella, her smile widening when River restrained a tiny agonised noise and took it from her.“Come along.There’s a livery on the way where you can leave your horses.”
Please no, River’s eyes said.But he allowed Ione to pull him along, the umbrella poised over all three of them, as the old woman tottered ahead down the cobblestoned path.
Buildings passed by in a blur as the woman pointed out this landmark and that.Here was the national library; there was the city’s central plaza, a fountain people threw coins into.The market was closed for the evening, but this one sold the best pork belly.And there, that one has the most decadent chocolate.But you knew that, didn’t you, dearie?
Ione’s breath caught.“Pardon?”
“Your accent,” the woman returned.“You’re from Lodestone, originally?”
Her heart thudded.She looped her arm through River’s, pulled him closer.“Yes,” Ione managed.“It’s been… years since we’ve been up here.”Her mind raced for the name of another shrine to Sowelan.“We worship at Heliei Shrine in Sterlingdale.I’m looking forward to seeing Soliz after – after so long.”
The woman nodded, humming.“Well, then – ” She motioned grandly as she turned down another wide street.“Here we are!”
It was bigger than she remembered.Apprehension prickled her skin, hot despite the autumn chill, as Ione squinted through her monocular at the palatial temple, bright white gleaming like crystal in the fiery glow of the lamps.Light shone through the lancet windows lining the main building and the gold-tipped spires flanking it, illuminating a courtyard strikingly devoid of greenery.
Despite being a temple for the Sun God, the place felt cold.
She breathed, grounded herself.Castor was dead, and few pyromancers survived Menon’s manifestation.No one would know her face, know River’s.They were pilgrims, come to leave their coins at altars and pray for healthy crops and short, sunny winters.
“Lovely, isn’t it?”The old woman waved at them to follow her through the gilded gates, already open.“Come, you must see the sunset wing.You’re on good time; whole place is closed tomorrow.”
River hesitated, his jaw tight.Ione gripped his hand and swept away her own doubts, her rapidly diminishing confidence.The painful and nagging knowledge that everything she had ever done had ended in failure.
She couldn’t wield her divinity.She couldn’t summon Menon.She couldn’t save her people.
But she could – would – save Lina.
