“I have.”
“Then shadow us.”
Stepping back from Rohan, Antony scoops me up into his arms before leaping deftly onto Azul’s back, at which the monstrous blue eagle rises smoothly into the air, coasting above the platform.
Rohan’s attention is suddenly on the distant, lone eagle soaring east away from the city. Cassia’s chestnut-brown bird. Easily recognizable even from this distance.
Without taking hiseyes off Cassia, Rohan leaps onto his eagle’s back, and within seconds, he soars into the sky, following close behind us.
It’s lucky Azul is so fast, or Rohan might overtake us.
Where I’m sitting in front of Antony, I sense the tension in his posture now that we’ve taken to the air, the high chance that we’ll encounter interference, and I can’t shake off my sense of foreboding until we leave the Starlit City far behind.
Even then, I continue to scan for threats.
If my Oracle power were not so unpredictable, I could hope to be forewarned of danger, but I can’t rely on it.
Halfway to the temple, I lean back into Antony, needing to know. “What happened last time?”
I catch the question in his eye and continue, “Cassia said Galla would withhold her starlight like she didlast time.”
Antony’s response is a low murmur in my ear. “She forced me to kill Lady Emiliana’s father. He was trying to protect Emiliana, refusing to let her join Mother’s Court. Mother wanted him out of the way. So she held a celebration and chose him as her entertainment.”
My heart sinks to hear it. Antony told me that Emiliana isn’t free to decide her own fate. Choosing whom to love is simply the tip of a sword that must have cut deep through her life.
“He fought with dignity, and I gave him a swift, clean death,” Antony says.
He falls silent, and I don’t ask him anything more about it.
Below us, the landscape changes, becoming farmland extending for miles. I recognize this time the Thistleberry trees growing in the orchards we pass along the way, but this time, Antony begins pointing out other structures.
“My army trains in this region,” he says, pointing to what looks like a farmhouse far below. “That’s the main barracks down there, and on that mountain ridge over there is the aviarywhere we raise eagles. Once an eagle bonds with a rider, they undertake aerial and endurance training. Once they’re ready, I assign them to a tower.” He shifts a little. “They operate well without me, but I’ve never ignored them for this long.”
“Tomorrow,” I say firmly, and then suggest, “Maybe I could train with them?”
He doesn’t scoff at my suggestion. “Given what happened this morning, that’s a good idea.”
Finally, we approach the mountains where herds of the four-legged animals Antony calledstagsroam. They scatter through the trees, sleek beasts running wild and free, disappearing beneath the foliage.
Antony’s voice sounds once again in my ear, but this time I’m not sure what he’s referring to. “You didn’t flinch.”
I crane to see his eyes. “What do you mean?”
“When Rohan charged at you, you didn’t flinch.”
Only now that Antony’s asking about it does it occur to me that I probably should have considered my safety in that moment, but I wasn’t fearful. “He wasn’t going to hurt me. He needed to get to Cassia. I was simply his excuse.”
“How could you be sure?”
I exhale a slow breath, feeling once again in my soul what I realized after my first encounter with Galla.
My answer is so quiet I’m not sure Antony will hear me over the rushing wind. “I am all things to all people.”
He’s quiet. Then, “You were the conduit he needed.”
“His path to her.”
If only I were so certain about my own path.
