My fingers close around it.
"Siakars and others can withstand the bite better than most," he continues. "But you are heavily pregnant. Vulnerable."
He was right. Hyverin had said the children could survive if born. If I were bitten, this could save them.
"If she is bitten, it could kill her," Colsar says.
"It could," Uralish agrees. "But your children may still live."
He glances at me. "And she is stronger than she looks. She might survive one."
"That will not be necessary," Colsar says.
"Do not be stupid," Uralish replies, before turning back to me. "Keep it."
I slip the vial into my dress.
He looks at Colsar. "Will Shalvar open their wards for you?"
Colsar's voice is calm. "They do not need to. I built them. And I am welcome there."
He pauses. "We will stay there for a time. Until she recovers."
Uralish nods. "Many of the Avanki have origins tied to the Beastlands. They will be at ease resting there."
He looks at us both. "I will pretend I do not know where you went. Most do not even know he rules Shalvar. They will assume you fled to Veynar. They will assume Venya's Vyrecall worked. Or that you died trying to escape."
"We didn't even kill him, the deathmage did."
"Yes but she has always disliked you the same way she disliked your mother. It is easier to blame you for all of it."
He puts his hands on my shoulders in a rare show of affection. "You are stronger than you think. Your lightcraft is strong. After all your training with Petunis, I have no doubt anyone that crosses you will fall easily."
He turns to Colsar. “Remember, trust no one.”
His eyes meet mine. "If you are harmed… you have the vial. If you are trapped, you have each other. I don't like this either, but your options are all quite poor. This is the only one that gives you a chance." He turns to me. "If your mother were here...she would want you to take it."
I look at Uralish. “You are not going with them, so how will the Avanki leave?"
Uralish laughs. “Do you think we were stupid enough to build wards our military cannot bypass?”
He exhales once. “The Avanki do not pass through the same way you do. They are bound to a separate system. Blood oath, woven into the military wards themselves. It only answers to them.”
I thought about that. "With so many exceptions, is that how the deathmage got in?"
"No. Every exception involves a blood connection to Alarnan royals. Soldiers take a blood oath. Your husband shares blood with the children. Whatever made it in here used means we are unfamiliar with."
Syle steps forward."You have something else as well."
Enovar steps out, his form sharpening into place, a grin pulling at his face. "I am Chief strategist for the Avanki."
"I thought Syle was," I say.
"We both are," they say at once.
"One of us will go ahead," Enovar continues. "The other will remain here."
I look between the two of them. "How long can you stay separated from each other?"
