Never let anyone take either of us again, promise?
Always, Princess.
On the heels of that promise had come the confirmation that she loved him. He’d loved her for so long and had found his own way to say it for years… and yet it seemed like an impossibility that she felt the same way until the words slipped into the air between them as they ran for their lives.
The carriage came into view, the cook fire still smoldering. Their companions sat stoking their own breakfasts, trying very hard not to appear to be watching them too closely as they approached. Luca nodded to Petri and gathered Tala’s faux name. “Call Simu, would you?”
Then the two of them disappeared into their carriage, and Luca drew the entrance flap tight. The sliver of light from the window disappeared, and suddenly they were shrouded in the haze of canvas curtaining full daylight.
“No,” Luca said again, louder. “We don’t leave. We stay.”
“You heard them!” She flung both arms out in exasperation. “They areexpectingyou to go after her. It would be against my oath to let you walk right into the trap they are laying for you.”
“They expect me to come; they don’t expect me to already be here. I am here. I stay here.”
Ula was silent. Breathing hard. She held up a finger and squeezed her eyes shut. And, when she had calmed herself enough, she gripped the meat of her own arms as hard as she could and willed herself to look at him.
“I am aware and understand that the Warlord is changing our plans for us. Based on her own designs for power and her arrangement with Geneva, it would have changed whether Amarande came into the equation or not.” Ula sucked in a shaking breath. “Butyou know how Tala feels about the princess. He is distrustful of… her hold over you. I worry that if we stay—even if that aligns with the original plan—it will be seen as abandoning the end goal for Amarande. They will believe your loyalties are divided, and not equally or in their favor.”
Luca sucked in a deep breath. It felt like he could inhale all the air in this carriage and it wouldn’t be enough. His heart took up the whole of his chest.
“No, my loyalties are tied together, closer than before.” How could he explain this? Luca swallowed. “We will still do all the things you mentioned. We send riders to warn them. And then Tala takes that plan he’s had working for nearly my entire lifetime and he pivots again. Whether that attack comes tonight or in Ardenia itself, we cannot change the fact that he now has two targets—this Warlord, and the actual one, pulling the strings. The road to defeating the Warlord now cuts through Ardenia—stars,the futureof the Sand and Sky runs through Ardenia.”
Luca let that thought sit, watching Ula’s tightly balled fists loosen as she came to visualize, understand, and locate obstacles. “And what if they steal her away from this caravan? Straight on through to the castle, wrapped up like a bow. Before the resistance gets here? Or, worse, during the fight?”
Luca did not blink. “We rescue the princess.”
“What if we get to the Itspi and the transaction has been made?”
“Then we storm the castle.”
“Are you insane?”
“No, only knowledgeable of what we’ve done before.”
This made her smile, but she chased it with a scoff. “Before we had Urtzi, who, despite the trouble I give him, accounts for a lot. And we didn’tstormanything—we hid out and fled. There was no storming of the Bellringe.”
Luca’s dimples flashed. “For someone who once called herself a pirate, you are surprisingly lacking in a sense of adventure.”
Ula sighed. “That night we spent in the Pyrenee camp, I was so taken with your love for the princess and her love for you that I argued with Amarande in our tent. I told her that true love is the most powerful force on earth—we just forget it because those with power here deal in fear rather than love.” She drew in a shaky breath. “Prove me right, Luca. Prove me right.”
Relief peeled off him in one shattering sheet. “I intend to.”
A knock came—Tala. Luca drew open the entry flap. The leader wore a deep hat like his and careful attire. He stepped inside without a word and Luca drew the carriage shut again.
“You’ve heard.”
Tala nodded. “What don’t I know?”
Luca sent forth all he knew. About Amarande, Taillefer, Inés, Geneva, Ferdinand. The names swirled around them, Luca’s knowledge of Sand and Sky intrigue from his meadow time with Amarande creeping into the small space. Then, when he was finished, Luca took a heavy pause and laid out the argument for what he wanted to do.
“Geneva holds the keys to the Torrent, this Warlord holds Amarande for a trade, and Inés holds designs on controlling the whole continent. We cannot change the collision course of these powerful women—the wheels and ships and lines of soldiers are already in motion. We can only do our best to prevent it. And we undercutbothWarlords if we save Amarande. My heart and the resistance are currently aligned”—he looked between them—“and if you can’t see that then it is because you don’t want to.”
Breathing hard, Luca left it at that. Almost.
“Argue with me, butI need you.And so does Amarande. We will have a plan. We will account for everything. And in the end we will win.”
Ula was still as stone. Tala scraped at his stubble.
