“Obviously.”
“Don’t.”
He paused his packing and looked at her. “Are you promising you won’t do anything to endanger yourself while we’re in Semo?”
I’ll do whatever’s necessary to save Erian and Llor, so... no, I’m not promising that.“I’m saying that maybe your mother is right. Maybe you should return to Mittriel, be a champion, and I will be a queen.”And a mother.
He studied her a moment longer. “You think it’s a trap.”
“I think Queen Merecot was desperate enough to invade Aratay, so who knows what she’s capable of? She could have tricked Headmistress Hanna into sending that message.”
“You’re right. And if itisa trap, then it’s even more important that I come with you.”
Naelin felt a little of the tension seep out of her shoulders. She wanted him to come, desperately. She might need his help to save Erian and Llor. But she didn’t want to force him.I’d never forgive myself if I ordered him to come and something happened.She was only starting to realize that, for him, there was no place he’d rather be than by her side. It was... a strange feeling, to have someone so selflessly give themselves to her when for so long it had been her who’d always been the one who gave and gave.“Thank you.” She tried to put every bit of what she felt into those two words. She nearly added,I love you, but didn’t. It didn’t seem right, to tie that love to gratitude.
But she felt it anyway.
His smile warmed her heart even more, and she was pretty sure he heard those unsaid words. “Let’s go,” he said.
Outside, she mounted an air spirit that looked like a deer with wings. Its antlers were coated in down-soft feathers, and its fur was white. Ven’s spirit was shaped like a serpent with golden scales. It had wings like an eagle, which it spread wide until its wingtips brushed the bark of the nearby trees. Naelin had chosen these spirits because they could fly great distances, and she intended to ride them all the way to the capital, bypassing the border guards and arriving on her own terms. She’d heard how Queen Merecot had sent a spirit-pulled chariot for Ambassador Hanna—Hanna had included that in her report—but Naelin had no intention of trusting Merecot with her or Ven’s safety.
“Let’s fly,” she said when Ven had mounted, and the two air spirits pushed off the platform and burst up through the canopy of leaves. She glanced back to see Sira waving at them. She was still singing, her voice rising up with the wind, and for a moment, they flew buoyed by the rising notes, but then her song faded and all Naelin could hear was the wind rushing past her.
From this high above the canopy, she could see it: Semo. Birches marked the border, sentinels with yellow leaves that gleamed in the morning light. Beyond the border were rocks—heaps of granite boulders, fields of stone, and great slabs that looked as if they’d stabbed their way out of the earth. She felt, like itches on her skin, the presence of spirits within those fields, but she couldn’t see them.They’re beneath the boulders, she thought.Or theyarethe boulders.She saw wildflowers growing in the cracks, clumps of purples and blues, as well as bushes with so many berries that they looked like bright-red decorations left behind after a celebration.
And then there were the mountains.
At first Naelin thought she was looking at clouds. Surely no mountain was ever so enormous! But as the images resolved before her, she could see they were indeed the various ranges of Semo. Their peaks looked as if they wanted to claw the sky. Her mind tried to wrap around the tremendous size—and then she felt the sudden shift in the world as they crossed the border.
She hadn’t expected to be able to sense it. Land was land. But it was as if the air had been pushed out of her lungs, and she was suddenly breathing something else: air too, but with an unfamiliar taste that tickled the back of her throat.Lemons, she decided.It tastes like lemons and snow... Maybe pine, but a different kind of pine than at home.
The air felt colder too, as if she’d stripped off all her layers. And hollow. Or maybe that was how she felt inside—the sense of thousands of spirits around her, linked to her, had faded, muffled, and it was as if those thousands of spirits were instead watching her from a distance.
It feels like I don’t belong.
She decided this was an accurate feeling, since shedidn’tbelong. She wondered if Ven felt the same way, but the wind was too loud for her to ask him, even if she’d wanted to have a conversation about it.
She braced herself, expecting to be challenged by border spirits. But no challenge came.Perhaps because they know we’re coming?Still, she didn’t relax as they flew deeper into Semo.
Naelin had seen enough maps to know the direction they needed to head in: northwest, toward Arkon. But seeing the land on a flat drawing and seeing it beneath them with all its peaks and undulations was entirely different. As the spirit flew to the capital, Naelin drank in the view with all its differentness while trying to make sure they were headed in the right direction.
Just as Aratay had more tree spirits than any other kind, Semo was dominated by earth spirits, and the results were the spectacular mountains with impossibly high peaks wreathed in snow, sheer walls of granite that had burst up from a field, and clusters of red rock towers and arches. Naelin and Ven flew above the rock towers, through the arches, and over canyons so vast that you could have inverted a mountain inside them. But more unsettling than the sheer size of Semo was the way it felt, as if it were all about to collapse in on itself. The spirits of Semo, restless within the earth, brushed against Naelin’s consciousness, and it made her want to fly back to Aratay, into the familiar trees, where the ground didn’t look as if it were ready to swallow you.
She didn’t know how anyone lived here, in the shadow of all this enormity, but proof was everywhere: houses built into the crevasses in the granite fields, clinging to the sides of steep mountains, tucked beneath the arches, built beside rivers at the bottom of canyons...A lot of innocent people for Queen Merecot to protect, she thought.
If that’s what Merecot truly wants to do, then I’ll help her do it.
Because all these people had children too. And if she could protect them...I couldn’t keep spirits from taking Erian and Llor, but the children of Semo...If spirits came for them, it wouldn’t be to merely kidnap them.Maybe there is good I can do here.
If Merecot lets me.
It was a bigif. Because Merecot had already proven time and time again that she didn’t care about innocent lives, not if they stood in the way of what she wanted. But even though Naelin didn’t trust her, she trusted what she could see: Semo needed help.
And I’m strong enough to give it to them.
Naelin saw the capital before she realized what it was. At first, from a distance, it seemed like yet another natural wonder, but as they flew closer, she saw it in all its glory. Built into a mountain, the marble city gleamed in the morning light with a brightness that made her eyes tear. Walls, towers, and turrets seemed to burst from the rock, and as they flew closer, even the people seemed like they were a part of the mountain—they dressed in the same sparkling white as the city walls, going about their lives in the steep, spiraling streets.
“Naelin!” Ven called. “Welcoming party!”
