by Elise Kova
Vi was positioned by the window of their temporary abode. From there, she could see the inn. There was no glass, so she leaned against the wall to keep out of sight. Heavy footsteps approached—a familiar gait.
“Midsummer is almost finished being saddled. Prism is ready,” Deneya said, walking over to sit with her. “Any changes?”
“No, all is quiet.” Vi kept her eyes on the inn. Taavin had told them this was the town where Baldair died during Vi’s original time. But not tonight.
They continued to stare out the window and, for a moment, Vi’s eyes drifted to the dark-haired woman. Deneya was poised, quiet, and ready. There wasn’t a trace of doubt or the edge of restlessness about her.
“How are you not bored of this yet?” Vi asked.
Deneya shrugged. “What else would I be doing? Living comfortably in Risen? Getting fat off the Queen’s pension and taking my secrets of the Dark Isle with me to a faraway grave?”
“Maybe you’d be her personal guard?”
“That’s what I was in your time, right? I wasn’t an agent of the Order of Shadows?” Vi nodded. “I just don’t see it.” Deneya shrugged. “Me? A queen’s personal guard? No.”
“In a way, you’re the crown princess of Solaris’s royal guard.” She grinned at Deneya and the woman rolled her eyes.
“I thought you weren’t the crown princess?”
“You’re right.” Admitting as much had long since become easy. “I’m not. I’m just Yargen’s Champion, much less prestigious,” Vi said sarcastically and looked back to the inn and the quiet, dark night. “If you weren’t doing this—if you could do anything—what would you want to do?”
“I could do anything?” she asked and Vi nodded. Deneya hummed thoughtfully. Her gaze was distant as she looked out the window. “Maybe head north to Dolarian, the land of the Draconi. I’ve heard that some of them can breathe fire and some can even fly. Though there is no greater lore than—”
Deneya was silenced as they both looked at the dark shadows crossing the ground below.
“It’s time.” Vi stood, hastily leaving their hut. Taavin straightened away from Midsummer and they shared a look that said it all. She swung up on Prism. “I’ll meet you both after.”
Prism sprang into action with the slightest touch. He was a good steed, just beginning to get on the other half of his prime. He’d have good years ahead of him yet—Vi was counting on it. She rode into the dark night as the inn glowed red from within, like the waking eyes of some primordial evil.
Glass shattered and two dark figures leapt from a high window. Vi gave the place a wide berth, swinging around the town’s perimeter and flying over the dunes. She slowed Prism as she neared a side alley by the inn and jumped from the saddle.
With a thought, the fire that was now consuming the building was under her command. She could feel the inkling of magic fighting against her at the edge of her consciousness, but the Firebearer the Knights had employed was weak.
Stepping through a wall of fire and into the lower floor of the inn, Vi heard creaking from above, voices shouting. If they were shouting, they were alive. Acting on instinct, Vi sprinted upstairs and skidded to a halt. The fire parted, arcing around her, giving her a view of the man and woman.
“Baldair, Raylynn, come with me.”
“Who—” Baldair began dumbly.
Raylynn grabbed his hand and yanked him forward. Vi trusted her to keep the man in tow as she descended the stairs, pushing away the fire. She led them out the way she came. Prism was there waiting, not bothered in the slightest by the rising flames.
“Take the horse.” After years of riding him, she trusted the mount to keep them safe. “Take it and go. Do not seek out what has been lost,” Vi cautioned. It was the best she could do. She couldn’t outright say, the crystal sword is long gone. “Protect, instead, the weapon that has yet to be found. Do not seek the tomb. Do not let anyone seek the tomb.”
“Do I know you?” Baldair took a step toward her. “Wait, aren’t you… Nox?”
“This isn’t the time,” Vi scolded. Though she didn’t step back or give up her ground. “My control will waver soon,” she said with urgency, though she could’ve held the flames in position for a decade if she’d wanted to. “Go, go now!”
Baldair cursed and mounted Prism, but Raylynn continued to stare.
“Princess Fiera—”
“Go,” Vi urged.
“Damn it, Raylynn, we have an opportunity and we need to take it. Let’s get out of here!” Baldair shouted. But Raylynn was rooted to the spot, her eyes on Vi. “Raylynn.”
The woman stepped to the prince, who helped her into the saddle. Vi watched the motion, already familiar and tender. She couldn’t help but remember the slip of a girl who came to have her future told by a princess, and who yearned to serve the crown.
Raylynn had Vi’s help then, just as she had Vi’s help now, and didn’t realize it in either instance. Vi smiled faintly and, while they were distracted, stepped into the burning building once more, allowing the fire to close behind her.
“Look, look there!” she heard a man shout outside, followed by a snap of the reins and the gallop of a horse.
“Zira, your daughter is safe for a little longer.” Vi took in the burning inn around her. The moment of tenderness immolated on the flames.
Chapter Seventeen
“Are you certain about just leaving it here?” Deneya asked as the waves off the coast of Meru crashed against her midsection.
“It’s a mostly sheltered cove, we’ve anchored it at low tide, and no one comes this way.” Vi listed off all the reasons she’d been repeating to herself for the past day while they decided what to do with the sailboat they’d bought in Norin. If Vi’s plan worked out, they wouldn’t need the small vessel again, anyway. “I don’t want to go all the way to Toris and risk someone seeing it docked there for too long.”
“But we risk coming back and not seeing it at all.”
“Then we buy another boat.”
“Oh, right, we’ll just buy another boat, because money can solve all our problems. Perfect princess logic, that,” Deneya muttered as she sloshed up the black sand beach to where Vi and Taavin were waiting. They carried two packs apiece and not much else. Deneya had the heaviest satchel of them all—the one completely filled with clanking gold coins.
While the gold of old Solaris had no meaning on Meru, gold was gold. If they needed to, they could smelt the coins into bars.
“I shudder to think of what your opinions of me would’ve been if we’d met earlier.” Vi held out a hand, helping Deneya free her feet from the cloying sand of the tides.
“Everything happens in its own time, just as it’s supposed to,” Taavin said thoughtfully. It sounded like an echo of his bygone days as the Voice.
They started up the beach toward the lowest point of the sheer cliffs. There was no man-made path, which was why Vi had picked this particular location to anchor. No one seemed to come this way. But she could see a path up the rocks if they were careful.
It was noon by the time they reached the top. Deneya massaged her aching hands and rolled her shoulders while Vi and Taavin stood unbothered. Vi wanted to tell herself it was because the woman carried the heaviest satchel of all of them. But she knew it was more than that.
Vi wasn’t tired now, just like she’d never grown weary on their crossing from the Dark Isle to Meru. It was the same reason she could pilot their vessel through the night and have enough energy come the dawn to adjust the rigging on their single sail.
With every step she took in this world, she was further from her own, and further from the mortal casing she used to know. Whether she wanted to or not, she was truly embracing her new body and purpose.
“The Twilight Forest isn’t far.” Vi pointed when Deneya had caught her breath. “Let’s try to get there before nightfall.”
“Heading for the Twilight Forest, intentionally.” Deneya shook her head. “Never thought I’d see the
day.”
“Ulvarth hasn’t yet begun his campaign against the morphi, right?” Vi looked to Taavin, who nodded once.
“Ulvarth doesn’t begin making his moves for a few years yet, usually.”
She turned back to Deneya. “But you still hate them?”
“Hate is too strong a word. Personally, I feel little toward the morphi, good or bad. But I know it’s a tense subject for the Faithful, and Lumeria has made it clear that we don’t want to give a reason for those tensions to boil over.”
“Smart woman,” Vi said under her breath.
They discussed the delicate politics of the Morphi and Draconi as they walked. Vi remembered what Deneya had said in Yon regarding the Draconi and noted the excited fascination in the woman’s voice—rivaled only by the warm tones she used to speak about Queen Lumeria.
Perhaps, when all this was over, Vi could meet the Queen once more, but not as a tired girl. She’d meet the queen as… Vi’s imagination abandoned her when she tried to picture herself beyond the fall of Raspian.
Perhaps she and Deneya and Taavin could continue adventuring, buying skiffs and sailing to the world’s edges. They could go to the isle of Dolarian and see if there were truly fire-breathing, winged beasts or if it was all just lore. Vi tried to imagine herself sailing to the far reaches of the maps in her mind, which was somehow easier than picturing herself sitting comfortably on the Dark Isle.
No matter what, when it came to who she would become, her mind’s eye was blurry.
Borrowed time, a voice seemed to whisper from somewhere within her.
Yes, I’m on borrowed time, Vi thought in reply, touching the watch around her neck. Her body was a gift from the goddess, one she’d eventually have to return for the world to be saved. The thought should panic her. Vi felt as calm as the tall, still trees of the forest. But the thorny thoughts snagged her like the underbrush as they pushed deeper into the Twilight Forest.
“How do the morphi feel about Lightspinning at this point in time?” Vi asked. Taavin looked to Deneya.
“What?” Deneya glanced between them. “I haven’t been on Meru in a few decades. How am I supposed to know?”
“One way to find out. Durroe watt ivin.” A ball of light appeared above Vi’s open palm. It reminded her of the orbs she and Sehra would make when she was first learning her magic. Lifting her eyes from the illusion, Vi looked around the forest, waiting.
Deneya and Taavin both took a step closer. The three of them stood back-to-back, watching for any signs of movement. Collectively, they held their breaths until Vi dismissed the shining glyphs above her hand.
“I suppose they don’t have as hard of a stance toward Lightspinning as they did in the world we left,” Vi observed.
“Further proof that Ulvarth hasn’t begun closing in on them,” Taavin said bitterly.
“Let’s keep going.” Vi started off in no direction in particular. “We’ll meet a Morphi sooner or later.”
By late afternoon, their wandering intersected with the main road through the Twilight Forest and the three continued along it. There were no posted signs anywhere along the way, so they merely kept walking, hoping to be found. After about two more hours of wandering, they came to a bridge across a stream.
Vi paused, her hands on the worn stone, looking out over the water that flowed down and away toward the cliffs they’d climbed earlier.
“What is it?” Deneya asked.
“I wonder if it’s the same stream we stayed near the last time we were here,” Vi said thoughtfully, looking to Taavin.
“Perhaps, though I’ve had enough of that cave for several lifetimes.” He grimaced. The man’s mood only seemed to sour the longer they were on Meru. Vi couldn’t blame him. This forest, this land, was a place of memories for them both—good and bad mixed together.
“Let’s make camp soon,” Vi suggested. “Get off the main road again and find somewhere that looks dry enough.” She tilted her eyes skyward, peering through the break in the trees. “It looks like it’ll be clear night, so we don’t have to worry about rain.”
They hiked for one more hour and then did as Vi suggested, breaking off the main road and finding a space between several trees where they could set up camp. Vi ignited a fire using juth starys, yet again, her Lightspinning didn’t seem to summon the morphs. As night fell they split some of their hard baked bread.
“I’d love to get my hands on some more of the crackers Sarphos gave us,” Vi said through her food.
“The ones he magicked to fill an empty stomach?” Taavin clarified and Vi nodded. “That’d be nice.”
“Who’s Sarphos?” Deneya asked. “And what’s this about magic crackers?”
“Sarphos is a morphi we met the last time we were here.” Vi chewed thoughtfully. “He was the younger brother of one of the people we’re looking for now… though I have no idea if he’ll be around yet.” It should feel stranger to think about someone not being born, Vi thought to herself. But it had become quite normal. “He could use the magic of the shift to make a cracker that filled you up as if you’d eaten a meal. That power is one of the reasons why I think they could use the shift to make a fake crystal crown.”
“I don’t want any shift crackers.” Deneya scrunched her nose. “But I would give my sword arm right about now though for some rovash.”
“Rovash?” Vi asked as Taavin made a satisfied noise.
“I’d almost forgotten,” he said wistfully. “I only got to eat it on high holy days.” Taavin looked to her. “Rovash is a celebratory roast—giant spotted pheasant stuffed with dates, figs, and bread left over from the temples’ holy celebrations.”
“Cookeries would bake it slow over root vegetables.” Deneya sighed wistfully. “If I’d known it’d be so long until I had it again, I would’ve bought a whole bird just for myself.”
“You would’ve exploded,” Taavin said with a small smile.
“Death by rovash would be an honor.” Deneya grinned in return.
“Maybe we can all get some together… when this is all over,” Vi said almost timidly, the thoughts from earlier still exercising their strong hold. Her companions fell quiet.
“What happens, when this is over?” Deneya asked delicately. None of them had ever discussed the topic aloud. It felt taboo. Like if they even uttered anything about the world being saved, it wouldn’t come to pass. “You put Yargen back together with all her pieces like some divine puzzle and she beats Raspian into submission, heralding a new Age of Light. There’s much rejoicing and a saved world … Then what happens?”
Vi looked to Taavin. He gave a tiny shrug. “Your guess is as good as ours. We’ve never made it that far before… never made it this far, even.” He finished the last bite of his meal and looked at his hand, flexing his fingers. She wondered if he, too, was imagining the crystal skeleton within him that held his consciousness and gave him life.
“We should go to bed,” Vi suggested abruptly. “Got a long day ahead tomorrow.”
“Of what? More wandering?” Deneya said smartly, stretching out on the leaves they’d piled up as pallets.
“If that’s what it takes.”
“Would you like to sleep?” Taavin asked, touching her arm lightly and summoning her attention to him alone. “I can take first watch.”
“No, you go ahead, I don’t mind. You sleep less than the rest of us anyway.” Vi smiled. He looked surprised, as if he hadn’t realized she’d noticed. His expression softened a corner of her heart.
How could I not notice? she wanted to ask. She noticed, just as she noticed he ate less than the rest of them but could go the longest without tiring. She’d cataloged every little thing about him—from the way he ran his hands through his hair when he was deep in thought, to how he tapped his foot when he drank alcohol. She’d visually traced his figure like lines of a map so that she’d never forget how to get him back again if the world took him from her.
“All right, wake me if you feel tired.”
&n
bsp; “I will.” Vi squeezed his hand and leaned in to plant a soft goodnight kiss on his mouth.
He settled down on his palette and held her gaze for a good while. They stared at each other through the firelight, as though communicating telepathically. Though Vi was left wondering what, exactly, he was thinking.
And when his eyes closed, she was left with nothing to do but peer into the dark void of the forest around them.
The night passed uneventfully. Vi sat with her back against a tree, scanning the woods. She didn’t know how much time had passed, but eventually her eyelids began to feel heavy. They dipped closed, staying shut for a little longer each time.
A rustling sound came from behind her and Vi’s eyes shot open.
She stood, whirling in place to find herself face to face with a spear pointed at her throat. Behind the blade were the steely gray eyes of a young girl with two golden buns behind each of her ears.
“State your business, Lightspinners,” she demanded. Skeptical, forceful, though not outright brutal. This was not the same harshness that Arwin had greeted her with in Vi’s world.
Deneya and Taavin were on their feet, but Vi held out a hand, both silencing them and stopping their movements. She leveled her eyes with the girl and gave her a smile.
“Hello, Arwin.” Arwin’s eyes went wide at Vi’s use of her name. Then they narrowed as she thrust the spear forward threateningly. The girl opened her mouth to no doubt question, but Vi spoke over her. “Please take us to your father. We have business with King Noct.”
Vi was fairly certain that she and Noct were the only comfortable people in the throne room.
Arwin had been eying them sideways since they first met and she reluctantly agreed to take them to the Twilight Kingdom. Taavin was understandably uncomfortable in this place. Even if he knew this was a different Twilight Kingdom than the one they had last interacted with, it was hard to forget old conditioning. Deneya looked fascinated, but was very clearly aware that she was an outsider in this world of glittering twilight.
