Page 106 of The Sundered Realms

Belighia was backed into a corner, and she knew it. She drew himself up and said coldly, “Your ‘clear and present danger’ is past, and as the ranking representative for Tellianghu, all of you get the void out of my realm. None of you, nor Special Operations, is welcome back.”

Liris had never been thrown out of a realm before.

Princess Nysia bared her teeth at her in a threatening grin, but Liris took her cue from Vhannor and Shry and just turned and left without a word, Shry bringing up the rear in case of an attack that didn’t come.

On the other side of the Gate, as Vhannor wearily set up spells to hide them—no point in pretending they weren’t here for purposes at odds with Tellianghu now—Shry did a quick inventory of injuries, and Nysia set up a spell to accelerate their travel, Liris stared back toward the façade of a summery Gate that had, in a way, closed behind them.

“I can’t help but think,” she said when Vhannor came up to her, “that a profoundly powerful demon portal trapping the guests was unlikely to have demonstrated a desirable deal to them.”

His gaze was grim; he knew what she was getting at. “We missed something.”

“We missed something bigger than a demon portal.”

Chapter 15

We get so caught up in practicalities it’s easy to forget how magical Gates are.

I know what it’s like to rail at the limitations of Gates, and I know the secret thrill of discovering one. I’ve read what the world was like before Gates, and for Serenthuar—for myself—I’ve imagined it so hard it hurts.

But the magic of their demonstrable realness—I’m not sure I can really imagine lacking that.

Liris and Vhannor were, somehow, alone in the kitchen again. After a brief report to Lady Inealuwor to arm her with the salient details, Nysia had taken herself off probably not to sleep for a week while she dealt with the aftermath. Shry had poked Liris’ injured side, shrugged and advised, “Ice and rest, you’ll be fine,” and had headed to her room to patch herself up and go to sleep.

Liris knew, academically, she was exhausted. But her brain was whirring, and she and Vhannor were alone and alive and just... here, and the morning they’d returned to was surreal in its silence, the turmoil of her mind and the adventures of the day at odds with the utter lack of physical evidence here in Embhullor, in her kitchen.

She had her own kitchen. That alone.

Liris’ stomach clenched, and she blinked down at it in some surprise. “I should’ve stashed some of those fancy dumplings wherever Shry keeps her knives.”

Vhannor’s eyes crinkled in amusement. “I suspect you might not wish to eat them if you knew. You’re hungry?”

She shrugged. “I don’t feel like I’m about to collapse, but I’ve probably passed the point of tired and collapse is actually imminent. So going out for food now would be unwise.”

Vhannor heaved himself out of the chair and began poking around cupboards. “Shry keeps a stash of food for times like this. Give me a moment, I’ll find it.”

Liris blinked up at him, bemused. “I can do that too, you know.”

“Give me an excuse to make myself useful,” Vhannor said, his voice strangely gruff.

Hmm. Still worrying about Jadrhun, then. Well, it wasn’t like she wasn’t, and if in this moment taking care of her made him feel less guilty instead of more, Liris could manage to keep still. Somehow.

Her thoughts were another matter; easy enough to ignore the strange tightness in her chest, watching him locate an emergency pack of pickles, cheese, crackers, and jam, and arrange them on a plate for her. Not mostly cuisine local to Embhullor, and Liris wondered whether this was what Shry had grown up eating before Vhannor found her, or if she seized on the chance to eat something else, or if it was a mix that couldn’t be teased out—

But she had other mysteries to ponder.

“I keep coming back to what Jadrhun could be promising to forge alliances with all these places,” Liris said after inhaling a cracker and reaching for a pickle. “I mean, Tellianghu—what could possibly have been worth risking everything like this?”

“Probably to defeat their rivals for them,” Vhannor said tightly.

“With demons and portals?” Liris frowned. “The Sundering keeps coming up in all this. I wonder—could he sunder rival realms? As a threat?”

“He wouldn’t need demons for that, and that’s more likely to worry realms into working against him than making them smug about their prospects, as Minister Belighia was,” Vhannor said. “Stop it. We’re too tired to come up with anything useful right now.”

Liris almost choked; swallowed with difficulty. Vhannor had never told her to stop before.

“What else do you think I’m going to think about right now?” she asked.

He folded his arms on the table, not eating, just watching her. “You’re trying to distract yourself. Just tell me.”

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