Page 105 of The Sundered Realms

“Really. And what makes you think that?”

Commenting on Nysia’s misstep at the ball would only piss her off. So Liris said, “Because I was locked away my entire life unless I could perform to the standards set by my keepers. I am very good at reading shifts in power and adapting, because if I weren’t, I would be dead.”

That stopped the princess.

“I am not just baggage,” Liris told her. “I have skills. You’re wasting me if you ignore them.”

“No one is ‘wasting’ anyone,” Vhannor growled.

Nysia glared from him to Liris. “We still could have taken him in.”

“If Jadrhun had shot at me again, I was ready to fire,” Liris said.

But he hadn’t.

Liris knew she was missing a critical piece, but she felt like she was right on the edge of grasping the whole pattern.

“Much as I love just stabbing demons,” Shry called, “do you all want to maybe do anything about this demon portal?”

Princess Nysia turned away, flipped a page, and shot out two more spheres in rapid succession, fired like they were bullets but which trapped the demons on impact.

Gods, the princess was so good with protection spheres and all their iterations. Liris really wanted to ask her questions as an expert but decided now was not the time.

Still, as they worked together, Shry and Nysia handling the demons while Liris and Vhannor unraveled the portal spell itself, Liris thought she’d done it. She’d become part of supporting something greater than herself, had used her skills—assessing, analyzing, pattern-matching—to resolve a critical situation.

She hadn’t failed when it mattered.

Liris’ ability to delay Jadrhun—and distract him from that fact, and learn from what he revealed—had given Nysia time to both catch up with the demons coming out of the portal and ready a spell for Jadrhun, while Vhannor had prepared to keep Liris from getting hit. She wouldn’t forget.

Jadrhun might have gotten away with a smile, but he’d been routed, bleeding, and they had all survived. They’d gotten him away so they could take down the spell.

And now they did. Liris did, focusing on working magic while a team of people supported her. She reveled in it, because maybe once Embhullor’s linguist team caught up with her knowledge of Thyrasel she wouldn’t count on Nysia to keep demons off her back, but for now? She’d proven herself useful.

When Liris finished dispelling, the cable car was running again and Belighia and even more casters than before disembarked on the platform.

The minister scanned around, visage darkening. The once pristine platform was gouged and scorched, parts of the mountains behind them smoking. The very air around them no longer smelled crisp and fresh, and the snow looked dull and gray. Even in a world of snow, Tellianghu’s untouchable image and expensive casters couldn’t hide the evidence of a battle over a demon portal.

“Where’s Jadrhun?” Minister Belighia demanded without preamble, not bothering to disguise her anger.

In fact, the anger was a front: Liris could practically feel the edge of desperation in it.

Thank goodness, because she was so shaky her fingers fumbled flipping for a nonlethal spell to use in case the casters attacked them.

“Ah, Jadrhun left you with a mess and unfulfilled promises?” Vhannor asked. “How shocking.”

Belighia’s eyes narrowed. “You have no idea what our agreement was or what you’ve done.”

“No, you’ve made sure of that,” Vhannor said. “But when Jadrhun left, his last words were that there was nothing left for him in this realm, so I’ll let you wonder about that.”

“And I,” Princess Nysia said in a chilly voice, “will let you wonder how it will look to all the other realms that Tellianghu used its profound, unregulated wealth to invite demons on them. I certainly won’t keep quiet, and neither will all those movers and shakers you lured here today to watch your demonstration. What do you think that will mean for all your upstanding trade contracts, your rich customers willing to support you? Think on that before you speak another word about the Coalition of Tethered Realms.”

Nysia might not excel at political subtlety, but she did know how to hammer home a point.

Most realms weren’t secure and couldn’t afford to risk their relationships with Special Operations. With Tellianghu’s reputation in tatters and Nysia promising to make sure everyone knew why, upstanding businesses would abandon Tellianghu rather than risk being associated with them.

Now that whatever better deal Belighia thought she’d worked out with Jadrhun appeared to have vanished, Tellianghu’s best hope was the Coalition they’d scorned. And if other powerful realms were angry enough, the Coalition might insist on concessions for Tellianghu to join... and there were a lot of ways Nysia could play that to their advantage.

Tellianghu, and Belighia in particular, had quickly gone from a smug position to a very precarious one.

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