Page 14 of The Sundered Realms

Liris snorted. Could she focus.

She glanced back at the pages, closed her eyes, breathed.

Opened them, lifted her hand, and let her pen fly across the paper. This state was like a light trance, and Lord Vhannor was as much as he appeared, because he fell right in step beside her.

It felt like only seconds later when she looked up and jerked away from the light of all the torches guards were holding around them. The sun had set.

Still the same day, but late.

Liris met Lord Vhannor’s gaze. The determined light in his eyes matched what she thought her own must look like.

“Will you come?” he asked.

He asked like she had a choice, with demons on their way.

Liris had run from Serenthuar and Jadrhun; she couldn’t run from this.

No; that should be her only reason, but it wasn’t. She was afraid, yes—she wasn’t stupid enough not to understand a demon could kill her in an instant.

But her mind was on fire, and though her heart raced, she felt like she could finally breathe.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” Liris said.

Lord Vhannor’s gaze was clear and steady with a hint of heat burning through for the first time, and when he nodded his acknowledgment of her Liris felt a dam burst in her heart.

He snapped a gesture that had all the guards stepping back, and together, Liris and the Lord of Embhullor ran for the demon portal.

Chapter 3

Despite what Serenthuar ambassadors would like everyone to think, no one actually speaks every language in the Sundered Realms. But fluency in Court Methilari, High Enchor, and Standard Senic goes a long way, both because they’re widely dominant in politics and trade, and because a significant percentage of other realms’ languages are related to them.

From there, we use the similarities and adapt for the gaps. Developing that ability isn’t the first test any Serenthuar candidate has to pass, but it’s the most important, because without that none of the rest can be learned.

That’s what the elders claim, anyway. I no longer believe them.

Another cart waited for them outside the castle. Lord Vhannor vaulted up into it with just a hand braced on the side like he did this sort of thing every day. Liris pulled herself up the side and flipped over.

Only as the cart immediately pulled away did she notice the step on the other side and the staff who’d been standing ready to assist left blinking in their wake.

“This is the fastest way without spending any spells, but the cart can only bring us to the edge of the swamp before it would be mired,” Lord Vhannor told her, switching away from the local dialect to High Enchor. “From there we’ll go on foot alone.”

She recognized the test and responded in kind. “And then?”

“Then I will take over,” he said implacably. “You’re not trained in spellcraft, correct?”

Liris nodded, feeling a pang. She’d thought she was finally going to get to do something, to help with something that mattered.

“Your part now,” Lord Vhannor continued, in the tone of someone who is sure both that he is the most competent person in the room and that everyone else knows it too, “is to help me learn how to perform the dispelling. I don’t know how to pronounce Thyrasel, and I am only beginning to understand how the forms fit into this spell. Everything must be performed in the correct order, or the dispelling will fail and I will be trapped inside the spell until it succeeds.”

“Shouldn’t I do it, then?” Liris asked.

His expression hardened. “Absolutely not. You have no experience handling magic, and a spell of this power is not the place to start.”

“But you’re the Lord of Embhullor, and I’m—“ Liris broke off.

She couldn’t quite make herself name herself expendable out loud.

“Which is why it’s my responsibility, not yours,” Lord Vhannor said implacably. “Relying on your goodwill is unethical as it is, but unfortunately unavoidable.”

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