Page 119 of Enchanted Crown
“Was it an Enchanted?” Otis asked. “They could be hunting, or out running. Particularly if they are newly healed.”
“No. Human,” Esta provided.
Otis shook his head. “But they should turn up eventually, right? Even if they did hide away or leave for a bit, eventually they will return home?”
“We hope so,” Amory said. She gave Malachi a nod, and he rolled out the Agria map. “Now. Agria. While Dra Skor is healing at a rapid pace, we need to ensure we have the time to heal fully before threats of war are made. Agria is not going to like being the last country healed.”
The whole room went silent at that, many curious eyes darting to Avril as if wondering what exactly she’d seen.
Amory continued, “Esta and I, along with a few sages, have already started drafting the treaty that Prince Keiran will take to Agria. Wylan will hopefully send theirs after Keir’s next letter. Prince Keir is wanting to begin healing at least a few AgrianEnchanted as soon as late next week.” She paused. “Avril has been gracious enough to tell us this is a way to lessen tensions. We need to plan the safest way to go about doing that.”
Avril was quiet during these meetings, but still took everything in.
“I demand Keir take dragons,” Esta said curtly. “Multiple dragons. Since he prefers we both do not go.”
“Esta,” I began.
She let out a sigh. “I know why. If unease is brewing in Agria, sending the queen of Dra Skor over there is not smart. I understand it, but that does not mean I have tolikeit.”
Dammit, I loved this woman. “I would like to do day trips,” I explained to the others. “No longer than it takes my men to do their healings. There and back over to Dra Skor in a few hours. I will write a letter to the Agrian spy we freed in a few days. And we will go from there.”
“I will go,” Zaire said with a nod to me.
“Nyx too,” Esta said strongly. “Fire is our best weapon against the shadows, other than Keir’s Enchantment, of course.”
“They are not fool enough to anger a dragon, I’d think,” Whit said with a chuckle.
I was,I said to Esta.
She didn’t respond, so I looked up only to find Esta with her attention pinned on Zaire. It did not look complimentary.
“What?” Zaire asked.
“You do not like him. You have questioned his every step since he arrived here, even continuing to do so after he healed me. Stopping only when you needed him to healyou. Now all of a sudden, you’d like to go with him to Agria?”
I wasn’t going to point out that I wasn’t all that surprised because of Avril’s vision. I was also mystified by the push and pull with Zaire. This weird somewhat agreement we had going on, shoving our differences aside.
“I do not have tolikehim,” Zaire tossed out with the same intonation Esta had. “He does what is best for Dra Skor. That I can respect.”
Again, it was more about Dra Skor than about me. I wondered if that wasn’t the problem with Zaire. He’d always been more in love with Dra Skor than Esta. But I’d still take this over what it used to be. We were never going to be friends like Malachi and I were. Which was fine.
Amory and Malachi started to point out Agria’s numerous water sources, as we assumed to heal someone from Agria, they’d have to stand in their cleared water source just like the shifters did. Then again, if the Agrian Enchantment was not linked to the water like the sanctuaries were linked to the shifters, it might not even be necessary. Which I hoped was the case considering half of Agria was a jungled land with numerous streams weaving throughout.
I just needed to get my hands on a few Agrian Enchanted to see what happened if I tried to heal them the same way I did the Dra Skor Enchanted.
“I think we should try to heal them without the water source first,” I explained. “If we can manage that, then we could perform healings right over the Agria and Dra Skor border. If that does not work, we know to move to the water sources next.”
The streams of Dra Skor had avoided the poison, so was it safe to assume Agria’s had also? I wanted to say so, but so much of this poison made absolutely no sense. My father had struck to kill, somehow knowing each country’s weaknesses.
Malachi asked me, “How many of your Wylan team will you take?”
Dex standing by the doors stated, “He’s taking me.”
“I assumed he was, Muscles,” Malachi laughed. “But how many more?”
“At least two,” I provided. “I should be able to pull half of the team that does the healings to head to Agria for a day, that way wedon’t totally disrupt the lottery. It might take us a while to figure out how to clear the poison from their bodies, though.” I wasn’t able to heal Esta in a day. Far from it. And that was what I was afraid of. If I couldn’t heal Agria right away, would that only worsen things?
We needed this to work. Far faster than I had gotten it to work in Dra Skor.
