Page 83 of Enchanted Crown
She and Malachi looked at each other for two beats too long.
I pressed my lips together and gestured for her to continue.
“It’s Corsha.”
“Have you news?” I knew Amory wrote letters and spoke to the other countries on behalf of Dra Skor much like I had for my father for Wylan.
She shook her head. “No. And no one has. What the Agrian spy told us seems correct.”
Where could an entire country of people have gone? They couldn’t just vanish. And they couldn’t have just all gone somewhere else. Unless they split up equally and went to the other countries? Even then, that was a lot of people to just show up and infiltrate another land.
“I think we need to consider a trip,” she finished.
“To Corsha?” Zaire asked. “Are you mad?”
“Not at all,” Amory responded, unbothered. “I think something is off about the whole thing. I know we have our hands full with Morana. But while most of us plant whispers about a bonding between Keir and Esta, we could send a few of us and sail there to at least check things out. And if we find Corsha in ruins, then we keep looking for them. If we find them still there, we tread carefully.”
I didn’t need to think long about it. “I’ll go.”
She gave me a smile. “It is not your responsibility to fix all four countries, Keir.”
“Of course it is,” I snapped.
“Not anymore,” Zaire argued. “You are soul bound to Esta. You will be king consort of Dra Skor.” A pause settled over all of us while Zaire, of all people, pointed out the obvious. “I can understand why you feel the need to help Wylan heal the other countries, but you also have to know that you are needed here. Your greatest responsibility is here.”
Malachi spoke up, “He can go to Corsha to see what’s there, it doesn’t mean he’s going to stay there.”
My eyes went to Malachi in thanks. I didn’t know what to do with Zaire anymore. First, he was questioning my every move and trying to get rid of me, now he didn’t want me to leave for even a trip?
“Do we really need to do this now though?” Zaire asked. “I think our focus needs to singularly be on Morana. We were so close yesterday. So damn close.”
Amory said, “I think we have over forty shifters back to full health thanks to the Wylan team. We should be able to spare a quarter of that to head to Corsha.”
“If Keir goes, Esta will want to go as well,” Zaccai offered before turning to me. “I do not know how soul bound pairings work in Wylan, but here in Dra Skor, they are normally inseparable.”
I knew Krew and Jorah didn’t like to be separated either, but for me they had both done so. Now that I knew what this felt like, I loved them all the more for it. “I will speak with my queen about it. If it will cause her too much pain for me to leave, then I will not. It’s as simple as that.”
That seemed to appease everyone.
“I do think we need to wait a week or so before planning any trips,” Amory admitted. “But those things take time. And of course,there will be another celebration ball for Nyx, Dex, Zaire, and Prince Keir.”
“Because of Enoch?” I asked, a bit taken back.
She nodded. “It will also send a clear message to all of Dra Skor. We are united in taking Morana down.”
I groaned.
Nana reached under the table to smack my foot with her cane. “It is my job to hate the parties, not yours.”
I smirked. “It is not that I do not want Dra Skor to celebrate the healings happening. I just feel like having to end the life of one of our own doesn’t seem like something to celebrate.”
“We took out a threat,” Zaire stated, eyes on mine. “That will always be celebrated here.”
Was he actually trying to make me feel better?
Nana looked at me for a moment before adding, “You are not your father, Prince Keir. We are not celebrating a death nor are we becoming used to them. We are simply coming together to celebrate a victory.”
How did she always see right through me to the heart of the issue? Or was she that acclimated to my father’s way of things? I still remembered the game of five-card draw with Jorah which ended in a bloodied mess, a death. And by that point, that sort of thing was so normal, none of us really thought anything of it. I had slept soundly that night, too exhausted to dwell on it.
