Page 85 of Prisoner of Darkness and Dreams
“Shegets a say in whatshedoes,” Tira says, her voice hard. “Even if her best friend is a queen in waiting.”
“And she won’t be on her own,” Phaia says. “At least, not for most of the journey. I’ll get her to the Lyceum and most of the way to Lavail. Even if I can’t go there myself,” she adds, meeting my eye.
I nod thanks to her for understanding, then offer her a ray of hope.
“If Helia can be careful—if you can swear my grandfather won’t get wind of it—then I have no issue with her taking a trip to the Lyceum and meeting you there,” I say. I’m not so heartless that I would deny Phaia the chance to be with her beloved if it’s possible without endangering the mission.
Gratitude lights up Phaia’s face, and she bows her head. “Thank you, captain.”
“And when Tira’s alone in Lavail? At the palace?” Ana says, crossing her arms. “Do I need to remind everyone that the last time we were there, Respen nearly fed me to an aisthekis?”
“Nearlybeing the operative word,” Alastor says.
“What’s an aisthe...thingy?” Mal asks the blond fae under his breath.
“Giant spider, twelve legs,veryunfriendly,” Alastor summarizes.
“Precisely,” Ana says. “And you can’t expect Respen will be friendly either, just because Tira’s my emissary.”
“I don’t need him to be,” Tira says, facing off directly against her friend. “I’m not a sheltered village girl anymore, Ana. I’ve been training with the Hand; you saw me in Qimorna—I’m good at defending myself. And if I can spend a lifetime dodging drunks and dealing with bar fights in the inn, I can probably be wily enough to give Respen the slip when he tries to uncover our secrets.”
“And Fairon is healthy now,” I say to Tira. “I’ll tell him to look out for you in my message.”
I turn to Ana next. “My brother won’t let any harm come to her. He’s much more sensible than I am.” I squeeze her hand, and her body relaxes a little.
“It seems I’m running out of arguments,” she says, though her expression is still conflicted.
“There’s nothing to argue,” Tira says, her voice softening as she steps forward to squeeze Ana’s free hand. “Let me do this. I’ve felt so useless. Now I have a chance to hurt the man who killed my brother.Thisis my purpose, Ana.”
Though her voice is calm, her eyes are burning with a fire I recognize too well: the hunger for revenge. “If I do nothing else in this life,” she says, “I want to bring down the Temple that took my family from me. And I’ll join the fight whether you like it or not. Still, I’d rather have your approval.” She gives Ana a small smile. “Please?”
“I know how awful it is to feel powerless,” Ana says, pushing back her own anxiety when she sees how much her friend needs this. “So you should do what you have to.”
Ana looks around at us. Her eyes are shining with tears, but when she speaks, her voice is strong and steady.
“How do I go about making her an emissary, anyway?”
Alastor jumps up. “Well, first of all, she needs a seal…”
As we find the parchment and ink to make Tira’s protections official, I offer my thanks to Tira for volunteering. But I’m also aware that in a few hours,we’ll be departing Agathyre on separate routes, and I’ve forced yet another painful goodbye on Ana.
MORGANA
Our journey through the Miravow is much less eventful this time. Diomi organizes for several of Agathyre’s best guides to escort us, and as we travel through the forest, they pave the way with offerings and prayers that keep the trees quiet and the larger animals at bay. One of the guides tells me their job is made easier by the fact that I was recently healed by the gaidonesti. Since I carry some of the forest’s magic, it’s more at peace with me.
It makes me think of the way Etusca protected us so fearlessly when we first traveled through the forest. At the time, only she really knew the extent of the danger that faced us, and she came to help us anyway, keeping us safe from the hazards of the forest with her warnings and prayers.
Before I left Starfall, when we were saying our goodbyes, she was still trying to protect me, clutching me tight and murmuring warnings about Caledon.
“It sounds like he’ll do anything to become more powerful. So please be careful, my dear,” she said.
“I will,” I replied, pulling back from the hug to study her face. “Do you think Caledon will be able to recreate the potion?”
She tilted her head. “He might. I invented it myself, but you can get all the ingredients in Trova. In fact, some of them you canonlyget in Trova. Dimane is common enough, but I had to send special orders to Ulmire for saltzquill.”
“But even if he did, it wouldn’t work for him, right?”
She shook her head. “No, it shouldn’t. Not when his magic is already mature.”
