Chapter 26 #2
“Send who?” Farrin interrupted. “The Upper Army? The Lower? I have no more soldiers to send, Mara. They’ve already been deployed—all across our continent, out onto the oceans, to Aidurra, and yes, to Vauzanne.
Soldiers are already there, spread thin as they combat Olden invaders and try to evacuate civilians from the Knotwood’s path.
And every resource I can scrape together goes toward feeding them, housing them, supplying them, taking care of the refugees pouring into Fairhaven, and preparing for whatever will happen next.
Another sinkhole in the Citadel? Seafaring Oldens who have found another way into Edyn through the ocean floor and are crawling out of the waves onto our shores? ”
She breathed in and out twice, then squared her shoulders. “The crown is already doing everything it can. If anyone should be urged to help southern Vauzanne, it’s their Warden, Joseline.”
“And you think she has personnel to spare?” I clamped down on the urge to voice my own list of grievances. “Whatever their Order can do, it’s already doing, I can assure you of that.”
I held Farrin’s tired eyes for a moment, hoping she understood that I wasn’t angry at her and wishing that Yvaine hadn’t left her such responsibilities. My sister was formidable, but becoming the steward of an entire realm overnight was too great a burden for any one person to bear.
“So the only option left to us,” said Talan quietly after a moment, “is to let the armies and the Order do what they do best, and help them by ending this war as quickly as possible.”
Ryder nodded and pushed off the back of Farrin’s divan, bristling and ready. “We’ll go to Vauzanne, then. If the Lemaires have Neave, we’ll need all three of you to free her.”
He looked at me when he said it, his expression alight with conviction.
I couldn’t help but smile at him. “You believe in us Ashbournes so fiercely.”
He raised an eyebrow. “As anyone with a scrap of sense should.”
“Wait a moment,” Gareth said, holding up a hand. “The Lemaire estate is clearly being protected by something—something strong enough to deflect the Knotwood, which suggests elemental abilities. And that power belongs to Caiathos, not Neave.”
“No,” Mother said, quiet but firm. “The presence tugging my heart toward Vauzanne is my sister. I would bet my life on it.”
And our lives too? I very nearly said. For wasn’t that what she and all the other gods had done, in their carelessness and arrogance, all those thousands of years ago?
They had Unmade themselves to create our imperfect world, left us open to eventual invasion, and created Kilraith and Ankaret.
And for what? To bask in their own splendor?
Or had their acts been as thoughtless and automatic as breathing?
My body grew hot with anger. I released Gareth’s hand and clasped my own firmly in my lap until the feeling passed.
“Keeping the Knotwood away from Briarcourt like that,” Gareth began thoughtfully. “Philippa... Kerezen...” He shook his head a little. “Is that something you would be able to do?”
She looked at him, amused. “Perhaps.”
“Even though you are the goddess of the body, not of the earth?”
“I truly do not know. I’ve not yet tried such a thing.”
“And you shouldn’t,” Father said quickly. “You’ve risked enough as it is.”
Farrin bristled, glaring at both of them. “She has risked enough?”
Father blinked at her, abashed.
“He’s right,” Ryder said. He gently put one of his huge hands on the cushion beside Farrin’s shoulder, not quite touching her. “Kilraith hasn’t found her yet. She should remain here and live as quietly as possible. Clearly this is the safest place for her.”
Gareth was staring at the floor, distractedly scratching the back of his head. “If it isn’t Neave protecting Briarcourt, then it’s obviously something else...another god. We don’t know where Jaetris is, or even if any scrap of him is left intact after Mhorghast.”
“So, if not them, then it would be either Caiathos or Zelphenia,” Gemma said.
“Or Kilraith,” I muttered, thinking quickly.
“Either by himself or with another god he’s controlling, as he did Jaetris.
Maybe the Lemaires have allied with him.
They’re one of the most powerful families in the world, yes?
What if in exchange for protection from the Knotwood, they’ve offered to hide Neave for him? ”
Talan looked grim. “Their house guards number in the hundreds, and by all accounts, their arsenal rivals the Lower Army’s.”
“I can’t think of a better place to hide a god,” I agreed.
“While opening their home to strangers for these balls?” Father mused. “I can’t imagine Kilraith would allow that.”
“He’s rather busy elsewhere, I expect,” Gemma said dryly.
“And he’d no doubt be delighted by such parties,” Talan said. A shadow of memory flitted across his face. “Humans prancing and preening in front of each other, every dance and conversation a potential key to their survival. I’m surprised he can manage to tear himself away.”
The longer the conversation went on, the more restless I became. I rose from my chair. “Whatever is there, we have to investigate it. If it’s not Neave—”
“It is,” Mother said patiently.
The tone of her voice made me want to punch something. “If it isn’t Neave,” I said, ignoring her, “it could be another god or an anchor. No matter what it is, we can’t leave it with the Lemaires.”
“It will take weeks to reach Briarcourt,” Farrin said. “I can’t in good conscience be away from Fairhaven for that long.”
“That reminds me,” said Gareth. “Have you made any progress in your search for Ankaret?”
A shadow of sadness flickered across Farrin’s face.
“No. I can’t devote many resources to it at this point, but I’ve got three spies surveying the continent inch by inch.
They come back every week with reports of misery and ruin, Mistfires and Miststorms, but nothing about Ankaret.
I’m starting to think General Haldrin was right, that her last words were simply those of a dying creature.
Don’t people say all manner of absurd things on their deathbeds? ”
Farrin’s voice was flat, careful, like she was trying to quash any tremor of emotion. For a long moment, everyone was silent.
Then Mother, looking sorrowfully at Farrin, said, “I think I can get all of you there, at least across the ocean and to Westry. I probably shouldn’t venture closer to Briarcourt than that.”
Ryder stared at her. “Are you mad?”
She grinned. “When you were a boy, Ryder Bask, dutifully muttering your prayers, did you ever imagine that you would someday meet a god and question her sanity out loud?”
“You assume that there was anything dutiful about the prayers I muttered.”
I looked hard at my mother. “You mean you could transport us—all of us—like you did Gareth and me yesterday?”
“And as you took Ryder, Alastrina, and me out of Mhorghast?” Farrin added.
Mother nodded serenely. “It’s really quite easy.
I’ve never tried carrying anyone, not even myself, over such great a distance, but I know I can manage it.
Goddess of the senses, goddess of the body.
” She picked up her pipe, discarded on the table beside her, and tapped it against her teeth.
“I can do it and return in only a few moments, I think.”
“And what if that is enough to alert Kilraith to your presence?” Father said, irritation plain in his voice. “What if he comes for you and then we lose the only god we’ve got?”
“Gideon, try not to be so romantic in front of the children,” Mother said, glancing up at him with a smile. “They don’t want to hear their parents flirt.”
Hearing that coy note in her voice made me flinch, a physical reaction that sparked deep in my gut and took me completely by surprise.
I covered it by moving quickly to the kitchen, where I grabbed a bright red apple from a bowl on the counter and took a loud, crunchy bite.
It was a perfectly fine apple, but its taste was sour on my tongue. I could barely bring myself to chew it.
“And how would you get us back?” Ryder said. “There’s no point in whisking us to Vauzanne to investigate the Lemaires if we don’t have an equally fast exit ready.”
“A second crossing is certainly too dangerous,” Father said tightly.
“He’s right,” added Talan. “If Kilraith detects her on our first passage, he’ll watch obsessively for her second.”
“Whatever we find...god, anchor...I’ll take it and run,” I said, forcing myself to swallow the chunk of apple.
“I can run fast. Not as fast as whatever it is you do,” I said, cutting a quick look at my mother, “but faster than anything else. I’ll get to the coast, find a boat, and go straight to Fairhaven.
The more quickly we can get whatever the Lemaires have to the safety of the Citadel, the better.
The rest of you can catch up with me later. ”
I didn’t dare look at Gareth, but I could feel him watching me.
“And what if something intercepts you during this mad dash to the coast?” Father said at once. “You might not be able to defend your quarry and yourself at the same time.”
I laughed a little without really meaning to. “How would you know what I’m capable of? It’s been a long time since we had our lessons, Father.”
I couldn’t bear to be in the same room with them after that—my mother and my father, standing so close to each other, as if they were any other husband and wife talking with their daughters over breakfast. As if all the years I’d been away from home had never happened.
As if they had decided all that grief and loss could be swept away.
My stomach churned. The apple was a mistake. Nevertheless, I took another bite from it and strode out of the house.