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“You said we couldn’t let him spread the message. I made sure he couldn’t.”
I glance at the horse, who sidesteps with a snort but doesn’t outright run. Animals seem to take well to me most of the time. “And now Prince Jacos can have a mount of his own. We needed another horse, didn’t we?”
Ivy sputters a dark laugh, muffled by her hand. “Come on, then, before the farmer notices us.”
As she grabs the horse’s reins, I find myself glancing toward the distant town. A sense of melancholy drifts over me.
The people of that settlement won’t hear the scourge sorcerers’ claims right away, but how many other messengers have our enemies sent hurtling across the countryside?
I can’t burn all of them up. The poison is spreading too fast for us to stop it.
Seven
Ivy
“Not much farther,” Petra says as we pause at the corner of one of the city’s streets. She draws her cloak tighter around her. “We’re almost there.”
It’s hard to tell from her tone how much she’s reassuring me and our other companions and how much herself.
The four of us gather close together, scanning the road ahead. There’s an uneasy edge to the atmosphere in the city that I’m not used to, especially when surrounded by the elegant stone buildings of the inner wards. Nobles and other upper crust citizens hustle by with anxiously hasty steps and heads ducked low, attitudes much more common on Florian’s fringes.
Even though it’s only early evening, many of the shop and restaurant windows along this stretch are dark. No music or laughter trickles from the establishments that have their lanterns lit, as if even the dinnertime chatter has become subdued.
No one gives us a second glance, but I tug my hood farther forward just in case. Thankfully the wound on my forehead has healed enough that I only need a small bandage now.
What would Julita have made of the unnerving change to the capital city so soon after we left it? It’s hard not to wish I could hear one of her arch remarks that would settle my nerves just a little.
Maybe it’s better that she never had to see this, though.
Only Casimir and Rheave joined Petra and me on our venture into Florian, since the rest of our party is rather recognizable. And Petra wants to keep her younger siblings out of danger as much as possible. Stavros and Alek stayed back with Klaudia and Jacos, setting up a campsite in a secluded area using supplies we grabbed from the military storage room.
I’d prefer an even smaller group for sneaking through the city that was under lockdown just a month ago in the hopes of dragging me to the gallows, but having the heir to the throne with us makes other types of caution necessary. Rheave can fend off attackers with his magic without worrying about going insane or other backlash. Casimir may be able to use his gift to cajole less hostile parties into helping us.
The most important part of our mission is that we keep Petra—Queen Petra, I still have to remind myself—alive.
I don’t spot any soldiers or obvious Order of the Wild sentries among the pedestrians. When I glance at Rheave, he shakes his head to indicate he doesn’t sense fellow daimon nearby.
I touch Petra’s elbow. “I think it’s safe to continue.”
As we walk down the street, aiming for a steady but casual pace so we don’t look as furtive as I feel, Petra shoots me a quick, tight smile. “I guess you’re used to navigating the city like this. It mustn’t have been easy—all those years you had to stay in hiding to conceal your powers.”
A lump rises in my throat at the thought of all the loneliness and fear that taint my past. Not that I’m particularly less afraid at the moment, but at least I’m not facing the challenge alone.
I aim for a light tone to cover how fraught the question actually is. “I hope the pardon your father planned to extend to me will remain in place under your rule?”
Something flickers in Petra’s expression, there and then gone so swiftly I can’t read the emotion. She reaches over to grip my arm with an emphatic squeeze. “As far as I’m concerned, you were never a real threat. I truly am sorry about how he treated you—how stubborn he was about seeing you as an enemy.”
The genuine regret in her tone puts me off balance.
I force myself to shrug. “I guess it was understandable. People with my kind of magic haven’t exactly made a great case for ourselves over the centuries. And you weren’t sure of me at first either, were you? Even when you didn’t know about my magic. You weren’t chatting with me at the college only out of friendliness.”
I don’t say it as an accusation, only a statement of fact, but a hint of a blush colors Petra’s tan cheeks. “I’m sorry about that too. You were a relative unknown who’d abruptly joined Ster. Stavros in his investigations. My father wanted to hear what I made of you, whether I thought you had any ulterior motives.”
“I don’t blame you for that,” I assure her. “I’d imagine I’d have done the same in your position.”
“Still… Thank you for everything you’ve done for my family. You’ve been through more hardship on our behalf than I’ve had to face even a fraction of. If I can regain the country, you can be sure?—”
Her voice falters as we come up on another cross-street. Behind me, Casimir makes a soft pained sound.
