Cursor's Fury (Codex Alera #3)(130)

Bernard let out a low, quiet laugh. He studied the others at the fire for a moment, and said, "Do you think this plan will work?"

She considered while chewing. "Getting into the city, even the citadel, is fairly simple. Getting out again is the problem."

"Uh-huh," Bernard said. "A Cursor should be able to lie better than that."

Amara grimaced. "It's not Kalarus or his Knights or his Legions or his Immortals or his bloodcrows that I'm worried about."

"You're not?" Bernard asked. "I am."

She waved a hand. "We can plan for them, deal with them."

Bernard's eyes flicked over toward the fire and back to Amara, his look questioning.

"Yes," she said. "Getting in depends on Rook. I think she's sincere, but if she's setting us up for betrayal, we're finished. Getting out again depends on Lady Aquitaine."

Bernard scraped the last of his meal around his dish with his fork. "Both of them are our enemies." His upper lip twitched away from his teeth in a silent snarl. "Rook tried to kill Tavi and Isana. Lady Aquitaine is using my sister to promote her own agenda."

"When you put it that way," Amara said, trying to keep her voice light, "this plan sounds..."

"Insane?" Bernard suggested.

Amara shrugged a shoulder. "Perhaps. But we have few options."

Bernard grunted. "Not much to be done about it, is there."

"Not much," Amara said. "Compared to our allies, Kalarus's forces only seem mildly threatening."

Bernard blew out a breath. "And worrying about it won't help."

"No," Amara said. "It won't." She turned her attention back to her dish. When she finished it, her husband brought her a second plate, from where the others ate near the fire, and she set to it with as much hunger as the first.

"It's that much of a strain?" Bernard asked quietly, watching her. "The wind-crafting?"

She nodded. She'd broken the hard trailbread into fragments and let them soak up juice from the roast to soften them, and she ate them between bites of meat. "It doesn't seem so bad, when you're doing it. But it catches up to you later. " She nodded at the fire. "Lady Aquitaine's men are having thirds."

"Shouldn't you do that, too?" Bernard asked.

She shook her head. "I'm all right. I'm lighter than they are. Not as much to lift."

"You're stronger than them, you mean," Bernard murmured.

"Why would you say that?" Amara asked.

"Lady Aquitaine doesn't even take seconds. "

Amara grimaced. It was one more thing to remind her of Invidia Aquitaine's abilities. "Yes. I'm stronger than they are. Cirrus and I can lift more weight with less effort than they can, relatively speaking. Lady Aquitaine's furies are such that her limits are more mental than physical."

"How so?" Bernard asked.

"Air furies are... inconstant, fickle. They don't focus well on any single thing for long, so you have to do it for them. It takes constant concentration to maintain flight. Lady Aquitaine does that easily. It takes even more concentration to create a veil, to hide something from sight."

"Can you do it?" Bernard asked.

"Yes," Amara said. "But I can't do anything else while I am-I can barely walk. It's more wearying and takes much more focus than flying. Lady Aquitaine can do both of them at the same time. It's something well beyond my own skills and strength alike."