The Heart Forger (The Bone Witch #2)(112)
“Which brings us to another problem,” Zoya said. “How exactly do you propose to sneak back into Odalia when practically every armed person there is after us, knowing full well that someone has woven compulsion over many of the soldiers and possibly over the king himself?”
“Wasn’t that Usij’s doing?” Likh asked.
Zoya replied, “I’m not sure yet. If someone else is controlling the men there, whether or not it’s Holsrath’s doing or if the duke was under Usij’s thrall, it pays to come prepared for any eventualities.”
“I’m impressed, Zoya,” Polaire said. “You actually thought this through.”
“We flew thousands of miles on the back of a dragon to reach a kingdom where an emperor had forcibly kept us hostage in a warded palace. I want the odds to be better for us next time.”
While Zoya, Polaire, and the empress worked out the details, I drifted toward the small veranda, and Fox followed, his expression somber. “Do you still feel the azi?” he asked me.
“In a fashion. I’m sorry. I know I messed up, Fox. I wasn’t thinking straight, and I worried you more than I should have.” I took a deep breath. “But you kept secrets from me too, you know.”
“Ours were not the same, Tea. Yours had greater repercussions—”
“Really? You still think that after being involved with a princess who has had two royal engagements to powerful kingdoms? A princess who is breaking both because of you?”
He winced. “You have a point.”
We stared at the night sky for a few minutes before he spoke again. “Where do we go from here?”
I closed my eyes. “I don’t know. Do we still make it up as we go along?”
“Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?” He paused again. “Inessa wants to make our relationship public. The empress seems to like me at least, but the elder asha won’t feel the same way.”
“They’re going to look at this as a political move on my part—a way to exert more influence over the empress and her daughter,” I said.
“I know. And that’s why I’m breaking from our longstanding tradition of keeping secrets from each other and telling you first. If you think this makes life difficult for you at the Willows, then I’ll—”
“You’ll what? Turn her down? The last two years have shown me how easy it was for you to reject her.” I grinned at him. “I understand, and thanks. But you aren’t dead, Fox, so stop treating yourself like you are or like my life has more importance than yours. I don’t care what anyone else says. You have a heartsglass. You’re in love. You’re much more alive than other people I know. You know what it is to die, and that’s why every second of life has a sweetness that only you understand. You deserve a chance at living, and Inessa does too.”
He smiled wryly. “When did you get to be so wise?”
“I’ve had time to think about a lot of things. And it offsets some of my dumber moments.” I gave him a playful push. “Talk to her. Stop keeping your heart from her. She loves you enough to accept your flaws, and you do the same to her. Go on and prove the empress wrong and give me lots of cute nieces and nephews.”
He really colored this time. “I don’t even know if familiars are…ah, capable of—”
“Talk to the forger or to Khalad. They’re working miracles, so I don’t think one more challenge is going to stump them. Look at what they were able to do with Mykaela’s—”
I stopped, staring up at the sky in shock.
Mykaela’s heartsglass. Mykaela’s heartsglass. It all came back to where Vanor had hidden it, lost all these years. To save her, Polaire had given part of her heartsglass to Mykaela, the way Dancing Wind had given hers to Blade that Soars in the legend. Khalad and Shaoyun’s corpse, the forger’s intuition, his breakthrough, Khalad telling me once that Vanor loved Mykaela, though Vanor had refused to reveal her heartsglass’s location.
“Tea?”
“I need to talk to Khalad and the forger. I might know where Mykkie’s heartsglass is.” My hands tightened against the hem of my dress, knowing that my proposal would not be popular. “But to do that, we’ll have to return to Odalia as soon as possible.”
? ? ?
Councilor Ludvig had not been idle, and his official retirement from Isteran politics in no way put a damper on his love for spying and intrigue.
“Odalia has done little since their abortive attempt at invading Kion,” he reported, spreading a fan of reports on the empress’s table. “Frankly, I’m surprised. It’s not in the duke’s temperament to give up so easily, especially after such heavy losses. I have read reports of them fortifying parts of the city by increasing their soldiers on watch, which is not unexpected. I see no siege preparations despite the rise of military activity, but they do not appear to have plans to mount another attack. The Odalians are fearful and unsure. The king has not shown himself for some time, and neither has the duke. As far as my spies are aware, Prince Kance remains stable, though there is no change in his condition.”
The old man frowned. “Personally, I think Holsrath plays a waiting game, to see what we would do. News of Daanoris would have reached him by now. Surely you can wait before attacking?”