Page 143 of The Sundered Realms

“You said it yourself,” the woman continued. “Serenthuar doesn’t let you choose what to be. They’re all proud, and you’re no exception. Thinking you can take on all the demons in there? Serenthuar wouldn’t have kept training any ambassador who couldn’t fool all of us, and they wouldn’t have just let you run off.”

Then again, maybe she would leave this behind her.

Liris looked out at the landscape they approached, the feeling of the air shifting even before they’d reached the forest. “I am not my people’s pride,” she said quietly, “but you’re right about one thing. I am proud. And I deserve to be.“ She glanced back over her shoulder. “And you had better hope I’m right to believe I can stop Jadrhun, or have you considered what it will mean when no other realms care about Ormbtai because you’ve been devastated by demons and you don’t have access to Serenthuar’s goods anymore because the Gate is gone? Tellianghu had other Gates to tether them, but not Serenthuar.” Not now.

The guards exchanged a look. “That won’t happen. Sundering isn’t possible.”

Liris shook her head, turning away from them. “It must be nice to be so comfortable you can pretend problems aren’t real rather than deal with them.”

Vhannor switched languages to ask her quietly, “You sure you want to emphasize the precariousness of Serenthuar’s position? They’re already going to be at a profound disadvantage even if we can separate them from Jadrhun.”

“If we win, Serenthuar will know what Chancellor Ariurn will be like and will have to join the Coalition out of desperation.”

“The Coalition will judge them too.”

“They deserve to be judged. But they don’t deserve to be held accountable by someone whose core incentives are greed and their loss.”

“Dragging them kicking and screaming indeed.”

Vhannor paused long enough to clasp her hand, and she met his gaze, reading there all his intensity, his commitment, his love, his concern for her.

“I wish we had more time,” he whispered.

That was it: she was trying to focus on everything, rather than on what mattered, and on what she could do.

Liris squeezed his hand and calmly, surely said to him, “We will.”

Chapter 20

Etorsiye, Isendhor, Thous, Otaryl, Periannolu, Dianor, Hinsheoress, Tellianghu, Yani, Sonang, Tinardu, Theiraos, Ormbtai. So many places I’ve traveled now that were once closed to me. So much I’ve learned; so much I’ve done.

It’s never enough.

Liris and Vhannor entered the wood alone.

She couldn’t help remembering their first time, back in the swamps of Etorsiye, running together into a forest where the magic had been eaten. This was like that, in the abstract.

Not in the particulars.

The trees were just as dead, but they were thinner, brittle, spindly dark arms twisting inward. The dawning light silhouetted them, and with the dry air gave the impression that they rose out of a fiery landscape.

Demons didn’t fight with fire, of course. But casters might.

That was the main difference. That was what Liris was, now.

She flew.

She flew alongside Vhannor at a speed no unmagicked human could match.

She flew toward a challenge she had actively trained for, having crafted spells in more realms than most people ever saw, fought demons and casters and unbound their portals when no one else could.

When they arrived at the portal and took to their feet once more, with solid ground beneath her, Liris nevertheless found herself unprepared.

On the Ormbtai side, the Gate to Serenthuar was marked by a circle of reinforced, cold obsidian glass mosaic that Serenthuar had fashioned for them. There was a clearing surrounding it for staging transport.

Today, that clearing was full, but not of goods.

An enormous silk tapestry—no, multiple tapestries attached together, gods how long had the elders been committed to this?—spread across the cleared ground, absolutely covered with painted-on spells in Serenthuar’s particular ink for calligraphic art.

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