Page 154 of A Reign of Embers

Heat washes over my skin that’s forceful but not quite hostile. I have the vague impression that she’s grudgingly embracing me and telling me I’d better not fuck up after all of this.

She lets me radiate her approval for several thuds of my heart before all to see, and then the light fades away.

My breath rushes out of me. I stiffen my spine against the urge to slump with exhaustion.

All across the field, Valerisse’s soldiers lower their weapons. They gaze around them, left adrift, all the furor of justice-seeking wrenched from their grasps.

There’s no one left to call them anything but traitors.

As I watch them, I can’t summon any fury toward them. They were following their godlen and a woman who’d always led them well against a stranger who, I can admit, didn’t fit the typical empress mold.

And now they have to live with the knowledge of their treason. How can we welcome them back into the fold with that fact tarnishing everything else they think and do? How will they accept the new terms I mean to offer the conquered countries after they’ve just clashed with their armies as enemies on the battlefield?

An image floats up from the back of my mind: the last piece of the vision that came to me in Kosmel’s rat pit. The wave washing over the imperial uniforms and turning them a neutral gray—neither all good nor all evil.

I turn toward the one cauldron that’s still bubbling, reaching toward my gift. “There’s one more potion I need to make. Get the medics and anyone else with healing gifts seeing to the worst-injured! Let’s save every life we can.”

My husbands gather around me as I paw through my ingredients, chasing the fragments my gift presents to me.

“What are you making?” Raul asks. “It’s done.”

“It is. I need to make sure it doesn’t continue later. Guilt and resentment can corrode the spirit so easily.” I toss in another bundle of herbs. “We’re going to wash all the treachery from their minds and let them start anew.”

By the time I’m finished brewing, one of the medics has made her way to Bastien. When his vision clears at her attentions, a shuddery sigh slips out of him.

I motion him closer. “Let’s make it rain one more time.”

He lifts the potion I’ve concocted up to meet a new clot of heavy clouds. The messengers I sent out while I brewed have urged the armies from the outer territories farther back.

The sudden deluge courses down over only Valerisse’s forces, laced with a chemical to turn their memories of the past few months into nothing but a dream.

All across the fields, the expressions turn from horrified or frightened to vague confusion.

As they drop their weapons, I walk down the hill to meet them.

“You’ve been through a trying time,” I say. “But now you can come home.”

Chapter Fifty-Four

Aurelia

As I compose myself with the broad purple tent set up for my use, a growing warble of voices filters through the fabric walls from the gathered civilians. Most of them sound excited, or at least curious, don’t they?

Bianca peeks inside and steps in at my beckons. With a click of her tongue, she re-pins one lock of my hair. “Your maids were a little sloppy.”

“I sent them off while they were still trying to fuss. I needed a moment alone.” I smile at my friend so she doesn’t think her presence is unwelcome. “I’ve had it now.”

Bianca smiles back and smooths her hands over her ornate gown. The vicerine looks as polished as always—even with the pale nick on the left side of her jaw.

An arrow grazed her in the middle of the battle a weekago—it came inches close to stealing my closest friend from me along with so many others.

“It’s a big thing you’re doing today, but I think they’re ready for it,” she says. “We’ve all been ready for a change for a while, even if not all of us realized it.”

I can’t hold back a wry chuckle. “They’d better be ready for it, because I’m going ahead either way.”

The vicerine’s gaze slides to the tent door. “I’m not sureshedeserves the honor you’re giving her.”

I don’t need to ask who she’s talking about. “It’ll help the rest go down easier. Reinforce the sense of peace. And I’m not going to say anything untrue.”

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