Page 123 of Enchanted Crown
“We have to be getting close,” Malachi sighed.
“Morana’s time is limited,” Jagen said, his voice hard. “From the moment she killed Samori, she had to know it.”
We were all quiet a moment, the gaping hole which was the loss of Samori bleeding out.
No more pyres,I reminded Esta.
None.
“Gah.” Otis sat back in his seat. “Where the hell is she? Where could she have gone?”
Zaire also leaned back in his chair. “She wouldn’t be fool enough to try to flee to Agria, would she?”
I hoped not. But we’d keep an eye out for her on our trip in a few days.
“She hates Agria rather passionately,” Esta said. “And though she is obviously a good actress, I don’t think that much was fake.”
“But she does not want the Agrian throne,” Nana reminded Esta. “She wantsyours.”
It was that moment the door went flying open and Dex and Avril rushed in. Avril had excused herself to her room as soon as we got home, hoping to meditate and wait for another vision.
She was half bent over, hugging herself. Her eyes closed for a moment, working through some vision, so I looked to Dex. “What’s wrong?”
“She won’t tell me.” As if he couldn’t help himself, he reached out for her.“Avril.”
Her hand snagged his wrist, and she squeezed onto it hard, as if trying to somehow ground herself in the current moment and not whatever she’d seen.
Malachi was standing, as was Jagen. Both ready to take flight after whatever she was about to tell us. Which did not look like good news based on her body language.
“The missing person,” Avril finally got out, standing up straight. “There is more than one.”
“What?”Zaire snapped.
“And they are not missing.” She took a gulp of a breath. “I saw her shoving something and finally got that vision to expand. It wasn’t a something. It was a person. I saw at least three. They’re notmissing,they’re with her. They’re hostages.”
CHAPTER 42
Irode Nyx to Agria. Leaving this morning with the patrols out looking for Morana and the hostages had been physically painful for me. But Avril still thought it necessary.
Nyx, Zaire, Zaccai, Dex, Emric and John were with me. We had the treaty from Dra Skor in hand, Krew had sent word they would send theirs to Agria soon, for my next trip to attempt healing an Agrian Enchanted.
While I was busy healing Dra Skor, Krew and Owen had used the blueprint of what I had done in Dra Skor to help unlock Brakken’s power. They now had ten of Brakken’s Enchanted healed.
So off to Agria we went. Yes, they were the last to attempt to heal, but it wasn’t like they were too far behind. Well, other than Wylan and Corsha which had never been poisoned to begin with. But I would do my best to not draw too much attention to that little fact. At least it hadn’t been Wylan alone, despite my father’s best attempts.
The farther north we headed toward Agria, the more the weather heated up, not just from the heat ofthe sun, but also in humidity. Fortunately, we flew mostly in Dra Skor, only the last few minutes of our trip would we cross over the river separating Dra Skor from Agria and be in enemy territory.
The last time I had been in enemy territory, I had irked a dragon and ended up in her talons. I hoped this time I was off to a little less of a tumultuous start.
Our spy had sent word that he, one royal family member, and one other Agrian Enchanted would meet us at the border. They were open to me attempting to heal the two who needed it. Zaire was going to fly a perimeter check and also just let his presence be known when we arrived. If more than six people showed up, assuming they’d bring a few guards, we could fly back across the border and be in Dra Skor within minutes. Yet because of the tensions, I was more nervous for this than I had been coming to Dra Skor.
Be safe today,Esta sent me as we flew low across the riverbed.I love you.
And I love you, my wife.
Nyx snapped me back to our reality before I could say more,I see them.
We flew over some trees, before dropping down into a clearing. Our spy had sent us the location in his letter back to us, but that didn’t matter as much to the dragons who could clearly see it from above. We only needed general directions for the winged shifters.
