Page 145 of A Sword of Ice
“I do not know,” Uric answered, his voice laced with shaking anger.
“If he found us once, do you think he will find us again?”
Uric contemplated before answering. “After that display in the military camp, yes.”
“Good.”
Uric seemed shocked at the profession, though he covered the expression with ease.
“Let him find us. Let him come. We have hidden in the shadows for far too long, and if this is the way we must play the game in order to win back our freedom, then so be it. I will unleash my wrath upon every fucking camp in the empire. I will break out every Fae he holds hostage and keep my own armies to fight his until he is dead and buried and we have a place to call home again.”
And Valerio would do anything,anything,to keep that promise. At the cost of his own happiness, at the cost of his ownlife.
Uric pressed a hand to his shoulder, the touch gentle and barely there before he pulled away just as quickly. “You are a good man, my king,” he whispered. “I have no doubt that with you, we will find the freedom we so seek.”
Valerio blinked away the burning in his eyes and took a deep breath.
“I hope so,” he whispered. “I really fucking hope so.”
* * *
“Are you ready?”King Valerio inquired.
Iona and Shula sat cross-legged across from one another. The map of Illyk was spread out between them, held down on its four corners by stones so the wind didn’t blow it away.
In her hands, Shula held six stones of her own. Each one represented an Elemental, including herself. She held them tightly, her lip pressed tightly between her teeth while one hand tugged at the end of her hair, pulling and tucking, pulling and tucking.
Iona’s fingers pressed against her leg in a slow rhythm while she made an attempt to control her breathing, as if that could somehow dissipate the nerves that were rolling in her stomach.
She wasn’t exactly sure why she felt so nervous about what they were about to do, but she was. It felt… strangely… intimate. They were going to toss the stones and search for the Fae Elemental they would need to find next. Another one of them. Another friend, or another foe, they couldn’t be sure.
A friend, something whispered through her mind, and she tried to push that voice away because the truth was, she wasn’t sure what she would find, and she didn’t want to give in to her own hope only to be disappointed again. Even when everything inside her screamed that she needed to keep that light alive. The light of her sister that had bled into Iona’s personality for so many years.
Her eyes met Shula’s and held. The Fae men were in a circle around them, hovering,waiting.
“Are you ready?” Iona repeated King Valerio’s question. Her voice was breathless, strange, echoing in her own ears.
Shula swallowed, the sound audible. “I’m ready.” Her chin wobbled as she spoke.
“Then let’s do this.”
Iona held out her hands, palms facing up. Shula’s hands hovered over her own and turned, dropping the cold stones onto Iona’s skin quickly before her own hands came down, and they were tethering the stones in the middle.
A surge of power zapped through them like a bolt of lightning across the sky. Iona and Shula both arched into it, gasping. Their fingers tightened almost painfully a fraction before they pulled away and let the stones fall.
Iona’s eyes opened, though she hadn’t even realized she’d closed them, and watched each stone drop, one right after the other, on different locations on the map.
Two fell side by side in Orknie, right at the edge of the Arcana where they currently were. The others scattered all around.
In the north, on a spot named Valley of the Dead in the kingdom of Vellm.
In Ielwyn.
In Dana.
And the final stone jumped around the map like it had a life of its own. Iona was hypnotized by it for a single instant before glowing lines in different colors spread across the map like veins, bright and humming.
“Holy Mana,” Iona breathed.
