Page 131 of Suffer No Fools
Stan squeezed his eyes shut for the air weave that dropped them back onStarlight Specter'sdeck.
The bells in every chapel and bell tower in Hearthstone started ringing, and they waved at the crowd below.With a hint of air and fire, their clothes were dry again. Hugo's heavy crown had vanished, and his hair was now loose around his shoulders. He looked far younger without the makeup, but there was no denying his radiant happiness as he hugged the crew and Tovey's family again.
It was a long walk back to the palace, but it was worth it to watch Hugo interact with his people. He was a good ruler, if a little overdramatic. Pirate wedding, indeed.
Epilogue
Hugo
Landale in the middle of summer was just as cold as Petri had predicted.Starlight Specterhad set sail from Aquarion during a heatwave. Even the ocean breezes had been warm at their backs. Both Klaus and Niall acted like it was normal, but Hugo knew it wasn't. Landale had been warm once, before the volcano had stolen its sentinel tree.
Today, they were going to make it right.
Some claimed Hugo acted only on political motivation. Landale had threatened to leave the empire, but that wasn't the reason. He wanted to see his friends as often as possible, and Vadim and Klaus insisted on moving to Landale to help the orphans. It was a noble cause, but Landale was so far away, too far from existing sentinel tree gateways.
Starlight Specter'screw came with them, and Hugo was grateful when Niall paused at the summit of the first hill from the docks. He needed a moment to catch his breath before Niall led them to Merchant Row and the store where he had once been an apprentice. On the way, Klaus shared the story of the time he'd almost died in the doorway.
"Vadim saved me." Klaus and Vadim had been casually walking beside each other, not even close enough to hold hands, but those words pulled them together in an embrace.
"It's closed." Efren pointed at the sign. "For sale."
"He's passed away." A thin woman stepped out from the open door across the street. "His daughter couldn't afford to keep the shop, so she's put it up for sale." She studied Niall. "Didn't you work there?"
"I did." He smirked. "I don't have a maker's mark. He never elevated me beyond apprentice."
She shook her head. "We all knew who made the pottery in his shop. There are masters who appraise apprentices in Hearthstone."
"Aye. I don't—"
Efren brought Niall's knuckles to his lips and kissed each one, effectively silencing him. "On our way back," Efren said, "we'll talk to the broker. Even if you never make another plate or cup, you should own this bit of your history."
Niall brushed the moisture from his cheeks with his other hand. "Aye, I think I'd like that."
"Glamiere's trials are coming up, too," Hugo said. "I can speak to Sovereign Oton to place you in the competition."
Niall's cheeks darkened, and he couldn't meet Hugo's gaze when he answered, "We'll see."
"How much longer to the tree?" Roy asked. The teenagers were the most impatient of Efren's crew now that Tovey had mellowed a bit.
"An hour's walk," Hugo said.
"At this rate, we'll be there by dark if we stop and chat about every little thing," Ray grumbled.
"Come on, then," Hugo said. He looped his arms through Stan's and Tovey's and headed toward the pull at the edge of his conscience. Klaus stopped him only once to ask him to wait to turn east until they passed a dangerous part of town.
Once outside the city walls, they saw the volcano in the distance, spouting a thick cloud of black smoke into the air. It should have been hot this close to an active volcano, but Hugosensed a thick spectral weave containing its heat and most of its toxic fumes.
He drew them to a stop at the edge of the spectral weave. Beyond that point was even more frigid cold.
Roy and Ray stood at the edge, poking at it with air weaves, but Hugo called them back. "Let's back up a few paces. I don't know how unstable it will be when we remove the weaves holding it together."
Niall grinned. "It will be messy, but we can handle it."
Together, they shared power until Niall connected his chain with Stan and Roy joined his with Tovey. Raw core power filtered into Hugo from them, and he fed it back to Niall, giving him all the power he could to break the spectral weave over the mountain.
It exploded with a rumble, and the ground beneath them shook.
"Your turn," Niall said.
