He beat his wings, flying again, until he caught an air current and glided. The girls flew alongside, and Dorvin ignored them, not singing or joking for once. For the rest of the day, his thoughts kept returning to the battle—to Maev wrestling him, patting his cheek, mussing his hair. He knew he should hate her. He did hate her. So why in the Abyss's name did he keep looking her way, keep thinking of how her body had pressed against his?

"Damn rhinoceros snot," he muttered.

They flew on, moving farther west than Dorvin had ever flown, crossing mountains and heading into lush woods of secrets and shadows and hidden hope.

ISSARI

 
ISSARI

They walked through the gates, entering a ruined city, and Issari shed tears for her home.

"Eteer," she whispered, pressing a hand against a stone column. "Poets have sung of your towers and gardens. Soldiers have wept at the sight of your banners and walls. You were a city of light and now you lie in darkness. I am Issari. I am your daughter. I have returned home."

At that moment, staring upon Eteer, she was more a child of this kingdom than of Requiem across the sea.

Tanin took her hand in his. "We will rebuild. We will bring back the light."

They walked down the street, hand in hand, moving slowly and silently, solemn as if walking through a graveyard. And much like a graveyard Eteer was. Skeletons of animals and humans lay discarded in street corners, the bones shattered. Windows and doors were boarded up on some houses; other houses had fallen into heaps of bricks. No more peddlers, priests, and buskers lined the streets. No markets bustled with shoppers. Eyes peered through cracks in boarded windows, and the only living creature to cross their path was a scrawny, feral cat. Aerhein Tower, once the tallest structure in the city, stood no more. The palace still rose upon the hill, its columns blue and crested with gold, but no more gardens grew atop its balcony and roof; they had burned in the great battle when Issari had fought Angel, when the amulet had fused with her flesh.

She raised her hand and gazed at her palm. The amulet of Taal, her mother's amulet, gleamed there.

"This was the amulet of a queen." She caressed it. "Now I will be Queen of Eteer. King Raem's throne must be mine."

She thought words she would not speak. You died in the north, Mother. You have fallen, Sena, my dear brother. But you still look down upon me from Requiem's stars. I will make you proud. I will save both our kingdoms—the kingdom of our birth and the kingdom of our constellation.

"All the demons have flown north." Tanin walked with a drawn dagger. He glanced around nervously. "We can take this city easily if the generals accept your leadership."