“Come,” Valentina said. “Let’s get all the tears out now. It won’t do for everyone to see them.”

“If anyone understands that, it’s you.”

She held me tighter. “I do. And I won’t let you fall, Hollis.”

The sad thing was, I’d already fallen. And I was in so deep there was no coming back.

Thirty-Seven

“I’M AFRAID I HAVE A rather long list,” I warned Etan as I walked around the wide table in my new offices. The holy men were standing at their own desk, books and scrolls on hand should anything need confirmation. Ayanna and Hagan sat side by side in chairs, whispering questions and answers to one another, the intendeds of two young sovereigns.

“I do, too,” he said, setting some papers on the large table in front of us. “Ladies first.”

I smiled. “Well, even before I was queen, I envied Isolte’s medical advances. I would like to start some sort of program where Coroan citizens who have an interest in medicine could study in Isolte. Of course, it would be limited, and people would need to apply; I don’t want to send a hoard your way. But would you be agreeable to something like that?”

He considered. “Why don’t I send some of our brightest here? Perhaps we could do rotating courses. Maybe go to two or three regions in Coroa? You’d know where they’d be most useful.”

I blinked. “That would be incredibly generous. Off the top of my head, I’d want something here, where the population is so dense and in need of care, and something in the poorest areas where getting care is the most difficult. Once a handful of people were trained, they could take over the teaching roles, and your doctors could go home.”

He nodded. “Note that we need to make inquiries for ten doctors willing to come and teach in Coroa. Housing and payment will be taken care of.”

One of his pages wrote this down.

“Thank you,” I breathed, standing a little bit taller. “That was easy. All right. Your turn. What do you want the most?”

He turned and looked at me for a long time. It wasn’t the best choice of words, a question neither of us could honestly answer. I heard Hagan clear his throat, and I finally moved away.

Etan reached for a scroll. “This is the project I’m fondest of.” He rolled the paper out, placing two weights on the edges so I could see the outline of a map of the continent.

I squinted, letting my fingers wader around the map. “I don’t think I understand.”

He pointed at a faint red line along where Coroa and Isolte met. “When you told Quinten he should simply give the land over, it was one of the best ideas I’d ever heard. With the turnover of sovereigns recently,” he began, giving me a pointed look, “I haven’t heard of any skirmishes along the border. It seems people are otherwise occupied. But before there’s a chance for animosities to build up again, I want to cut it down. I suggest a new border, giving these two sections of land to Coroa.” He traced along the red line, and I could see now how it dipped ever so slightly into Isolte, barely taking anything from the mass overall, but changing everything.