She was Amika’s Queen. She had brought about her own father’s suicide rather than tolerate his threat to her realm. She had faced the massing Nuuri as if she could forestall an invasion by will alone. And she had imposed her road on both Amika and Belleger despite all the arguments King Bifalt and his counselors could array against her. How could she be so sure of herself without arrogance?

Yet she had accomplished none of that without help: without Magister Facile’s power over her father, without the Devotee Lylin’s defeat of the Nuuri Hearth-Keeper. Only the achievement of the road was hers.

What help did King Bifalt have? Elgart was gone. Magister Facile and Estie herself had forsaken him. He had only Klamath and Jaspid—and he shared none of his burdens with them.

She had assured him that she would never resemble the Repository’s librarian and the other Magisters there; but she did not fault him for doubting her. She doubted herself.

The day before Estie had left Bifalt and the Open Hand, she had sent a swift messenger to Amika. When she reached her own lands at Fivebridge, she found Commander Soulcess and Chancellor Sikthorn waiting for her, as she had instructed. And they had prepared a heavy wagon laden with all the supplies she might need on her long journey. In that way, they spared her the delay of a detour to Maloresse and Amika’s Desire.

Her plans would save her several days. Sadly, they would also cost her a chance to visit her mother, Queen Rubia. The prospect of not seeing her home and Amika’s former Queen mother for perhaps the last time made Estie ache. But she ignored that pang while she braced herself to give Soulcess and Sikthorn, the stewards of her realm, her last orders.

Both men knew that her road was finished. They had received those tidings after sub-Commander Hellick had encountered Set Ungabwey’s caravan. In addition, the Commander of her honor guard understood the necessity of keeping watch on the inlet of the Line’s Cut: an unlikely approach for the enemy, but worth guarding. He and the Chancellor had already obeyed her command to imprison every priest of the Great God Rile they could find. They had swallowed her decision to send all of her Magisters to King Bifalt. And Sikthorn had a quick-minded man’s grasp on the importance of making fleeing Bellegerins welcome in Amika. Bifalt intended to evacuate his entire realm before the enemy struck. Now Queen Estie needed to entrust her stewards with forms of service that would disturb them more.