Page 83 of A Kiss of Hammer and Flame

Raiden exclaimed, ‘I’m sorry,what?’

‘Meet Your Imperial Majesty,’ Thelaema said with an exasperated sigh.

‘I’ll explain later,’ Cahra told Raiden, then stepped towards the Oracle. ‘It’s not just a hunch, this is ourchance—’

‘And if you fail? Then what happens to Thierre?’ Raiden demanded.

Cahra was about to retaliate when she felt a firm hand on her shoulder, silencing her.

‘I understand your fear, both of you,’ Thelaema said calmly. ‘But the Captain is right. We must pause and think strategically. Your temporary magicks, potent as they are, do not grant the certainty of victory.’

Butyoucould, Cahra thought to the woman.You’re an Oracle, surely you could see—

Thelaema locked eyes with Cahra. ‘I am telling you. It would be folly.’ She held Cahra’s gaze long enough for her to understand. Hael’s powers wouldn’t be sufficient.

Cahra’s mind still whirred.Did I expend too much of them in the fight?

Tension lingered, heavy in the air.

Cahra shook her head. ‘Strategy or not, every second we delay is one Thierre may not have. If he’s missing, we need to assume it’s bad.’

Raiden, his face still simmering with anger, seemed to listen. Finally, he spoke again. ‘We can discuss this further at the palace. We need to gather as much information as we can before making any big decisions.’

His words weren’t a comfort, but she swallowed her protests. For now.

Piet clasped Raiden’s arm, ‘Sir, time is against us, and these caves have been compromised. Getting behind Luminaux’s walls is wise, especially if we have no leads on the Prince.’ One of the enemy soldiers began to moan.

‘Oh, we’ll have one,’ Raiden gritted out, signalling to Siarl, who nodded and left, twirling one of her long daggers.Interrogation time.Raiden turned to Cahra and the Seers. ‘Get to Luminaux,’ he told them. ‘Our squads will ride with you. Siarl and I will follow.’

Wyldaern’s brow furrowed. ‘You were ambushed,’ she warned him. ‘Is it safe?’

‘For you?’ Raiden glanced at the wounded soldiers littering the ground. ‘It seems so,’ he said, gesturing to Cahra and the Oracle.

Wyldaern nodded, looking to Cahra, who saw it again: the doubt. Her and Thelaema’s actions had disturbed Wyldaern. ‘There is much that you have missed, Captain.’

‘Indeed,’ Raiden said. ‘Catch me up when we next meet.’

Cahra turned from him and Wyldaern, resisting the pain of her friend’s fright, towards Thelaema. ‘What do you need from the house?’

‘I have all that I need,’ was the Oracle’s reply as she handed Cahra a black pouch. The Key.

Taking it, Cahra exhaled and lifted her great-hammer. ‘Then we go.’

The palomino mare snuffled, tossing its head as it finally eased into a wearied walk. They’d ridden hard through the cold night, cutting the time it had taken to reach Thelaema’s mountain home by half, and were now on Luminaux’s lands again. Thelaema sat behind her, gripping Cahra’s waist lightly, Wyldaern riding with Piet. Following them, she tried not to stare at her Seer friend. Or look too hard at her own bloodied knuckles.

Had Wyldaern’s mentor done this before, bypassing incapacitation for outright death? Cahra repressed a shudder, afraid to think on it further with Thelaema at her back.

So far, the Oracle had been determined not to speak of what happened, or why she’d deterred Cahra from going to Hael’stromia.

‘How can you not find Thierre?’ Cahra muttered to her. ‘You’re supposed to be the Oracle, All-seeing and all that.’

Thelaema’s tone was curt. ‘I told you. After the capital’s fall, that privilege was lost. However…’ She paused, deliberating. ‘I have a theory.’

Cahra noted the bedded posies emerging by the roadside. The kingdom was close by. ‘Tell me.’

‘There have been times such as this, when my foresight has failed me. If another powerful Seer survived, as I did, what if they are the reason? What if, as the Seers were once unified in our sight, our physical separation from the capital’s magicks now blocks us from one another?’

Cahra frowned, hands on the reins. ‘Is that how it works?’