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I ran to Riven, rolling him onto his shoulder to check his breathing. It was slow, barely discernible, as was his faint heartbeat. He twitched from pain that left his face in a scowl; I knew there was nothing we could do for him here.

I lifted his knees together and stepped on the toes of his boots. I took one deep breath and pulled him forward, using the momentum to lift him onto my shoulders. I grabbed an abandoned spear andshook off its dead owner’s hand as I walked. The surge of magic was finally settling and I knew we needed to get aboard.

For both my and Riven’s sakes.

Gerarda walked backward, loosing arrows at the few straggling soldiers emerging from the fort to the north of the beach. “Is he dead?”

I shook my head as Vrail and Nikolai pulled one of the canoes onto shore and helped me lower Riven into it. A tear fell from Nikolai’s face and landed on Riven’s black leathers.

Syrra glanced down at Riven as she loosed another arrow. She and Gerarda flanked me on either side, flinging arrows into the remaining soldiers, but it served no use. We needed to go and we couldn’t be followed.

I let the whirlwind in my chest grow until it sparked. Two bolts of lightning flooded the sky and set the long barracks ablaze. The soldiers dropped their weapons and raced to protect their stores.

I lowered my arms, exhausted, as a silhouette appeared against the smoke. Syrra raised her weapon but Gerarda frantically held out her arms. “That’s not a soldier,” she said with a wistful edge to her voice.

I leaned against my spear as Gerarda took cautious steps toward an elderly woman. She walked with a stick that was taller than her curved back. It was painted in layers—green, purple, red, orange, and yellow—the colors of the five Fractured Isles.

Gerarda lifted her left hand in front of her chest and swirled her right hand around it as she lowered into a bow. When she spoke, the rhythm sounded like Elvish but the words were different.

“Gerarda is of the islands,” Syrra whispered, lowering her bow. I nodded, too tired to answer.

Gerarda’s voice got louder, bordering on shouting, but the woman only shook her head. The headpiece she wore trailed down the twoparts of her hair and was braided into her gray tresses. She raised her hand and said one word in the King’s Tongue.

“Go.”

My heart broke for Gerarda, but Elaran got to her first. She wrapped her arms around Gerarda’s shoulder as she kicked and screamed, begging the elder to come with us in every tongue she knew. But the Halfling only lifted her chin and walked back into the flames. I didn’t need to speak her dialect to understand.

She would not abandon her homeland just as we could not abandon ours.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE

“THERE’S NO TIME,” Gerarda shouted, leaping from the edge of the ship to adjust the sails. “Leave the canoes.”

Vrail and Elaran abandoned the canoes and helped pull Riven onto the deck. His face was still twitching in pain while unconscious. My vision blurred as I grabbed his hand but all I could feel was cold, stinging magic through our bond.

Nikolai ran to my side with a pile of vials in his arms. “I grabbed them from your room,” he whispered frantically, opening one of the stoppers of the elixir to dull Riven’s powers.

I lifted Riven’s chin and gently pulled his bottom lip down as Nikolai let the liquid trickle down his throat. The crease in Riven’s brow settled though his face still twitched.

Vrail knelt beside us and something cracked under her knee. She leaned over onto Nikolai’s lap to reveal a shattered vial. The clear contents were specked with violet.

“Don’t worry about it.” I sighed in relief. “That’s not one of his anyway.”

It was the only elixir I had brought for the trip, but I didn’t care about that now. If we couldn’t get Riven’s pain under control I was never going to be able to fall asleep anyway.

I grabbed the pale blue elixir and popped the lid free. Nikolai held open Riven’s mouth as I poured the painkiller down his throat. Finally, the tremors stopped but Riven did not open his eyes.

“We need to get him to Feron.” Syrra frowned down at us with her arms crossed. “He is the only one who will be able to help.”

Nikolai pulled a notebook from his bag. “I will send Feron a message now.” He scribbled something on the paper and looked up at Syrra and I. “Where should he meet us?”

“The portal north of the hook.”

Nikolai quickly finished the message and set the page aflame.

“Keera, the sails!” Gerarda yelled from the wheel of the ship.

I wiped my eyes and let the whirlwind gather in my chest. My magic was straining after everything I had done on the beach, but I had enough to weave a large gust. The ship lurched forward and Elaran and Gerarda expertly steered us around the wreckage.