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And people would hurt and suffer and die.

‘So what else do you suggest we do, then?’ I managed. ‘Nothing?’

‘We should make haste reaching out to the bigger human isles and cities,’ Lyn said, her expression pleading with me to restrain myself. ‘And we should let our allies know to be on guard. If anything happens …’

‘Yes.’ Tared sighed. ‘Least we can do is evacuate as many people as possible once we know where she’s headed.’

‘But if she attacks a whole city,’ I said, and there was no helping the crack of shrillness, no matter my best attempts to stay calm and collected, ‘there’s no way in hell you’ll manage to get everyone out of there in time, is there? And if she attacks an alf house or a place like the Fireborn Palace, people won’t evenwantto get out of—’

‘Em, weknow.’ It was Lyn’s turn now to lose control of her voice for a moment. ‘And we like it as little as you do, trust me – but we’ve seen this happen before, all of it, and every singlemagical ruler joining the cause knew exactly what they signed up for. We can’t …’

‘She might not even attack a magical community,’ Creon quietly said.

Edored let out a befuddled breath beside the entrance of the tent. ‘Why in hell would she attackhumans?’

‘Spite.’ Creon shrugged – an attempt at indifference wholly negated by the bitter twitch at the corner of his lips and the tension in his wings. He knew that spite far too well, I realised. He’d been the instrument to execute it for hundreds of years. ‘She presumably knows Em visited the White City by now. You shouldn’t underestimate how petty and vicious she can get when she feels offended, and I suspect that the city breaking its laws for her current foremost enemy must have offended her plenty.’

Her foremost enemy.

I’d never been granted a title I’d so gladly have lost.

‘Orin’s bloody arse,’ Tared muttered, raking a hand through his hair. ‘But she wouldn’t win anything by attacking a human city. Do you really think she’ll be vengeful enough to set all strategy aside and make her decisions based on her grudges alone?’

‘Depends on whose advice she is listening to, at the moment,’ Creon said sourly. ‘Usually when she came up with plans like these, Agenor and Thysandra would have been the ones to talk her out of it. With one of them on our side and the other sitting in a cell …’

He didn’t finish his sentence. Not even Edored seemed to need the rest of his point. Hell, if Ophion was her main choice of advisor right now …

I suppressed a shiver.

‘And,’ Creon added, cocking his head at the maps on the table, ‘she may get some advantage from attacking humans, in the end. If she has guessed we’re looking for alliances in that direction,it’s a brilliant opportunity to show the world once again what happens if you dare to turn against her.’

‘Which is that people die,’ I mumbled, the words on my tongue sour like bile.

He closed his eyes. ‘Yes.’

‘And we’re … we’re really just going to let them die.’

This time, no one responded.

A sickening dread settled in my stomach, a sensation far too close to the memory of Khailan’s hollow eyes, his trembling hand in mine. The best option, I tried to tell myself, the only thing we could do – but how could the best option still feel so decidedlywrong?

‘I’ll just start writing messages to the human cities,’ I managed to whisper, feeling like a coward for even speaking the words out loud.

Tared’s shoulders sagged a few inches on the other side of the table. ‘Good. I’ll start looking for the best places to send scouts.’

All the right plans, all the right decisions – and yet death loomed closer and closer and closer.

I didn’t allow myself a single minute of pause for the rest of that hellish day – not a single minute to start thinking all over again, to start wondering whether it would bethatbad an idea to find an alf willing to fade me to wherever the attack would take place and face the brunt of the Mother’s wrath on my own …

I knew what the answer would be.

I just didn’twantto know.

So I made long lists of human islands to reach out to, then wrote polite letters to all of them. I found Alyra staring down aneagle ten times her size and cautiously managed to persuade her to leave the larger bird alone. I finally gave Creon his astrolabe and was rewarded with an expression remarkably similar to that of a young boy just handed his very first toolkit; it was the only thing that could bring a smile to my face that day.

The fae Beyla had sent out to take a look at the Mother’s fleet did not return. I worked even harder trying not to think about what might have happened to them.

The day blurred into tents, faces, letters, and more letters. People asked questions – so many questions. Alf scouts set out to keep watch over other islands. Towards the end of the afternoon, when I passed one of the many cooking fires sprinkled throughout the camp, a firm human woman pushed a bag of onions into my arms and told me to make a start on peeling them if I didn’t have anything better to do; to spare her the embarrassment, I spent the next half hour chopping onions, wiping tears from my eyes, and wondering how Tared would react if I were to name my sword Paring Knife.