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Caelum was no exception.

We sparred for some time until, remembering Nerys was watching us, I used a move my uncle showed me once, an unpredictable lunge followed by a swift withdrawal. In response, Caelum stepped back so I did the same.

“You wear no armor,” he said. “Our weapons are not blunted.”

Both facts I was well aware of.

“I didn’t expect to find myself here, with such a worthy opponent,” I added as the crowd dispersed.

“Where did you find such a human?” Caelum asked Nerys, who stepped forward and took his sword.

“He found us. Rowan is here to speak with the queen.”

Caelum didn’t appear surprised by the fact which meant he already knew as much.

“This is about the Aetherian princess?” he guessed.

“It is.”

“They said the Gate remains closed.”

“It does,” I said, glancing at Nerys. She nodded, so I continued. “Princess Mevlida coming through seems to be uniquely related to her standing as King Galfrid’s daughter. What confuses me most,” I said, having admitted as much to Nerys already, “is that your queen must know this. And she also knows my presence here is related to the incident. And yet she does not grant me an audience.”

“She will,” Caelum echoed Nerys’s words. “Otherwise, you’d not have been admitted to the palace. As to the delay…” He shrugged. “Who can know the mind of a queen?”

Both Nerys and Caelum knew more of Queen Lirael’s mind than they shared, of that I was certain.

“Nerys.”

All three of us turned to face the shore as the same servant who’d fetched my sword earlier ran toward us.

“Yes, Eoin?”

If he were human, I’d say the boy had not seen fifteen summers. But most likely, he had been alive longer than me.

“The queen has summoned you both.”

Finally.

Caelum reached out his hand. Since we were in Thalassaria, and not Estmere, the parting was one of deference to me. I shook it, grateful.

“Until we meet again,” he said.

“I look forward to it.”

“Your swords.” The boy, Eoin, reached out both hands. Though reluctant to hand mine over, I did so. Watching him walk off with it, I was about to ask Nerys how he’d fetched it so quickly when she spoke first.

“Come quickly. The queen does not like to be kept waiting.”

“The queen sounds less and less appealing each day,” I murmured for Nerys’s ears only. She pretended not to hear me, just as I pretended not to be staring at her as she walked in front of me. But just as I’d done with Caelum, I vowed to put everything else out of my mind. I was here for one purpose only, and it was not to become enamored with my escort.

The fate of Estmere, of Elydor, rested on the shoulders of those of us who knew what was needed to open the Gate. Whether I liked her or not did not matter. I needed—we needed—the Queen of Thalassaria’s aid.

And it was time to find out how willing she would be to give it.

8

NERYS