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Illoa was a blur.

Captain Draper had been expecting them. Had supplies waiting, and fresh mounts.

Ava knew Luc was as impressed as she was. Captain Draper would be moving up in the ranks, without a doubt.

“Do you still want me to watch the goat?” Draper asked, leaning in to talk softly to Luc, although Ava was close enough to hear her.

“The goat?” Ava asked.

They were saddling horses, a little way from the others, so that Luc could have a final, private word with Draper.

“The goat I’m watching in the square,” Draper said. “Theo was turned into a goat the first night he chased after the children. He suggested I put a goat in the square, just in case the spell worker found the trader, learned what he’d done with it, and came back for it. Him.” She shook her head in confusion. “He didn’t understand why the trader had tied him to the bridge, but he thought it was worth keeping watch, just on the off-chance the abductor came back to look for it . . . him.”

“That is a very good plan.” Luc clasped her shoulder. “You have people watching?”

Draper nodded. “Night and day. Two or three at a time. And I switch them often, so it’s not so obvious.”

“If we miss the abductor, or something goes wrong, it’s a good failsafe.” Ava nodded. “It’s your top priority.”

Draper lifted a fist and bumped it against her chest.

“You’ve done very well, Captain.” Luc turned to hoist Ava up into her saddle. “Keep your ear to the ground. If you hear anything strange, see anyone trying to cross into Kassia and Cervantes that makes you twitchy, you have full permission to detain.”

“Do the Grimwaldians know what’s happening?” Draper asked.

“Not yet. Let’s clear it up first and then we’ll tell them.” He swung into his own saddle, and they were off, galloping over the bridge into Grimwalt.

Ava thought of the friends she had in Taunen, Grimwalt’s capital. Some were on the council there. There would be no diplomatic issues from them about her unannounced entry into her former homeland when they knew what had happened.

Someone in Grimwalt, someone with some oversight, should have known about a spell worker this strong. And how had he dared take four children—four—from the Cervantes plains, and thought there would be no repercussions?

“What are you thinking?” Luc asked as they made it through the town and out to the open road to Taunen.

She tried to wind back her rage so she could answer him. “I managed to get free of my captors just before I reached Illoa, all those years ago.” Ava remembered the pure relief of escape, even though she had been so weak from the rope that had been used on her, she had struggled to walk any distance without needing a rest. “Whatever’s happened to Viviane, she hasn’t been able to escape.”

And that terrified her. Her daughter had the skills she had never had at that age. Unlike her own mother, Ava had made sure Vivi knew what her magic could do and how to use it.

It was only a little sad to her that her son, at ten years old, showed no sign of having the same magical talent.

“It doesn’t mean she’s injured. It just means she hasn’t found a way out yet.” Luc moved his horse closer to her.

Ava forced herself to nod. “This is what happened to my mother. Twice. To me. Twice.” She blinked back the moisture dimming her eyesight.

“Hey, now.” Luc reached over and gently tugged at her hair. It had been so short when they’d first met, shorn by her cousin so she couldn’t use it to embroider with. “Theo is right behind her.”

She nodded again. “Did you ask Draper who the spell worker was who went with him?”

Luc swore softly. “I’d forgotten about her. No, I didn’t.”

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but getting Vivi back.” She drew herself up. “Getting them all back.”

She wanted them all safe at home, along with Bastien, her son, who was being looked after by a whole unit of guards right now in Ta-lin. She wanted her family together.

“We will.” Luc touched the hilt of his sword in an unconscious movement. “We will.”

CHAPTER 24

They went north west,following Marchant.