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V ahly put the tip of the oaken sword against the damp earth. Magic tingled down her fingers where she’d closed them around the warm, smooth hilt, and the power urged her to draw. “I’m having the strangest desire to make pictures in the dirt like a youngling.”

Nix put a hand on a hip. “Eh, younglings are more open to magic than grown ones give them credit. Give in to it, Queenie. What’s on your mind?”

Vahly began to draw with the sword’s sharp, wooden point, sliding it sideways here and there to use the edge of the blade as well.

“The Lapis caves, the city of thieves, the ciderhouse. I long to see their roots, if not their walls, whole again. Maybe the earth can welcome our lost, and those dragons can feed the ground and we can see it all grow anew.”

Her head swam with the longing, chest aching.

This almost felt like a dream or as if she’d had one too many ciders, but with one hand on Kyril, she allowed herself to draw and draw and draw, giving in to the strange urge, the magic coursing through her bones and blood, the love pounding in her heart.

Slowly, the world she’d grown up in materialized in ridges, circles, and lines drawn on the ground.

The Lapis palace with its towering doors and labyrinth of corridors were shown in little rivulets of dirt.

There were the cliffs that had once overlooked the sea instead of drowning in it.

The slim path through the edge of the Red Meadow, near the Fire Marshes, that led to the Dragon’s Back and Nix’s ciderhouse.

The multitude of doors and stairways that snaked along the outside of the city of thieves where the Call Breakers had lived and laughed.

She raised her head to see Arc’s mischievous gaze locked onto her, a spark in his eye raising a question. “You know why I’m being led to do this, don’t you?”

A dimple appeared beside his grin, and his eyebrows lifted for a moment as he shrugged. “I have an educated guess.”

Nix huffed. “Elves. Just tell her, King Arc.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” he said.

Amona turned her head like she’d heard something, and then the ground began to tremble. The sacred oak shook off rich brown and deep red leaves that twisted in the wind to surround Vahly. A boulder rose from the dirt like the back of a great turtle, and Aitor gasped, gaze on the horizon.

Everyone turned as the surface of the new sea shivered and began to spread apart. Foaming waves grew higher and higher, pulling the water from the drowned land and showing the gentle slope of the Red Meadow and the uneven banks of the Silver River.

Vahly held her breath as the water shrank away from the steep incline leading to the Lapis palace.

“The doors. I can see the doors.” But of course she couldn’t truly see them. It was all much too far away. But she knew where they were, familiar as her fingerprint. She gripped Arc’s hand.

Amona strode to the edge of the magically protected island, her chest heaving and her wings rising and falling.

The ground shook hard, and Vahly stumbled, allowing Arc to take her arm.

The Dragon’s Back appeared as the seawater receded. Nix held her closed fists to her mouth. From here, they couldn’t see what remained of the ciderhouse. It was too far away.

More gray and craggy peaks of the Lapis territory appeared as the ocean pulled back its storm-hued cloak. Vahly’s chest clenched; this was too much. To hope that this would last was the most dangerous thing yet…

Shapes moved along the magically dried land.

“What is that?” Nix flew a few feet into the air and squinted as Illumahrah’s trees began to grow right before their eyes.

Aitor laughed. “Deer. There are deer coming right up out of the ground! Look near that stand of beech trees. And there, near the filling pool beside that slope. Is that a ram?”

Vahly’s mouth hung open. It was too much to take in, to understand.

Rabbits and frogs and snakes and beetles leapt from the formerly drowned earth.

Butterflies and falcons soared over trees that were suddenly fully grown.

Soon, the newly born Illumahrah would block most of their view of the massive island.

The water continued to flow away from the land, then Vahly remembered her sea folk allies.

“Lilia!” She rushed to the edge of the island where the magical seam in the water began. Getting on hands and knees, the sword gripped in her hand and pressing against her fingers, she shouted over the waves and the incredible wind gusting across the retreating water. “Lilia!”

Two heads broke the surface—Lilia’s dark hair braided away from her scarred face and another female whose blue hair was shocking in its brightness.

“We are here. What is your plan? What do you wish for us to do?” Lilia held something to her gills, her voice a barely audible croak.

The other female dipped back under the water.

Lilia swam closer, her webbed fingers on the island’s wet rocks. “We can lure Astraea for you.”

“Only if you’re set on surviving. I don’t want any outright sacrifices right now.”

“We have escaped her so far,” Lilia said, her face grave.

Vahly twisted her head to see Amona, Nix, and Arc beside her, their faces pale. “We’ll cut Astraea off from the sea’s Blackwater well. Ryton told me of it. You go first, Lilia, and fill yourselves with magic, you and your rebels.”

Lilia’s eyes widened. “You won’t destroy it.”

“No. I swear it. Now, forced to guess, I’d say Astraea will send three or four units of fifty to deal with you, not knowing we are in the area.

She’ll want to smash you, to show off a bit, but she won’t bother with bringing the whole army of one thousand.

When she sees us and fears we will destroy the well, she’ll grow reckless. ”

A wicked smile curved Lilia’s lips. “You do know our enemy.”

“Only too well. And now I’m equipped to go against her wild power.

You lure Astraea there. Be loud about your movement toward the sea’s Blackwater well.

We will come up behind the warriors she sends after you,” she said to Lilia.

“When do you think Eux and the rest of our army will arrive?” Vahly asked Amona.

“Once Eux sees this land revealed, she will begin the journey. She will come here with the warriors and anyone else capable of fighting. We will leave word of our movements here on a scroll beneath the oak.”

Nix frowned. “Shouldn’t we wait to attack Astraea’s troops until Eux is here?”

Amona shook her head, her Blackwater mark, so much like Vahly’s, shimmering.

“No. This will be a surprise. I want to throw Astraea off, to shake her. We’ll weaken the army, take out the two hundred or so she brings, then retreat.

We’ll return here and regroup. I think it’s a good strategy, reducing their numbers for the final attack. ”

“Exactly,” Vahly said. “And she won’t send her entire force to go after only Lilia and her small band of rebels. We’ll annihilate the entirety of the unit Astraea sends.”

The furrow between Arc’s eyebrows smoothed. “I do think a retreat to this place is a wise move. It feels truly protected. General Lilia, do you have a possible position for retreat as well?”

Lilia sucked a breath, her secondary eyelids spanning across her brilliant irises. “I do. A rift west of the Blackwater. Ryton once showed it to me. Now, I must go. When do we move?” The land was clearing quickly, and the sea pressed the sea kynd female back.

“Now,” Vahly said, raising her voice. “I am finished waiting to become her victim.”

Amona touched Vahly’s back and gave a contented smile, though her gaze spelled death to Astraea.

Vahly stared at Lilia as the waters began to peel away from the island, drawing the rebel sea folk away in the current. “I will leave for the underwater Blackwater well in one day. Be ready. Signal us with a spear to the sky when you see Astraea’s warriors approaching.”

Lilia’s gaze lighted on Amona, then Arc, before returning to Vahly’s face. The sea kynd nodded. “Agreed.”

Without another rough-sounding word, she disappeared into the retreating sea.

Kyril sat beside Vahly, his eagle eyes darting as he gazed over the recovered land. He sent Vahly an image of them flying, green fire rippling from his mouth and her sword raised above her head.

She set a hand on his neck, then smoothed the soft feathers there. “Yes. It is time to fight, my friend. Time to fight.”