Page 126

A straea gripped the stone pillars that held her captive, her blood churning, boiling.

How dare the Earth Queen? She shook with the longing to raise every drop of water in the sea and bring it crashing down on Illumahrah where the human was currently plotting with her elf.

But the cage did more than trap her physically.

Born of earth magic, it pressed on her sea power, smashing her abilities into that of a youngling’s.

She couldn’t have called up a single wave to help herself.

She could barely keep the thin layer of water over herself to breathe.

And now the human had called on her warriors to fetch Larisa.

Would Vahly torture Larisa in an effort to make Astraea comply?

Astraea snorted, then smoothed her hair and readjusted her coral crown.

As if she would give up all for one singer.

True, it would be a tragedy to lose such a gem as Larisa.

And seeing her suffer would prick at Astraea’s heart, considering what the female had been through.

But to consider allowing the Earth Queen to win?

Never. She’d see Larisa ripped limb from limb before she relented and gave up any blood.

A hiss of spelled water turned Astraea’s head. Venu’s face appeared at the base of her stone cage, moonlight sliding through the layer of water he held over him and giving him a ghostly look.

“My queen.”

“Venu.” She kept an eye on the circling dragons. Amona and that horrid stone gryphon were on watch. “They’ll see you. You should go. I don’t want my warriors without their best general. Go. Now.”

“As you wish, my queen, but I beg to hear your strategy now that all this has come to pass.”

“I will feign a capitulation when they bring Larisa. Once the human believes I am about to give up my blood and slice my palm, I will rip the sword from her weak hands and escape to the sea.”

Venu’s lips parted. He glanced at the starry sky where the stone gryphon’s massive shadow blocked the moon. “But won’t they have you on some sort of land if they plan to force you into submission? Surely, the Earth Queen isn’t so foolish as to attempt her move underwater.”

“They want this balance more than anything. I will simply request that they allow me to keep this wave, maybe one a touch more comfortable, around me during the ceremony. It is a small request. I doubt they’ll argue it when they believe themselves so close to their goal.

I will be quite convincing when it comes to my reaction to their torture of Larisa. ”

“I worry none will believe it, my queen. You’re no weakling.”

“The land kynd don’t see soft emotion as weakness. They are fools, Venu. I tell you. Complete fools. My army won’t believe my grief, but the Earth Queen will swallow my poison in full. Tell them to watch and to keep their disbelief to themselves. If they—”

The Lapis matriarch, that disgusting beast Amona, flashed through the sky, low, nearly striking Venu from his wave. Dragonfire blasted over his head, and the heat seared Astraea’s cheeks and hands. Venu dove backward in an elegant arc toward the sea far below.

“Curse you, vile lizard!” Astraea lunged back, hating the limit on her magic that kept her from bringing more water to protect herself from the dragonfire.

Shaking, she pulled a breath from the waters through her singed gills. Her hair remained intact and her crown too. She wouldn’t be so easily injured. She would survive this, and the dragons, elves, and that Earth Queen would rue the day they tangled with the Sea Queen.