Chapter 32

CHAPTER 32

T he ship caught a breeze which helped our time considerably. We would land in Corsha soon. Before nightfall. Hopefully before we were hit by the storm that we could see building off in the distance. The good news was since we were away from all the extra eyes and using the Wylan ship for this trip, I had been able to fly numerous times this afternoon.

Amory and I were now sitting in a cabin with John, getting our bearings and going over our plan again. It was similar to what our Wylan crew had done before we landed in Dra Skor all those months ago, yet entirely different.

I was again approaching a country which would likely see me as an enemy and a hostile. Yet this time, I knew no matter what Corsha could offer me, I wouldn't be staying.

Dra Skor had all of me now.

"But again," Amory was saying, "I do not understand how and why if they receive visions, how they did not see the dead king coming."

Keir.

I sensed Esta's restlessness and anger even before she spoke to me. My eyes instinctively went in the direction of Dra Skor. Sweetheart?

Someone thinks they have seen Morana in Keld. I am sending a team to hunt her down.

My entire body stilled. You aren't going?

No. I made you a promise.

Good. It's likely just a ploy to get to you anyway. Keep me posted. We will land in Corsha within the hour. I love you.

I love you.

It was rather amazing I could still speak with Esta telepathically this far away. It wasn't as easy, but we still could communicate at least. I looked back up to see John and Amory both looking at me. "Sorry. Esta said that someone in Keld may have seen Morana, she is sending a team there, but not going herself."

"Dammit," Amory muttered. "I wanted to come here, but I also didn't want to leave, fearing something like this would happen."

"I feel similarly," I agreed.

John added, "And that library keeps calling to me."

"Well, aren't we all just a sorry group of ambassadors?" Dex laughed from the door. "We aren't even there yet, and we already want to go back."

Amory reached over and grabbed my forearm. "Is Malachi going?"

I looked in her brown eyes and saw her worry. "I'll ask."

Es.

Yes?

Is Malachi going on the hunt?

No. He won't leave my side until you return. Whit and Zaire are both going with their teams.

Amory wanted to know.

The two of them need to figure things out. I have half a mind to lock them into a cell together .

I felt my lips pull into a smile. You are spending entirely too much time with Nana.

There are times her cane would be useful.

I laughed, my eyes going back to Amory. "No. He isn't going. He's with Esta. Likely bothering her by never letting her have a moment of peace. Whit and Zaire's teams are heading up the hunt." I paused to smile. "She also says she is toying with locking you and Malachi in a cell together until you figure things out."

"There isn't anything to figure out," Amory said quickly. Entirely too quickly.

I took a sip of my tea. "Amory. I thought we talked about this. I know you're strong, but you can let him in just a little."

She snorted. "We did not, if I remember correctly, you did the talking and I just stood there."

Okay, she had a point. I allowed silence to settle around the table, having learned that sometimes my silence sent a louder message.

"I think I missed out on my chance, that's all," Amory whispered finally. "I lost my fiancé. I lost my chance at what you and Esta have."

It was John's voice which wisely stated, "Your love for your lost fiancé does not have to rival or compete with your feelings for Malachi. They can be separate. You don't have to put down your love for one to pick up love for the other. You are allowed to love both."

Amory went still, considering his words.

When it took more than a few moments for her to get herself together, I reached over and gave her as much of a side hug as I could manage. The result was more of a back pat and less of a hug. "You deserve to be happy."

"I feel like Malachi deserves someone who is less damaged," Amory admitted .

"We all have our scars," I reminded her, using some words Esta once told me. "And you wear yours well."

Someone from the crew called down the hallway to us. The docks were coming into view.

"Dammit, we were supposed to be prepping for landing in Corsha, not delving into my love life," Amory bit out.

John gave her a hearty laugh. "We have no idea what we are walking into, so how prepared can we truly be?"

"Not entirely unlike my love life then," she joked.

We stood on deck in our coats, the wind at our backs as more and more of Corsha came into view. Winter in Corsha was far more brutal than in Dra Skor.

"The docks look deserted," Dex observed. "It's... eerie."

Yet, if Corsha truly was deserted, all her people gone for the past ten years, wouldn't there be trash and destruction? The docks themselves were ready to be used, all the boards in place, looking like they were used just yesterday. "It's too clean, though."

Amory nodded. "I agree. I have half a mind to shift and go for a run."

"I'll fly with you," I suggested. I would take any and every opportunity to fly on this trip.

As my boots hit the docks, I felt my veins burning. Not in warning of a threat, but in anticipation of whatever we would find. Rallying. It was a welcomed warmth.

The beaches of Corsha were rockier than in Dra Skor, covered in small pebbles. I knew the snow-covered mountains in the distance were truly volcanoes, not mountains, but it did remind me of Wylan.

In the distance there were some buildings not unlike those of Keld or the market street of Nerede. Yet instead of the hustle and bustle of a city on the shore, it was quiet.

The silence was deafening and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. An entire country of people, gone quiet. There were no people milling about. No creatures. Just stillness as far as the eye could see.

What had my father done to these people?

"Should we board back up and head to one of the other islands?" the captain called to us from the ship where he stood watch. "Keep checking them all?"

Something about the scene before me just didn't feel right. I supposed seeing something deserted never would, but I still couldn't get past it. We had even been warned that Corsha was this way. I couldn't imagine stumbling upon this without warning. Investigating felt like the opposite of what we should be doing.

I thought I heard something, a voice, far off in the distance, as my head snapped that direction. Could it have been someone from our ship, their voice carried on the wind?

"Give us a moment," I called back, not even sure what it was I was looking for, but thinking Amory was right. We should at least attempt to figure out what happened here.

Dex stepped forward a few steps, the small rocks crunching under his boots. "It's quiet. I don't particularly like hearing myself breathe."

"You're just used to how loud it is in Dra Skor," Amory offered lightly.

"The stillness though," John added as he began walking a short distance up the shore. "It is so still it almost seems... artificial."

My mind flashed back to Archer telling us the blood in Morana's room was in a pattern. So much so that it felt manufactured . Could this stillness be somehow manufactured? I hadn't heard of anything like that before, but I also hadn't believed dragons to be real before a few months ago. I couldn't explain why, but everything in me said that something here wasn't right.

Because my father had caused it, I owed it to the people of Corsha to figure it out.

Dex crouched down, looking at things from a different angle .

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked him.

"Can't even explain what I'm thinking, other than it doesn't seem real?"

"Exactly."

He picked up a large sized rock and hefted it as far as he could, the rock landing with a thud. We waited. For what to happen, none of us knew. Still, we waited.

Just as we were making plans to explore in the direction of the buildings closest to us for clues as to what happened, there was an animal noise which stopped our discussion. It sounded like a horse.

Sure enough, a horse and rider came trotting up the shore. Where had they even come from? It must have been from around one of the buildings further inland. That was the only explanation which made sense.

He pulled up a safe distance from all of us before giving a quick bow. "Is the winged king among you?"

Amory's eyes cut to mine and Dex instinctively moved between the man and me.

I had learned in all my delegate work that honesty usually worked best. "I am no king."

"Semantics," the man replied. "Do you, or do you not, have wings?"

How the hell did he know that? How could he know that? Unless someone from Corsha had a spy in Wylan. "I do."

"Prove it."

"Excuse me?" Amory asked, clearly bothered by the man bossing me around.

"To grant you access in Corsha, I will need to see your wings, Your Highness."

Dex spun to me and whispered. "I do not like it. I do not like this one bit. "

I put up a hand. "I would rather have them out anyway, in case they are needed."

That seemed to appease them. I stepped forward a few steps so that my wings could be released without hitting anyone, and then I willed them forward.

"Most excellent," the man said with a smile as he saw them. "Wait here." He lifted a horn of sorts to his lips and gave a long blow.

It was one man. What exactly were we to wait for? I had to assume there were at least a few others if he was somehow signaling to the rest.

My attention was jerked toward the buildings in the distance as something seemed to shimmer. And then like some sort of translucent veil, it all fell away, pooling at the bottom like a sheet before it disappeared entirely. Our entire view just fell away.

"What the hell?" Dex gasped.

"Did that really just happen?" Amory whispered.

There were multiple murmurs from the ship behind us, as they all saw it too.

I had to blink. Blink again. One moment we saw a deserted Corsha, the next, it all fell away and the real Corsha stood. There were people moving about in the streets and lights on in the buildings. A few people stopped and looked at us as we looked at them. One kid even waved.

A group of ten riders on horseback approached. Most all of them were smiling like they were happy to see us. So there was at least that.

One such, a woman who looked to be a teenager, had a sparkling gold crown upon her head. She grinned kindly at us all. "We have been waiting for you."

Amory and I exchanged a glance. We hadn't sent word of our arrival. We had assumed Corsha was as we had first found her, deserted .

The original man with the horn gestured to the young woman, "Her Royal Highness, Queen Aurelia Rassi."

Though she looked barely older than a child, she was already a queen? I bowed slightly, the rest of my group following. "Your Highness."

She dismounted from her horse and came in my direction, surprising me in that rather than shaking my hand, she did not hesitate to give me a hug. "It is time."

"Time for what exactly, Your Grace?" John asked, the only one who seemed to have words.

She continued to smile at me, taking in my wings. "The reign of the brother kings."