Chapter 10

Eimarille watched as the small airship descended into the royal hangar, the ground crew assisting with the anchoring. The royal guard that had escorted her to the airfield outside the city walls of New Haven had closed off one of the main piers and the city gates for her passage. Being at war changed her routine, but New Haven was far from the front lines stretched across the eastern provinces of Ashion.

The broadsheets being sold from street corners that morning all reported on the latest news coming out of Solaria and E'ridia—that the two countries were joining the war effort on behalf of Ashion but with crippled support. The reason for it all walked down the gangplank some ten minutes later, dressed for travel rather than the Daijal court, her long black hair simply braided back and face bare of any of the rouge Eimarille wore. It smeared a little over Terilyn's lips when Eimarille kissed her, but neither woman cared, either about the stains or their audience.

"Welcome home," Eimarille murmured when she finally pulled back. "Excellent work, as always, darling."

Terilyn used her thumb to gently clean up the edge of Eimarille's lip before slipping their hands together. "It was a successful trip, but I am glad to be back by your side."

Eimarille tightened her fingers, tugging Terilyn after her down the pier where her escort waited. "I never had any doubt you would succeed."

It had meant several weeks spent traveling by airship and submersible, but the results were more than Eimarille could have hoped for. Kote had warned that keeping other countries from joining the war was only a delaying tactic, but halving what support could be sent by Solaria and E'ridia bought Daijal more time to dig in and boost the output of their production factories.

The royal guard led the way out of the hangar and into the bright summer sunshine. Eimarille had foregone her crown for the trip to the airfield, but she was ever recognizable to her people. Her arrival had drawn a crowd earlier, and it had only grown during the time spent waiting for Terilyn's airship to anchor in its berth. Eimarille lifted her free hand to wave elegantly at the airfield workers gathered along the piers who cheered at her appearance.

Leaving the airfield amidst the circle of her royal guards took a matter of minutes. The royal motor carriage and its escorting vehicles waited with engines running past the city gates. The driver helped first Eimarille and then Terilyn into the back seat of the motor carriage before getting back behind the steering wheel to drive them back to the palace.

New Haven was a bustling city that would not be home for too much longer. If the war went how Eimarille envisioned it, the palace she'd spent her formative years in here in the west would be nothing but a summer home. Eimarille looked forward to the day when Lisandro would grow up in the city she'd been born in, Amari a capital for the world, not just a single country.

Still, New Haven held some good memories for her. It was where she'd fallen in love with Terilyn, where she'd given birth to her son, where she'd been crowned queen of one country in preparation for all the rest. The palace they eventually entered had long since become hers, nearly all traces of the Iverson bloodline erased from every wing of the vast building. The only remnant of her deceased husband's bloodline greeted them both with outstretched arms.

"You're back!" Lisandro shouted, unable to contain his glee at seeing Terilyn again.

His lessons forgotten, her little prince flung himself at Terilyn with a smile on his face. Eimarille watched with a pleased smile of her own as Terilyn swept Lisandro into her arms, peppering his face with playful kisses. "Hello, malynshka."

The Urovan endearment only made Lisandro smile harder before he wrapped his skinny arms around Terilyn's neck to hug her tight. Eimarille let her son chatter away at Terilyn, the governess knowing his lessons were done for the day without needing to be told. Eimarille followed Terilyn out of the nursery, half listening as Lisandro prattled on about what had happened in her absence. Terilyn kept an interested face for all of it, the adoration in her eyes a kind of love Eimarille had never seen in Wesley's when he'd been alive.

"How about we go for a walk in the gardens?" Terilyn asked, glancing over her shoulder at Eimarille.

"I think that's a splendid idea," she replied.

It was honestly too beautiful of a day to spend most of it inside. Lisandro, free of his lessons, was more than pleased to gallivant down the cobbled pathways that snaked through the grand rear garden. Eimarille had ripped up and replanted them all, undoing all of former Queen Aleesia's hard work in favor of plants and flowers that Terilyn preferred. Which meant summer in the palace gardens smelled how Eimarille thought Urova might, if she ever had the opportunity to visit Matriskav during the same season.

Lisandro eventually returned and wriggled his way between the two of them, shoving his small hands into theirs. It was muscle memory to lift him on the next step and swing him, smiling over at Terilyn as they did so. They walked a short path like that before Lisandro pulled free and skipped ahead once more.

"Joelle has Alasandair in her vasilyet," Eimarille said as they walked after Lisandro.

Terilyn hummed thoughtfully, folding her hands together at the small of her back. "Shall I pay her a visit?"

Eimarille shook her head, thinking about all the nights she'd slept poorly, half her bed cold and empty. "No, you've been gone long enough. But I would carve out her insolence once and for all. I have no use for her House any longer."

"There are Blades who would gladly go south for you to see it done."

"I trust who you think would be best suited for the job at hand. Whatever they require for such an endeavor, they shall have."

"I'll see it done, my love."

"Tomorrow." Eimarille stepped closer so she could wrap her arm around Terilyn's waist, who returned the gesture. "It's been too long since I've been able to hold you in my arms."

She knew peaceful moments like this, with Terilyn by her side and Lisandro dancing on ahead, would be more difficult to come by once she finally convinced Kote to allow her to travel to Amari. Her High General fretted so, but the war would not end in some grand battle as all her officers seemed to think so.

It would end with her.