Cyrene just chortled and strode to Sarielle. “Get on, lovebirds.”
“This is a one-way trip,” Cyrene told Orden. She passed Orden the packet of letters she had finished writing late last night. He secured them in the pocket of his jacket. “We’ll come to Bienco once we’re through with our plans. Leave us a sign at the portal if you decide to depart. We’ll check it when we get there. Good luck.”
Orden tipped his hat. “You too, girl. You know I said that you had some crazy plans.”
“I know. I know. I’m rash.”
He grinned. “This isn’t one of them. I’m proud of you.”
“Oh,” she whispered. And then smiled fondly. “I’m glad I met you that time I almost died.”
He dropped his head back and laughed. “I bet you are. Now, open that portal. Are we sure we know where it opens up?”
“I’d hope so. Vera created most of them.”
“Aye. I hope those Eleysian imbeciles figure out how to get my Aurum back by the time I return.”
“At least they have Gwynora and Quidera.”
Orden grinned. “Women should always run the world.”
Cyrene winked. “To that we agree.”
Then, she focused her energy on the coin in her hand. The Tenchala portal before her opened wide to reveal what looked like a dark underground cellar.
“Huh,” Orden said, unimpressed.
“Vera did say that most of Bienco flooded long ago, and they raised the city on top of it. I guess it makes sense the portal is underground.”
“Should be an adventure, I suppose.”
Then Orden walked through, and the portal closed behind him.
Cyrene went to work on rerouting their talisman. Vera had instructed her on how to do it in case they needed to jump from portal to portal. It had taken some getting used to. And had kept her mind busy while she went through the tiresome job of meeting and assigning every single Doma in the army. So few could manage more than one element. And most of them barely had a drop of Doma magic in their veins. But there were others who were promising, like Jenstad and Alchia and another boy, Estin, who was with the Network. She’d left it to Vera and Quidera to determine how to separate them all as to best learn. But she’d had to do the manual labor of determining elements and strengths first. It was draining in a way continual magic use typically was.
She’d had to take a couple of extra days to recover before they could go. She’d hated the delay, but it had been a necessary one.
And now, she was standing before the portal with her team—Dean, Fenix, Rhea, and their dragons. So much rested on whether or not they were successful here. She swallowed and directed the coin toward the portal one more time.
Before them was the ruins of a city.
“Wow,” Rhea breathed. “I thought…we were going to Byern.”
“The Byern portal isn’t safe,” Dean said.
“Welcome to the once-great Leif city of Aonia,” Cyrene said.
Then they stepped through the portal to the other side of Emporia in the blink of an eye.
Watching Rhea’s astonishment reminded Cyrene of the first time she’d ever truly left Byern. It reminded her why she loved to travel so much. How seeing the ruins of a lost world flipped her entire perspective. They were only here on this world for a short time. She wanted to live the best life she could.
“Aonia,” Rhea breathed. She stepped out of the half-crumbled building that held the portal and stared all around her. “It’s devastating. What happened?”
Cyrene sighed. “Indres attack. They came at night in numbers unheard of and slew everyone. There is only one living person left from Aonia.” And Ceis’f was unaccounted for in this war.
Rhea frowned. “You think an Indres attack did this?”
“That’s what I was told from the person I know who was there in the aftermath.”
“Hmm,” Rhea said. “Indres are just foot soldiers. They hardly seem like the type to do this much damage.”
Cyrene had never really thought about it. There couldn’t have been that many more Indres than what they had seen from Malysa. Unless she was holding deep reserves.
“I don’t know,” she finally admitted. “Perhaps they just wanted it to look like it was Indres, and there were others involved.”
Rhea sighed. “Aren’t there always?”
Halcyon and I are going to scout the area, Sarielle told her. We want to check for the Destroyer’s presence in the woods. Especially since you have witnessed a Nokkin in these parts in the past.
“Thank you, Sarielle,” she said affectionately to her dragon.
The rest of them trekked through the scattered ruins until they reached the edge of the city.
Cyrene pointed southwest. “Levin is about five to ten leagues due southwest. Once you hit there, I think you probably know your way to the capital.”
Fenix nodded crisply and followed the line of her hand. “If we get started right away, we might even be able to get to Levin today.”
“Um, I have much shorter legs than you. And, if we arrived at night, they might not even let us in the city. So, we’d have to sleep outside anyway. We should plan to moderate our travel so that we don’t kill ourselves,” Rhea told him crisply.
He grinned from ear to ear. “I forgot that I had a genius with me.”
She sputtered, “I am not a genius. I am highly logical.”
Cyrene chuckled. “You’re kind of a genius, too.”
“Whose side are you on?” Rhea asked.
Sarielle’s voice cut through their conversation. All clear, soul sister. We will hunt. The game is much better here.
“Enjoy,” Cyrene told her with a smile. “Dragons back in the mountains.”
It does feel more like home.
There was a longing there. And Cyrene hardly blamed her. She missed her home, too.
“All right,” Fenix said. “We’ll get going at an even pace. Don’t want to tire anyone out.” His eyes flicked to Cyrene. “I’ll report in when I can.”
She nodded. “Only when it’s safe.”
His eyes said that nothing about what he was about to do was safe.
“And take care of her,” she whispered.
Rhea frowned and glanced between them. “We’ll be fine.” She threw her arms around Cyrene. “I love you. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Creator, it’s like you know me or something.”
“I do,” Rhea said, slowly releasing her. She glanced at Dean. “You take care of her, too, okay?”
“That’s what I’m here for,” he said with a smile for her oldest friend.
Fenix nodded at them, and then the pair disappeared into the surrounding trees. Once they were gone, it left Cyrene all alone with Dean for the first time since they had had their argument in the council tent.
She turned to face him, hesitant for a moment and then emboldened. “Shall we?”
He held out his hand. “Actually, I thought we would check one thing before we go.”
“Oh?” she inquired. Not unaware that they were in the very city where Dean had first hatched his plan to earn his magic. Maybe this was the real reason all along that she hadn’t wanted to bring him along. She’d worried what would happen when they returned to Aonia.