“It’s cold, brutally cold. Everything is snow and ice, so there’s little color. But the starkness is beautiful in its own way. Oddly peaceful. It took my breath away, and I don’t just mean from the cold, though it did that too. I felt more peaceful there than I have most other places. I don’t ever feel true peace.”
I found myself staring at him. The only person who had ever confided in me like this was Teo. Not even Marina shared so freely. Goblins were reserved in general. Despite our long friendship, Marina could never fully forget the chasm that separated our social castes.
I wanted to say something, maybe to share some of myself with him too, or maybe to comfort him. Either option was terrifying.
“Would my brother be kept in a prison?”
Baz blinked repeatedly, as if I’d taken him from memories of that serene, winter landscape too abruptly.
“A prison? No, Orania has no prison.”
I arched a disbelieving brow. “Not on the entire continent?”
“No, there are none. They have no need for them.”
“Wow … how? How do they manage that kind of peace?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. They aren’t a peace-filled, so-happy-they-sing-while-they-work kind of folk, if that’s what you were imagining.”
She frowned. She had been, and what a truly beautiful place it had seemed to be for that brief time.
“They don’t have prisons in Orania because they immediately adjudicate anyone committing any crime and free them or punish them accordingly. Right then. Instantly.”
“Some kind of magic?”
“Exactly, faithum of some sort. Sorcerers and sorceresses, wizards and witches, from all across Orania, came together to develop their judicial system.”
“That’s impressive.” I hadn’t heard of that kind of unity across magic users.
“It is. They work together to benefit Orania in all sorts of ways. I admire them for that.”
“Interesting, but where is Teo, then?”
“I don’t know. I know nothing about what happened to him, just that I had nothing to do with any of it.”
“Is that new, the justice system in Orania? I don’t remember hearing about that B.A.”
“What’s that, B.A.?”
“Before abduction. Before I was taken, stuffed into my sarcophagus, and tossed to the bottom of the sea.” I paused; he anticipated. “So much changed while I was gone. It’s been … a lot.” A part of me wanted to admit to more turmoil, but the other part remembered: he was my enemy, and weakness was foolish and reckless.
I wasn’t going to say more. Indeed, I had resolved not to, when I added, “Isai came to our world after I was taken.”
“Oh. I hadn’t stopped to consider the timeline, but yeah, of course. Things would be really different for you.”
“It’s like an entirely new world. I’d never even seen a dragort before. Or one of your shädreads, either.”
“Shädreads are more understandable. Not many people ride them, and when they haven’t bonded with a rider, they stay far away from people.”
“I caught a glimpse of yours. They’re amazing creatures.”
“They most certainly are. I wouldn’t want to go to war without Drion.” He exhaled heavily. “I’d prefer not to go to war at all, with or without him.”
“The great and formidable General Alobaz Hawxley doesn’t like to fight?”
His features tightened. Beneath the glow of lumoonlight, he looked sad. “Just because I’m good at something doesn’t mean I would choose to do it.”
“You’re supposed to be the best commander who’s ever lived.”
