They probably felt like real warriors for the first time, fighting something that could actually fight back.
But they wouldn’t be battling my creature for long. Already I could feel my hold on it loosening, a combination of tapping into an unknown type of magic and the distance I’d begun to have from it. But as long as they were distracted, that meant the usual level of guards along the River and in the forest would be less. I wouldn’t have to worry about anyone seeing what I was about to do.
After a few minutes I made it to the edge of the River and pulled out the ring the boy had given me.
Return me to the River.
I could feel anticipation rising up inside my chest. After years of searching without a single clue, this might be the one thing I needed to find Queen Azari’s crown.
It might be the one thing I needed to free my family, so I wouldn’t have to compose letters to them in my head anymore.
I pulled my dark tunic off, swapped from the usual blue coat with the silver emblem I donned as captain of the Salt Guard. It landed in the grass along the riverbank, and I stepped toward the edge of the River.
I hadn’t been in this water of my own free will since I was a boy. The last time I’d swum it, the Viceroy had us execute a slew of rebels by beheading them against the invisible wall of magic in the center of the River that cut the human world off from us.
I closed my eyes, trying to block out the image of the heads of my friends bobbing along the current, the streak of blood swirling in the center of the water like paint.
Reza’s smile had been a sharp slash of white, and from then on I knew that dark, uneasy feeling I’d gotten whenever he wore it. “Take the rebels to the River, we’ll see if they can lift Azari’s wall,” he’d said with a glee that had turned my stomach.
We’d executed twenty that day—high peri and lesser alike. I’d managed to smuggle some out, but couldn’t prevent the execution that had been ordered. Afterward, I’d vomited over the side of the bank, clutching my hands in the grass trying to mask my sobs.
Then Reza had returned to the Court of Salt, leaving me in charge of hunting any remaining rebels in his absence.
I hadn’t returned to the River since.
I threaded the delicate golden band along the tops of my fingers like a coin.
Return me to the River.
I’ll go to the River like the ancestors.
Take the rebels to the River.
I inhaled a breath and dove, sliding into the water with a slight splash. I could feel the thread of other life in the water but could not fully access it. Not anymore.
The limits on my life magic felt like drowning, like being smothered with only a sliver of air left to drink.
I held the ring between my thumb and forefinger, but before I could look at it, it grew so hot that it was like molten metal in a forge. It fell from my grasp out of reflex, my hands desperate to get away from the burning pain. I cursed, shooting my hand out to grab it back before the current swept it away.
But I needn’t have worried. It floated up, ignoring the pull of the River entirely.
The ring moved in front of my face like a spinning top, just below the surface of the water. The metal became jammy, pulling apart and liquefying, turning into something new.
My breath trapped in my chest.
Of course.
Queen Azari’s magic was nothing if not things made new.
The ring twisted itself, until the gold was no longer a ring, no longer jewelry at all, but a long key with an ornate head, curling golden vines along the top.
It stayed there, suspended in front of me in the water until I snatched it up, and kicked up to the surface with a rough gasp. I dragged myself up the riverbank, coming to my feet along the grass and holding the newly formed key up to the moonlight.
I was torn between elation and disappointment.
The key had to be a step toward finding the crown, but I had no idea what to do with it.
What use was a key when I hadn’t any idea where the locked door was?
