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“Don’t worry about me.” She hadn’t meant to, but her tone sounded flippant, so she tried to sound nicer. “Trust me. Meanwhile, I trust you to keep this fort running. Make sure the king leaves, and try to provide him as much comfort as possible. Your father can receive the Haven delegation.” They had been informed about it, but it was a good reminder. “And thank you for your help and friendship.”
“What should I tell your father or your brother?” he asked.
At least someone else in this fort was optimistic. “They know where I’ll be.”
Arry nodded and walked away, and she closed the door and turned to River. “Let me get dressed. Can we go back to your house?”
He crossed his arms. “It’s not ours anymore?”
“I’d say not yet. But I think it’s the safest place for now.”
He walked towards her and wrapped his arms around her. “No need to get dressed. You still have clothes there. Can we go?”
Naia nodded. She’d have to return to the fort because of the communication mirror, but for now, she wanted River to be safe, and perhaps she wanted that space that belonged only to them.
It felt as if dark tendrils enveloped her. Somehow, she had forgotten how much she disliked moving through the hollow.
“Naia, you have to look,” he said.
She opened her eyes. “I can’t see anything.”
“If you’re a dragon, you should be able to do this. And then you also should have a little bit of my magic.”
Naia looked. All she saw was blackness—except for a few lighter points. “I see… dots? And lines going to these dots?”
“They’re my circles.”
“How do I know which is the right one?”
“In my case, I used to think about it, then the one I wanted shone brighter, but nowadays I just know where to go.”
“I’m wondering what all the other lights are.”
“Many, many places, Naia.”
There was a brighter line and a brilliant circle. She pointed at it. “That one?”
He looked puzzled. “That’s… in the castle in the Ancient City.”
Strange. Unless…“Perhaps we should go there now?”
His chest moved up and down, in a deep breath.
Naia realized she wasn’t making sense. “But then, we do need to get dressed.”
“We do.” His eyes were on that luminous dot, as if considering it.
Naia knew that he held back a lot of pain about his father, the death of his sister, and his exile. He held her close and one of the dots became brighter and bigger, turning into a circle, but then she felt the darkness around her again, and, unwittingly, closed her eyes. When she opened them, they were standing in front of their house.
The day before yesterday she had told him she couldn’t stay here, that she had to take care of her kingdom, but now she wanted to make sure he was safe, and also wanted some peace of mind, some tranquility, a neutral place far from everything to try to get her thoughts together and figure out what was going on. And then maybe she wanted to be alone with River, feel more of his skin against hers, feel the touch of his hands. As if there was any time for that, with everything that was happening, with someone after River, with Ironhold about to take control of Aluria. She wished she hadn’t remembered that, she wished they could just spend time together and forget everything outside that clearing, forget that there was anything other than the two of them. But it wouldn’t make it true.
Naia turned to him. “I’ll get dressed, and I think we should go to your city. If there’s a library there, we might find answers.” She wished Fel could see her now, interested in books. Well, she wishedshecould see her brother and know he was all right. It was something else worrying her. “The sooner we start, the better.”
“Wait. I don’t know, Naia. I…”
“You’re afraid?”
He thought for a moment and closed his eyes. “Yes. I guess that’s the word.”
