“You either need to go seventy-five miles upriver,” Sidonie explained, using shining blue symbols of coherent mana to illustrate the map, “and then travel overland into the painted desert, or try to follow the south bank of the Airaduinë through the jungle the entire way.”

Liv leaned over the map, which had been spread out across one end of the high table in the manor of House Keria. It looked new, and from what Liv understood it had been prepared after Sidonie’s sketches of the western continent from their trip into the Garden of Thorns, and then up to the ring in the sky. At a glance, it looked even more detailed than her father’s map, over which they’d made their original plans just over a week before. A crumb-littered platter, two bottles of wine, and a single goblet had been used to weigh down the four corners of the large calfskin.

“That’s a convenient new spell,” she remarked. A shining blue miniature model of a waystone pulsed with golden veins just northeast of where two rivers came down out of the mountains and joined, forming the Airaduinë - or, more accurately, they both flowed into the artificial lake created by the dam and bridge where the waystone was located.

Two additional waystones were marked: one in the mountains, south and west of where her father had taken a foothold for the Elden forces. That, Liv knew, would be Nightfall Peak, where Ractia had gathered her forces. Where the Vædic Lady of Blood was assembling, if Wren’s captured hunters could be believed, some sort of great machine, using parts looted from Vædic ruins all across the world.

Southeast of Nightfall Peak, beneath the lower branch of the Airaduinë, lay what Elder Aira had called Feic Seria - the Painted Desert. The waystone shining there marked the ancient home of Staivis, Lord of Stone.

“Soaring Eagle left your father with enough dugout boats to carry every warrior he originally brought across the ocean,” Wren explained. “He had them hauled out of the water beneath the dam, and then carried up to the encampment. I saw them when I was there with him, and it looked like he kept them dry and in good condition.”

“My son informs me that two of the riverboats were left specifically for your party,” Airis ka Reimis explained. “He and your father suspected only one would actually be necessary, but wanted to be safe.”

“How long is that, going upriver?” Liv asked Wren.

“If it was Red Shield tribe hunters at the paddles? Three days,” Wren declared. “But have any of you actually paddled one of these things before?”

“I have,” Keri said. “All the way up the river with Soaring Eagle teaching us the entire way. That’s actually why I’ve asked Linnea and Olavi to be here as well; they made the trip with me. Between the three of us and you, Wren, that’s four experienced people working the paddles.”

Liv glanced over to the two warriors who had accompanied Keri back from the Garden of Thorns when he’d been wounded. She saw the sense in their presence, but wished that Keri would have discussed it with her ahead of time. Still, he’d had to hurry back to Mountain Home, say farewell to his son, and bring them back to Al’Fenthia in just a few hours. There hadn’t really been time for them to consult, even if they’d been in the same place prior to sitting down for the evening meal.

“Call it four days on the river, then,” Wren decided. “Once we hit the high desert, it will slow down. We’ll need to carry a lot of water along with us. Call it two days or more to get from the river to the rift.”

“What about horses?” Rose asked. “If these riverboats are large enough to put a packhorse or two in, they can bring supplies. A lot more than we could carry ourselves.”

Wren and Keri were already shaking their heads, however. “The boats are dug out of a tree trunk,” Keri explained. “There’s only room to sit one behind the other, not two abreast - nevermind a horse or any other sort of pack animal.”

“Or,” Liv proposed, “we could go by air.”

Keri frowned, but Arjun, Sidonie and Rose clearly knew exactly what Liv was thinking. Of course - Liv recalled that she’d sent Keri back from the Bald Peak waystone before conjuring one of her gyrfalcons.

“I’ve used Aluth to conjure birds of coherent mana,” Liv explained to the group as a whole. “Birds large enough for two people each to ride. It’s a lot faster than travelling overland. And Wren can fly ahead in bat form to scout for us. How quickly could a bat cover this distance?” she asked her friend.

“If we pushed, maybe three days - not to cover the river voyage, but to get all the way to the rift,” Wren said.

“That’s half the travel time,” Rose pointed out. “And we could strap supplies to the conjured birds.”

“I feel obligated to point out that we’ve also been attacked in the air once already,” Arjun said, finally speaking up. “A fight that led to Liv breaking several bones. And it could have been a lot worse if she hadn’t been conscious to catch us before we could fall.”

“The riverboats and the march inland may be slower,” Keri declared, “but they’re also the safer option. In the air, Liv is a single point of failure that could doom the entire expedition and get us all killed. To say nothing of the fact that we don’t really know what native mana beasts hunt the badlands, or what forces Ractia might send against us.”

“We don’t have time to take the slow route,” Liv argued. “Every day we spend in Varuna is a day we aren’t helping Whitehill get ready for battle. We don’t know how long we’re going to need at the rift, and Benedict’s shown he isn’t willing to wait, by sending that assassin today.”

“Flying in is reckless,” Keri shot back, leaning forward over the table. “The snow in the passes won’t melt in a week. There’s no reason to rush into making errors.”

“But for all we know they’ll launch some sort of surprise attack through the Bald Peak waystone,” Liv insisted, rising from her seat and thrusting a finger at the map. “None of us have even been to the badlands before. Unless you have, Wren?”

The huntress shook her head. “We avoid it. There used to be a tribe that lived there, but even they were afraid of Silica.”

“What’s a Silica?” Rose asked.

“One of the oldest wyrms,” Aira Tär Keria answered. “She was created by Iravata to be a pet and a guardian for Staivis, before the war even began.”

“You’re telling me there’s a twelve hundred year old giant snake living in that desert?” Rose ran a hand through her dark hair. “How would it even live that long?”

“Silica isn’t like the young wyrms House Iravata rides into battle,” the old woman explained. “She’s one of the original brood - perhaps the only one left that isn’t on the Isle of Wyrms. Unless something has killed her - and I can’t think of anything in Varuna that would be able to - she’s still alive. She’ll be larger than any wyrm you’ve ever seen before, as intelligent as any Eld or human, and an expert with her word of power.”

Liv frowned. “A wyrm that can speak? That can cast spells?”

Aira nodded. “And she survived Mirriam’s attack on that rift - we know that for certain.”

“Even when I got back to Calder’s Landing twenty-five years ago,” Wren added, “she was widely known to still be active. Spends a lot of time sleeping, in between hunts, but you’ve got to anticipate crossing paths with her if we go into the badlands.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“So we have to kill it,” Liv said. Wonderful. That was only going to make all of this take longer, and time was the thing she did not have. Not with Benedict’s army massing south of the pass into the Aspen Valley.

“Not necessarily,” Wren said. “The Red Shield Tribe was on decent terms with her for years. We both fought on the side of the Vædim, after all.”

“My House was Unconquered,” Keri pointed out. “But I don’t expect that to buy us much goodwill when we’re going there with the intention of killing a god. What are the chances Ractia’s already recruited this thing?”

Wren shrugged and shook her head. “She hadn’t as of when I was last in the mountains - but that’s almost a year and a half ago, now. A lot could have happened in the meantime, and with my father at her side, she definitely knows that Silica’s there.”

“There are a few members of House Iravata who refused to join Calevis,” Keri pointed out. “Some of them even came here to join our forces. I recognized one woman fighting a mana beast bear at the pass. Did any of them survive? We could bring one to deal with Silica.”

“I don’t trust them,” Liv countered. “For all we know, they’re just waiting for a chance to betray us to Ractia, just like Calevis did.”

This time, the entire table seemed to notice that Keri and Liv were at odds again, and an uncomfortable silence fell over those who’d gathered to plan the expedition.

“Well, it’s getting late, and you certainly don’t need an old woman like me to plan this out,” Elder Aira said after a moment. “Inkeris, Livara, come help your elder back to her rooms.”

“Of course.” Keri rose immediately, circled the table to her side, and offered his arm.

Liv, on the other hand, blinked, thrown off balance by the sudden request. Surely it only required one of them to walk Aira down her own hallway - if that. When she realized what the elder was doing, it was all she could do not to grumble about it. Rather than insult someone who’d done so much to help her, however, she backed away from the table, circled around, and took the old woman’s other arm.

“Arjun, can you work with Wren and Keri’s soldiers to start drawing up a supply list?” Liv asked. At least something would done while she was gone - she hoped.

Aira didn’t say anything after the three of them stepped out into the corridor, nor even after three turns led them to the private wing of House Keria. Only when they’d reached the old woman’s bedchamber door - past no less than two sets of guards - did she finally release their arms and turn to address them.

“Inkeris,” the elder began, “You’ve spent the last two decades hunting the Cult of Ractia all across the north. You’ve gotten used to commanding soldiers in battle. I suspect that if you hadn’t been at the pass, my grandson wouldn’t have been able to hold - and I’m certain you’ve learned even more from Valterri during that trek across Varuna.”

“Livara,” she continued, turning to address Liv. “You’ve gone into more different rifts than anyone else as young as you are, I’m certain. You’re clearly a generational magical talent, and you’ve turned your friends into a small but cohesive unit that you can rely upon in a crisis.”

“You both have strengths the other one can learn from - strengths you’re going to need in Varuna. Because I can tell you one thing,” Aira continued. “If the two of you don’t figure out which one is going to be in charge, this is going to be a disaster. Now. Here is a command from your elder. Do not go back into that dining hall until one of you is in charge, and the other one accepts that. Goodnight, my dear children.” She reached up to pat each of them on their cheek, first Keri and then Liv, and then opened her door, slipped inside, and shut it firmly behind her.

Liv turned away from the door to meet Keri’s eyes. She had to put her chin up to do it, because he was obnoxiously taller than her. “This wasn’t a problem in the Tomb of Celris,” she said.

“The Tomb of Celris was in your family’s lands,” Keri said. “You’d been there several times, and you were the one who had a vision of the crown. You were clearly the correct choice to lead that mission.”

“But not this one,” Liv challenged him.

“I’ve spent more time in Varuna than you have,” Keri argued. “I know that river, I know the boats. And have I have more experience commanding soldiers in battle than you do.”

“But less experience culling rifts, unless I miss my guess.” Liv stepped forward, unwilling to back down, and began to count off on her fingers. “Bald Peak. The Tidal Rift. The Well of Bones. The Foundry Rift. The Garden of Thorns. The Tomb of Celris. I’ve even seen Godsgrave.”

“I was also at the Garden of Thorns and the Tomb,” Keri pointed out. “I’ve culled Keremor, in my family’s lands, and I fought to take the bridge in the first place.”

Liv put a deliberate effort into not grinding her teeth. Her friends never did this - they proposed ideas, argued the merits, pushed her to make the best choices, yes, but none of them had seriously challenged her fitness to make the final decision since - well, since she’d arrived at Coral Bay. Somewhere along the way, it seemed that she’d gotten used to being in charge.

“I’m not the little girl you saved in the alley anymore,” Liv pointed out.

“I never said you were,” Keri told her. Blood and shadows, her eyes only came up to his chest. Why did the man have to be so tall? “I will admit you are my superior in magical skill,” he said, after a moment. “And that you’ve more experience in a variety of rifts than I do. Will you admit I have more experience in leading soldiers into battle?”

“Gladly,” Liv said, and she thought the admission surprised him, from the look in his eyes. “I don’t have the slightest idea what I’m going to do when Benedict’s army hits Whitehill, Keri. I can throw magic at them, but I’ve never been to war. I’ve never commanded anything larger than a culling team - and I’ve never really fought other people. Not outside of duels.”

Her mind flashed to one fight on the beach at Coral Bay, when Anson Fane had charged her and died.

“In fact,” Liv said, “I’m going to rely on you to lead the Elden troops that come to Whitehill.”

Keri frowned. “I assume your father -”

Liv shook her head. “He’s focused on Ractia,” she said. “He has been since my grandfather died, and it’s never wavered. Everything he’s done has been pushing forward in Varuna, or dealing with distractions so that he can get back to it. He’ll send soldiers, but he’s not going to Whitehill. I’ll put two gold coins on it.”

Keri chewed on that thought for a moment before responding. “That is not a bet that I will take,” he decided.

“So,” Liv pressed. “You lead the troops when we go to Whitehill. I’ll introduce you to Baron Henry and Duchess Julianne, and I’ll speak up when I have ideas, but I’ll trust that you know what you’re doing there. Now we’re heading to a rift none of us have ever been to before. Will you trust me to get us there, and get us into the depths?”

“Very well,” Keri said, and extended his hand. “I will tell you my ideas, give you my advice, and point out when I disagree with you. But the final decision will be yours, from here to the Painted Desert Rift.”

“We have a bargain.” Liv extended her own hand and clasped arms with Keri.

Elder Aira’s door opened halfway, and the old woman leaned her head out. “If you haven’t settled it by now, just go back to his bedroom already,” she scolded them. “Now shoo!”

Liv felt her cheeks and the tips of her ears burn hot. “We’re not - we just figured it out!” she protested. “Anyway, I’m with Rose!” She suddenly recalled that her hand was still clasped about Keri’s arm, and his hand on hers. Liv pulled away and dropped the man’s arm as quickly as if it had been a hot pan.

Aira gave a snort, then pulled her door closed again.

Left alone in the hallway with Keri, Liv wheeled about and hurried back down the corridor, taking the turns that would lead her back to the great hall, where her friends were waiting. After only a moment’s delay, she heard Keri’s boots echoing off the hardwood floors behind her as he hurried to catch up.

“Finally made a decision then, have you?” Keri asked.

“That’s none of your concern,” Liv shot back.

“It makes sense,” he continued. “She nearly died, you were desperate to save her. That sort of thing has a way of clarifying feelings. Congratulations.”

“You’re not going to tell me I’m an idiot for caring about a firefly?” Liv asked, glancing to her side, where Keri was now matching her stride for stride. She could practically hear Airis ka Reimis’ voice in her head already, just the way he’d talked in the carriage at Whitehill. “That’s what you said in Freeport, about Cade.”

“No,” Keri said. He reached out to take Liv by the shoulder, bringing them both to a halt in the corridor just outside the great hall. “No, I was wrong when I said that. If I’ve realized anything since then, Livara, it’s that love is precious, and you can never be certain it will last. Make the most of every moment you have with her, because every day might be your last.”

He released Liv’s shoulder, then stepped past her into the great hall of House Keria. Liv hesitated just for a moment, surprised by Keri’s words. Then, she followed him in.

“We’re taking the birds,” she declared. “Do you have those supply lists ready?”