Most of the preparations for the trip to Lucania’s capital weren’t Keri’s concern, or his responsibility. Kaija and Liv’s personal guard would handle security, while Basil, Liv’s steward, would travel ahead with a small group of staff to prepare for their arrival. A message had already been sent to Blaise Crosbie, the ambassador that Keri had chosen and who Liv had later approved, and no doubt he was already making arrangements for banquets, masques, and private negotiations.

No, his primary concern – at least in an official capacity – was to make certain that the men and women training to form the core of a new alliance army would not be left entirely to fend for themselves while Keri was gone. One of the two letters he had sent through the waystone was directed to that end, and the morning after Wren and Ghveris’s return to Bald Peak found him in the saddle, giving Soile a tour of the encampment on the western slope of Bald Peak.

It was small, at the moment, with only two hundred soldiers lined up for inspection. Still, the men and women had been set to work right at the beginning, ditching the perimeter and raising a wooden palisade. It could have been done using magic, but Keri had wanted to work them hard when they first arrived, and the small officer corps he was forming agreed. Linnea and Olavi, along with Sir Randel and Sir Hardwin, rode just behind, two each selected from the Eld, and two from the former subjects of Lucania.

“I’m surprised you didn’t ask Valtteri to come south,” Soile commented. The commander from Al’Fenthia had, to all appearances, healed from the wounds she’d suffered on Nightfall peak, though Keri’s own experience was enough to tell him that a broken hip was not likely to ever be exactly the same as it once had been.

Keri kept his voice low, the words pitched for her ears alone, and not the men and women they were inspecting. “I was a bit surprised he refused command in the first place. I can understand his reasons, however. To begin with, he hadn’t had a single moment’s rest since the attack on the Hall of Ancestors.”

“The man’s earned time to rest, no argument there,” Soile agreed. “But that can’t have been all of it.”

“Politics,” Keri said. “He told me he was worried that, so long as he was here, people might look to him, as Liv’s father, to influence her, or to circumvent her entirely. He thought the best way he could help was to remove himself for a while, so that everyone gets used to the idea of her being the ultimate authority.”

“And that’s how you ended up with the job,” Soile said, with a nod. “I’m surprised you chose crossbows – even for the Eld? Our longbows are better in nearly every way.”

“Training time,” Keri explained. “It takes years to build up the muscle to even draw our better bows. I can have new soldiers using winch crossbows accurately in a matter of weeks.”

“Are we in that much of a rush to be fighting someone?” Soile asked. “It’s been months, and last I heard no one’s managed to find Ractia yet.”

“I wouldn’t take that to mean she’s going to leave us alone,” Keri pointed out. “With Wren and Ghveris coming with us to Freeport, there will be a momentary pause on searching the rifts, because there isn’t another team we trust to take lead on that yet. But I want us to be ready when something happens, rather than caught unprepared. And what we’ve spent most of our time focusing on, beyond a common set of orders and maneuvers, is training words of power.”

“A hundred crossbowmen and a hundred with pikes. What did you choose?”

“I began with what I could guarantee access to myself,” Keri continued. “Savel for the crossbows, and Bheuv for the pikes.”

“You imprinted all of them yourself?” Soile considered the choices. “I’m surprised you didn’t ask Liv to provide more. What’s she got, half a dozen words, now?”

“Five,” Keri said. “But several of them are not the sort of thing I’d trust to beginners, or wouldn’t be useful for troops fighting in formation. No one’s worked out unit tactics for the word of dreams, for instance.” He sighed. “I also didn’t want to bother her. She’s already so busy, that asking her to spend hours handing out a word of power just seems wasteful. We can experiment with other words in the future, but for now, Bheuv will help our front line hold in a melee, while Savel will be good for a single volley that most enemies won’t be prepared for.”

“I can see what you’re thinking,” Soile said, after a moment’s consideration. “And I think I can spend a week or two running them through drills while you’re gone.”

“Good. Thank you.” Keri reined his horse to a halt, and offered her a hand.

“It’s a good thing you’re thanking me, because they won’t,” Soile commented. She clasped his arm for a moment, then turned and addressed the four warriors who were following them. “Get them in formation and moving. We’ll march west and see how you all handle a few maneuvers. And once we’re far enough from anything anyone cares about, I have a few ideas about how to put everyone through their paces.”

Keri stayed long enough to watch them march out. He couldn’t help feel a pang of loss: this core of men and women had been his from the moment they’d arrived, ready to fight for the alliance and their new queen. They had been his work, day in and day out, and it had been good work. But he also knew this would be good for them: the soldiers needed to be able to take orders from any commander, not just one they knew. Linnea and Olavi had been his aides and protectors, but leading was new to them. And the two knights, for all their experience, needed to learn how to integrate magic into their thinking. Soile would work them hard, but she would teach them, at the same time.

☙

The waystone lit just after noon, which was when the return message from Mountain Home had told Keri they would be arriving. Rika came with two guards, though Keri suspected that was as much to share the burden of the mana cost as out of any actual concern for her safety.

Rei scampered off the stone and into Keri’s arms the moment the light had dimmed, with a squeal of glee. “Is it true the ocean’s warm enough to swim in, all year round?” the boy asked, before Keri could get a word out.

“At Coral Bay,” he answered. “Which we may visit, depending on how things go. But at Freeport, it’s too cold during the winter. Regardless, while there will be time for the shore, you are going to be practicing your Lucanian.”

“And not neglecting his other studies, I hope,” Rika said, with a bit of a hard edge to the words.

“He will not. Master Grenfell will be accompanying us, and he has years of experience as a tutor.” Keri paused for a moment, and tried to put as much warmth into his voice as he could. “Thank you for agreeing to this.”

Rika sighed. “Thank your father. He told me it was a good opportunity for Rei to see what things are like outside of Elden lands.”

“I will, in my next letter.” Keri nodded. “Say goodbye to your mother, Rei.” He set his son back down so that the boy could run over and throw his arms around Rika’s legs, and turned to one side so that he could observe the construction of the hospital foundations while she kissed their son. He did his best not to be resentful, or at least not to show it.

Stolen novel; please report.

When the light of her departure had faded, and Rei had finished waving to his mother, Keri hefted the boy’s pack and slung it over his own shoulder, then reached out to take his son’s hand. “We’ll be staying atop the mountain tonight,” he explained. “And then a quick trip into Whitehill tomorrow, so that Liv can speak with her brother. After that, we’ll be on our way south.”

“Will we see Blossom?” Rei asked, as they turned their steps toward the road up to the mine. What had once been a beaten dirt track was now a smooth road paved in limestone, leading up to a gatehouse which protected the entrance to the interior of the mountain.

“I don’t think so, no,” Keri admitted. “She’s with her family in Varuna. But you can meet Duke Matthew and Duchess Beatrice’s new baby.”

Rei cocked his head to one side. “Will she be old enough to play, yet? I know humans grow really quickly.”

“Not quite.” Keri couldn’t help but laugh. “But it won’t be long.” He led Rei up through the mountain, showing his son the veins of mana stone and even the bloom from which it all grew, as well as the waterfall and underground river. Even the interior of the mountain was already showing signs of the hard work the builders had done: there were stairs where once a climb would have been necessary, and guard rails to hold onto.

Keri used the tour as an excuse to practice mana circulation with his son, as well, working on the breathing exercises which would keep the boy from getting mana sickness. “Show me a light,” he asked, once he was confident there wouldn’t be any problems, and Rei managed to make a small, sputtering globe of sunlight that hovered just over his shoulder. It hardly pushed the subterranean darkness back at all, compared to Keri’s much brighter light, but it was a start.

It was on the great stairway at the center of the mountain, which led up to the fortifications on the peak, that Liv found them. The steps had been built into a great spiral, with a shaft at the center, so that discs of mana could be used to ascend or descend quickly. Keri knew that Sidonie and Liv had hopes of duplicating the enchantments used in so many of the more elaborate Vædic rifts, so that anyone could travel in that way; but for now, it was only members of the Mages Guild, while everyone else had to walk.

“There you two are,” Liv called out, and her blue disc of mana slowed to a stop just even with the stair that Rei’s boots were planted on. She had two of her guards with her, standing just behind, but Keri hardly noticed them, because she was smiling. Liv reached out her hands, and without hesitation, Rei stepped off the stair and onto her platform, where she knelt and wrapped the boy up in an embrace.

“It’s good to see you again, Rei,” she said, and for a moment there was nothing of the monarch about her attitude. Keri had seen, perhaps more than anyone else, just how often Liv wore a carefully constructed mask of station, now. She did it well: calm, confident, and commanding all at once. It was very close to the mask he wore when commanding soldiers, and it served her well, but it was not the Liv he’d first seen at Freeport, vibrating with the fury and exhilaration of combat. Nor was it those sad, wintry eyes he’d seen in a vision, nor even the trembling, sobbing woman who’d kissed him at the Hall of Ancestors. Those moments were too vulnerable for the queen to show to the world.

It was the kiss on which his thoughts lingered the most. It had taken him by surprise, and it made him want more. Now, watching Liv and Rei grinning at each other – his son wanted to know whether she would make ice chutes going down the mountain before they left – Keri couldn’t help but wish that she was his mother, and not Rika. How much simpler things would be, if he never had to speak to that woman again. It almost felt like something had been stolen from him – years that could have been, if things had been different.

“Are you coming?” Liv asked him, and Keri saw that she’d straightened up again, and was holding out a hand for him to take.

“Of course.” He reached out, folding his fingers around hers, and stepped onto the blue disc of shining mana. With his other hand, Keri caught hold of his son, to make certain that Rei wouldn’t fall, and then they were rising up through the shaft toward the peak of the mountain.

☙

They took a carriage into Whitehill the next morning, because Keri didn’t think Rei was ready for quite that much riding, yet. Kaija and half a dozen mounted guards surrounded them as they took the mine road south, while Ghveris strode alongside and Wren circled somewhere overhead, scouting.

“This is only the second one of these I’ve made,” Liv explained, leaning across the center of the carriage from the opposite bench. “I think we’re going to need a lot of them, eventually, but I’m still figuring all that out. Anyway, I got it done a few days ago, and I had it waiting for you. It should help you handle the mana in the rift, even in the depths.”

She carefully set the pin of the golden brooch into Rei’s cloak, then, once it was secured, sat back to get a good look.

“What’s the stone?” Rei asked, fingering the smooth white oval set into the brooch.

“Mana stone,” Keri answered. “Bald Peak is one of the best places to mine it. It’s even better at holding magic than the bones of a mana beast. What do we say when someone gives us a present?”

“Thank you, Liv,” Rei said, with a grin.

For the rest of the ride, Liv pointed out the windows, giving them something like a guided tour of the Aspen Valley. She told them about how Master Grenfell had taken her up to the top of Deer peak, which rose over the city, and pushed her to make chutes that reached all the way to the bottom. She described the frost fair, which took place whenever the river froze over, and how there were springs of hot, sulfurous water which bubbled up from the stone beneath the castle.

As they rumbled through the market, she told Rei about her favorite food stalls, and showed him the shop where Jurian had purchased her first spellbook for her. There was the home her father had bought, once he’d known she existed, and the Old Oak, where she and her adopted brother had spent so many afternoons studying with Master Grenfell over plates of good food.

For Keri, it was like having a window into her past. He could imagine a much smaller Liv, running through the market square with her mother calling out behind her, eyes wide, a grin and a smudge of jam on her face.

Matthew and his wife, Beatrice, met them in the castle courtyard, where Liv’s sister-in-law held a tightly bundled infant against her shoulder. Rei’s Lucanian still needed a great deal of work, but Keri or Liv translated for him when he couldn’t quite grasp a phrase, and the infant was enough of a distraction that the entirety of the boy’s attention was focused on her.

“This is Henriette,” Beatrice said, leaning down so that Rei could peer at the girl’s wrinkled red face.

“That’s a strange name,” Rei said in Vakansa, frowning.

“It’s a Lucanian name, not an Elden name,” Keri explained. “Of course it will sound different to you.”

“She’s named after Matthew’s father,” Liv told him. “He died just this past winter.”

In the same solar Keri had used for all of his meetings, during the short time he’d served as Liv’s regent, little Henriette was passed from her mother to her aunt.

“You’re certain you won’t have any trouble?” Liv asked Matthew, but Keri could tell most of her attention was on the baby.

Matthew shook his head. “No, we should be just fine here for a few weeks. The college can run without you, and I know Whitehill like the back of my hand.”

“Soleil has agreed to see to the training of the army,” Keri broke in, and was grateful that Matthew caught his eye and nodded in return. When he glanced back over to Liv, he saw that she was now sitting in one of the chairs, her niece in her arm, while Rei crowded up against her knee to peer down at the baby.

“She holds my finger!” Rei called, glancing over at Keri.

And there it was: the tenuous beginnings of a family. He could see the edges of it, imagine how it might grow over the years. Did Liv even want children, Keri wondered? They’d never spoken of it. For so long, one or both of them had been with someone else, and what had begun between them was still so new, that to ask the question would have felt presumptuous. But from the way she glowed, right there in the solar, with Rei and Henriette, Keri couldn’t imagine the answer would be ‘no.’

“Let’s get her put down,” Beatrice said, and the two women ducked out, presumably to whatever room had been turned into a nursery, with Rei dogging their heels.

“He’s never really been around a baby, before,” Keri explained to Matthew, once they’d been left alone. “Children are so rare among my people – few of us have brothers or sisters.”

Matthew nodded, but Keri could tell his mind was on something else. Liv’s brother moved to the door and gently swung it closed. “They’ll be back shortly, I’m certain,” he said, lowering his voice. “But I wanted to have a word with you first. The last time Liv was in Freeport – well, you were there for much of it.”

“I remember.” Keri frowned. “The old queen tried to have both of you killed. Liv’s certain this time will be different.”

“Maybe it will,” Matthew said. “But I can’t rely on that. I know she has all of her guards, and it isn’t like she needs protecting, but –”

“I will,” Keri promised, not even needing to hear the other man finish. “I’ll bring her back safely. Even if it takes my own life, I’ll protect her.”