The Unbound Queen

by M. J. Scott

  Time would be short once they reached Anglion and the future uncertain. So she would take stolen seconds and store them up to keep leading her toward the future she hoped would come. When they would have time enough and more together.

  Cameron breathed with her, and then, as she had known he would, his head bent closer, his breath brushing past her ear. "They're ready for us, love."

  "All right." She was surprised that the reply came easily. Her fingers bit tighter into the railing. If her voice and head recognized what she had to do, the rest of her body didn't seem to have reached the same point of acceptance yet.

  But her hands uncurled just as she thought she was going to have to ask Cameron to pull her free. He moved away from her as she lifted them from the railing.

  It felt as though everyone on the ship was staring at her when she turned around. Imogene and Ikarus stood near the wheel of the navire—apparently the guidance of the craft was much like a ship, though the navire pushed against air, not water and there were other subtle differences that Sophie didn't entirely understand. But there was a captain—one of Colonel Perrine's Imperial mages who would steer them once they were in the air. She would trust him—and Imogene—to keep them safe.

  But getting them aloft was her job. Their experiments yesterday had proven she and Cameron could sustain the lift for longer than any of the others so they would handle the takeoff. Cameron had insisted that there should be a strict schedule of shifts between the mages to keep the navire airborne. An equal share of the load, though Sophie suspected that he was attempting to ensure her power wasn't drained in case something went wrong and they needed some additional strength that no one else could provide.

  Behind Imogene stood Jean-Paul who had insisted on coming to lead the small squad of soldiers accompanying the mages. More of Aristides’s forces would follow by sea, but the navire was to travel alone at first, to see if they could indeed free Eloisa and the hostages without a show of force.

  The emperor hadn't come to bid them farewell. Madame Simsa and Henri, however, stood in the yard below, watching the departure. Sophie made herself wave one last time at them. Henri had asked the emperor for permission to accompany the expedition, determined, it seem, to make sure that his daughter was safe. But Aristides had refused.

  Henri had raged, and he was still furious, the tension clear in the way he stood. But he waved to her, jaw tight. Madame Simsa was more encouraging, smiling approval as she lifted her hand.

  Two more reasons to survive, Sophie thought. She wanted to see Henri and Madame Simsa again. Wanted to learn more at the Academe. Wanted to see Willem and Lia and Mestier Allyn.

  In her ear, as though sensing her emotion, Tok squawked, his claws biting into the wool of her coat and the padding on her shoulder beneath.

  There had been no way to leave him behind. So she had one more companion on the journey.

  One more reason to fight.

  She moved to stand in the center of the deck. Imogene had hastily added benches and railings for the mages steering the navire to use as they chose. Sophie was sure she would welcome the opportunity to sit later but for now she wanted to stand. Cameron took his place on her left, Elarus to the right.

  Imogene nodded once and Sophie squared her shoulders.

  She lifted her arm, a gesture that probably did nothing to help the actual magic but that made her feel better and spoke a single word.

  "Rise."

  Chapter 20

  "Land, I see land." The voice of the lookout was a soft call rather than a shout, but the sound was enough to jolt Sophie, half dozing, awake.

  Around her, the deck of the navire began to fill with the sound of voices before someone said, "Quiet," in a harsh tone. Jean-Paul, perhaps.

  She rubbed her eyes, trying to focus. They were still traveling in near-dark. The navire was operating with the minimum lighting possible, and they'd all been warned to silence once they had reached the point in the journey where Jean-Paul judged them to be far enough away from the Illvyan coast that they might encounter Anglion vessels below.

  It should now be nearing dawn, and they had farther to travel before they could bring the navire down and continue on foot. They were aiming to land on a remote part of the Mackenzie estates, near a seldom-used hunting lodge high in the mountains. From there they could scout down to Alec's house and try to find out what was happening in Kingswell. It was a gamble. Eloisa could have seized control of all the Mackenzie properties, but Alec and his wife hadn't been listed as hostages, so they were rolling the dice.

  It was telling that Eloisa hadn't taken Liam hostage either. The Erl of Inglewood was young, but his father had been one of the most powerful nobles in the kingdom. The title was old and respected, and the rest of her lords might object if a queen so new to her crown started throwing the most senior-ranked of them in prison. Even if the domina was attempting to subvert the power structures in Anglion she had to do it slowly and carefully. A rebellion by the lords of the kingdom would surely undo all the work she had put into Eloisa.

  Sophie stretched carefully, easing the stiffness born of napping propped against a barrel. She'd been unwilling to go below deck to rest, wanting to be close if the other mages needed her. Thus far, they were managing on their own. The navire had flown smoothly, and she only served her scheduled shifts. Their intended destination had the added benefit of taking them through a part of the country that was far more sparsely populated than the south. The seas around the northern end of the country generally came to shore against high cliffs, so fishing villages and other coastal dwellers were scarce.

  They had to hope that they weren't noticed by any stray Anglion vessels before they reached land or northern landholders out for a night’s stroll once they did. Hence the quiet and the caution. They had several illusioners on board, and they would put their skills to good once it grew lighter, but Jean-Paul wanted to conserve their energy for when it was most needed.

  She rose and continued to move cautiously, trying to convince her brain she was actually awake. It was tempting to go straight to the front of the navire and see if she could see land—not just land but home—but no doubt others would already be there, doing just that. She didn't need to be distracted by the thought of being back in Anglion. Instead she made her way over to where the current group of mages and sanctii were working to keep the navire aloft.

  This particular group consisted of two Imperial mages and two Academe mages, and if Sophie was keeping track correctly, it was their third shift. Their faces were pale blurs in the faint light of the moon, but as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she made out lines of strain.

  The mages' breath came fast and the sanctii were pressed as close to the center of the navire as they could be. Most of the others would be below deck. The sanctii may have agreed to help in this venture, and Elarus had insisted during their trials that the salt water was no more than uncomfortable when they were so high above it, but none of the sanctii but Elarus had spent any more time above deck than they needed to. And none of them had, as far as she could tell, blinked out to wherever it was that they went when they vanished.

  She would have to ask Elarus about that, about whether their connection to the magic had grown tenuous here. They could obviously access enough of their powers still, to help the mages. But even Sophie had noticed that her bond with Elarus soften somehow once they were over the ocean. She'd tried to lean more on her own magic during her shifts, sending her sense of earth down from the ship, seeking the sea floor far beneath them. Ley lines ran beneath the ocean too, and she'd found traces of them strong enough to connect to, though they didn't offer much of a boost to her magic. Some of the other mages had used the ley lines once she'd mentioned it, but keeping the navire aloft was hard work, and the effort was beginning to show.

  "You're awake," Imogene said, joining her.

  "Yes," Sophie said. "Have you slept?"

  "Not much." Imogene scrubbed at her eyes and ran a hand over her braided ha
ir. "But I can handle lack of sleep."

  "Do you know how much longer?"

  "A few hours perhaps," Imogene said. "We could be faster or slower over land. It will depend on the winds."

  Sophie looked at the laboring mages. "I was thinking maybe I should spell them for a time."

  Imogene shook her head. "You should rest more. There are other teams who have only done two shifts. I'd rather you and Cameron were fresh for the landing. You've had more practice than the rest of them, and you're stronger."

  "They'll be stronger over land. It will be easier to find the ley lines and the sanctii will be able to help more."

  "Still, I'd rather keep the best in reserve. You need to sleep, and I don't mean leaning against a barrel on deck. Cameron was talking to Jean-Paul earlier, but I think he went below deck. I gave him the keys to one of the cabins. Go find him. Rest."

  "I'm not sure I can sleep again." Now that they were closing in on their destination, adrenalin had filled her veins again.

  "Try. Elarus can probably help you to sleep if you ask her nicely."

  "Sanctii can do that?"

  "Not without permission, but yes."

  Sophie wasn't sure how she felt about that, but she didn't think Imogene was going to drop the subject, so she went in search of Cameron.

  She didn't realize that she had fallen asleep again until Cameron was shaking her awake. Pale sunlight drifted through the small round window in the wooden wall beside her head. It took her a few seconds to remember where she was.

  "We're nearly there," Cameron said. "Ready to land this thing?" His jaw was stubbled and his clothes rumpled, but he looked wide awake.

  "Ready as I'll ever be," she said. She smiled at him as though her stomach wasn't full of slow-twining lead snakes. Was he as scared as she was? They'd practiced this maneuver with the boats in the shipyard but not with a fully laden navire. And if they landed safely, then what came next was even scarier than the flight. "Is there tea?" She doubted she could eat, but tea might soothe her.

  "Probably. Let's go above."

  She patted her hair as she climbed free of the narrow bed. She'd worn it braided tightly and it didn't feel as though it had come adrift. Her dress was creased but that couldn't be helped. She let Tok out of the cage where he'd been sleeping and then followed Cameron up the narrow ladder and back out above deck, shading her eyes as she emerged. He led her over to the railing.

  "Look," he said, pointing over the rail, and there was a hint of something close to longing in his voice.

  Sophie grasped the rail carefully and peered over. Instead of rolling waves beneath the navire, the multicolored deep greens of a forest drifted by below. She hadn't spent much time in the north, and the time she and Cameron had spent with Alec and Lucy after the attack on Kingswell had been brief, but she still somehow knew that the land beneath her was Anglion.

  "Home," she breathed through a throat suddenly tight. Up until a few days ago, she hadn't been sure that she would ever actually see Anglion again. True, the circumstances now weren't ideal, but she was here. Breathing Anglion air. Seeing the countryside flowing beneath her feet. Once they landed and disembarked, she would recognize the tree and plants and flowers. She would understand the voices.

  "Let's hope so, love," Cameron agreed. "But enough sightseeing. We have work to do. We passed over Neavis Peak a few minutes before I woke you. It's only a few miles farther to the fields above the hunting lodge."

  In other words, not much time to ready themselves to bring the navire down safely. She backed away from the rail, reluctant to relinquish the view. But after a few steps, she almost bumped into someone standing behind her and whirled to find Imogene looking sleepy and nearly as crumpled as she herself felt. It made her look far more human.

  Imogene smiled as Sophie apologized for the near collision and gestured Sophie toward the benches where the current group of mages were working. They looked tired, but they were, she noticed, mostly silent. In fact, the whole navire was quiet, other than the snap of the sails and the creak of the wood. The Illvyans weren't talking. Some were standing near the rails, peering down as she had been, but most weren't even above deck. Sleeping while they could? Or unnerved to be in a country they had never expected to enter? The Imperial mages at least should be used to being in unfamiliar parts of the empire. But Sophie remembered how strange her first days in Illvya had felt, and she hadn't arrived intending to try and free a queen. So perhaps it was merely nerves about their mission rather than their location.

  She spotted Elarus standing near the wheel. The sanctii saw Sophie and made her way across the navire, taking up her position to Sophie's right.

  Sophie looked at the mages. "Ready to hand over?" she asked.

  The transition of power went smoothly. Sophie felt the now-familiar magic settle over her as she and Cameron and Elarus worked together to accept the weight of the navire. The other mages backed away, stretching and yawning, and she turned her attention to Cameron, who stood on one of the benches so that he could see beyond the prow.

  They hadn't been flying long when he suddenly pointed. "There it is." A few minutes later they set the navire down on the ground, its flattened bottom coming to rest with only a slight bump and slide along grass still damp with morning dew.

  Sophie and Cameron kept the ship upright as the first teams descended rope ladders and speedily set up the cunning system of props that kept the navire upright. It had a flatter bottom than an actual ship but still had curves to assist—so Imogene had said—with moving smoothly through the air.

  Once the navire was stable, the next few minutes became a blur of orders and people grabbing gear and securing the gangplank-like ramp they would descend. Sophie ended up walking behind Imogene, among the first to leave, and then waited with her, a little distance from the first team, while everyone else disembarked.

  Imogene ignored the bustle around the navire, focusing instead at the forest that started at the edge of the valley, lips pursed. "I think it's just as well your husband is a blood mage to find his way through that."

  She rubbed the palms of her hands down the front of her tights, creasing the black fabric of the breeches she wore. Sophie had donned trousers too. She hadn't worn them since childhood, but she had been quick to accept Imogene's suggestion when they were deciding what to pack. She would need to put a dress over the breeches once they reached anywhere they might be seen, but she couldn't argue with the ease of movement that trousers offered for the scrambling journey through the forest they were about to undertake.

  "He grew up here. I'm sure he could find his way even without blood magic to aid his sense of direction."

  Imogene glanced back at the navire. "Let us hope so. And let us hope he is right that no one will stumble across us here."

  They were leaving one team of an illusioner and a water mage with the navire to hide it. Cameron had deemed it unlikely that anyone would be wandering the valley at this time of year. It was the end of harvest, and most of the farmers who worked the Mackenzie estates would be involved in bringing in the last crops or preparing stores for winter. The mill would be working overtime; the granaries had to be filled with the harvest not destined to become flour, other crops needed to be preserved or stored or sold, and seeds had to be put away for the next year's planting. The northern summers were not as warm as they were in Kingswell and once the seasons turned to fall, it grew cold fast and hard. The people who lived on the estate worked to wrest all they could out of the spring, summer, and early fall crops. Apparently the erl's house at Inglewood had a large green house that gave those who lived there access to fruits and vegetables year-round, but a greenhouse couldn't produce enough to feed everyone.

  Still, they were careful to be quiet and cautious as they moved through the forest, picking their way down the hilly ground slowly and staying within the depths of the trees rather than seeking the trails. Cameron took the lead, and even though she could tell he was wary about what lay ahead, she also thou
ght that some tension she hadn't even been aware of had left him now that they were back on Anglion soil. She shared some of his relief, but the northern terrain was unfamiliar, which made the fact they were home not entirely real.

  Not real enough to quell the fear or that quietly simmering anger she was leaning into more than any other emotion as she picked her way along the path the others were breaking, clambering over fallen logs and dodging around rocks.

  It was good to have the terrain to concentrate on, but she was starting to flag. Flying the navire had taken a toll, and the few snatched hours of sleep and hasty breakfast she'd managed hadn't been enough to restore her.

  So she wasn't quite paying enough attention and almost ran into Elarus when the sanctii halted in front of her.

  [What is it?] Sophie asked silently.

  Elarus pointed ahead. [Man stopped.]

  Sophie peered around Elarus. Cameron stood about twenty feet ahead of her and about twenty feet farther on from him was a break in the trees. She jogged up to join him.

  "The hunting lodge," he said, pointing.

  Past the edge of the woods, sat a squat stone building that was larger than she had expected. Easily big enough to house all of them for a short time.

  The hunting lodge was dark and quiet. The windows were shuttered and there was no smell of smoke. No human sounds broke through the birdcalls and rustling trees. But illusion could be used to hide activity.

  [Elarus, can you check if anyone is in there?]

  [Yes,] came the response in her head though Elarus herself didn't appear. All of the sanctii has blinked away as soon as the party had left the navire as though they needed some respite from the human world after so much time over the hated ocean.

  Given the stories of salt breaking sanctii bonds, Sophie hadn't been entirely sure any of them would reappear when asked. Given that would make the rest of their trip through Anglion far more dangerous, she was relieved to hear Elarus's voice.