Chapter Forty Five

Cinna hadn’t moved at such speeds since the last time she stood aboard a ship on the ocean with full sails. The sled practically rocketed through the Warm Roads, propelled along by magma that rose up out of its channels ahead of the sled, flowed into position to push it onwards, and then sank back to where it came from. She’d initially assumed the roads were flat, but now that she knew what to look for she realized they were actually sloped so that the magma would run off them.

“I bet you’ve never moved this fast before!” Klicksun boasted even though they weren’t the one driving the sled.

“This is so much faster than horses,” Lilia croaked out.

“It’s about the same as being on a boat with a water or wind mage assisting it along,” Cinna said casually. “We use similar techniques to cross what you refer to as the cold flows.”

“You people cross those!? You’re insane!” Klicksun accused.

“I might say the same. Water does little harm to humans, but magma burns us on contact. Is it not the reverse for you?” Cinna asked, amused by the Deepfolk’s reaction. It seemed they hadn’t quite internalized the fact that what hurt their own people might not be a threat to humans.

Thanks to the magma sled’s phenomenal speed, Cinna and Lilia’s trip to southern Selkark passed in a matter of hours. Eventually the sled skidded to a stop on the edge of a large hub area used for trade with the surface. Multiple chambers branched off the main platform—warehouses, barracks, and storage for cargo sleds. At the center sat an elevator leading to the surface.

Cinna, Lilia, and Klicksun left the sled behind and boarded the elevator. A skeleton crew of Deepfolk were still working at this trade hub despite the fact that Selkarc’s supply of trade goods had been cut off, and these workers assembled to operate the elevator. After less than a day underground, Cinna and Lilia returned to the surface.

Lilia had her cloak off less than a second after Klicksun informed her it was safe to remove it. As for Klicksun, they’d put their own cloak back on before the elevator ride even began.

“This is as far as I’m allowed to go, I think,” Klicksun said when they reached the door. Unlike the one in the north, this entrance had a full garrison on duty that quickly assembled it see their guests out as soon as they arrived, so Klicksun wasn’t the only Deepfolk present. As the one assigned to guide Cinna and Lilia, though, they were the one handling the formalities.

“Thank you for your assistance, Klicksun,” Cinna replied with a bow of her head.

“I was just doing my job. Maybe I’ll see you both again sometime, though. I’m getting a little bored of guard duty, so I was thinking I’d apply to learn windspeaking from your people,” Klicksun revealed. Cinna gave them a strained smile.

“I believe becoming a mage involves a certain degree of affinity, but I wish you luck in that endeavor, Klicksun,” Cinna told them politely.

“Bye! Good luck!” Lilia added with a wave.

Leaving Klicksun behind, Cinna and Lilia stepped outside.

Evening had already arrived by the time they left the Warm Roads, but the sun hadn’t quite set yet. The bright light stung after spending so much time below ground. It could have been far worse, though, Cinna reflected. The tunnels near the surface were surprisingly well-illuminated, after all.

“Why are there horses here?” Lilia asked barely a few steps out of the Warm Roads. As the doors closed behind them, Cinna followed Lilia’s extended finger to find that, indeed, there were a trio of horses hitched nearby.

“That’s…strange. Our treaty with the Deepfolk requires our nearest settlement to be a certain distance away, so there shouldn’t be anyone nearby,” Cinna explained as she approached the creatures. They were hitched to a tree off to the side of the road where they’d be out of the way but still quite visible. “Lilia, tell your familiars to hide. We may not be alone here.”

Sure enough, as Cinna got closer, she found a single man laying the in the grass, asleep. He’d been hidden by the foliage around him when viewed from the road. His armor marked him as a member of the royal army, though, so Cinna quickly guessed that her father or uncle must have had a hand in this encounter as well.

“They really do know me too well,” Cinna muttered as she prodded the man awake with her foot. He grumbled in his sleep at first, but after a slightly harder kick to the ribs, he finally awoke with a start. It took him a few more seconds of looking around through bleary eyes to figure out what was going on.

“Y-y-y-your Highness! I mean, General Selkarc! Your father sent me to wait for you!” the soldier shouted as he shot to his feet, saluting so hard that his breastplate rang like a bell.

“I guessed as much,” Cinna replied. She removed her pack and began tying it to the saddle of one of the horses. “At ease, soldier. Introduce yourself.”

“Elmo Orvarson, ma’am!”

“Elmo, I’d like you to ride ahead of us and tell my father we’re coming. I’m afraid my companion here doesn’t know how to ride, so I’ll need to ride double with her, and that’s going to slow our pace significantly,” Cinna told the man. She considered requisitioning a carriage instead, but that would have been even slower.

The biggest problem was Lilia’s familiars, though, not the pace of their travel. Until Cinna could devise a way to disguise Cyclops and Mr. Bearbones, traveling with people outside their group would be problematic. It had worked out with the Deepfolk because of a combination of their lack of hostility towards necromancers and unfamiliarity with surface animals, but that had been a gamble that Cinna didn’t feel eager to repeat.

Having Elmo serve as a messenger both alerted Cinna’s family to her survival and got him out of the way.

“Yes, ma’am. Is there anything specific you’d like me to tell him?” Elmo asked. Cinna paused, considering whether she should send a coded verbal message or find some way of sending a written one instead. Unfortunately she didn’t currently have a way of getting her hands on a more secure, magical means of sending that message, so that wouldn’t be an option.

“Tell him that I’ve found a way of making up for my greatest failure. I believe he’ll know what I mean,” Cinna instructed. Even if her father didn’t understand it probably wouldn’t matter that much in the long run, but if he did, perhaps he’d be able to begin making arrangements for Lilia’s safety ahead of time.

“Very well. I’m, ah, well-rested, so I’ll head out now,” the soldier said while untying one of the horses from the tree he’d hitched it to. He hopped on and guided his horse onto the rode before spurring it into a run.

“I’m not sure that being well-rested will help much with navigating at night, but perhaps he had a lantern in his bags,” Cinna mused as she watched the overeager soldier leave. They probably could have kept him from finding out about Lilia for a night, but Cinna wasn’t going to stop him from doing her a favor. He’d likely been embarrassed at having been caught napping by someone as far senior from him as it got and wanted to escape the situation as soon as he could.

“Are we going now, too?” Lilia asked. Cinna shook her head.

“We’ll leave in the morning. Help me gather some firewood and I’ll make dinner.”

The next morning Cinna and Lilia departed on horseback. Cinna placed the smaller woman in front of her on the saddle, pretending not to notice that her ears had turned crimson as they set out. She had Lilia order her familiars to keep to the woods and fields as they trekked north, avoiding settlements on the way to the Stryk River Fortress. As their supplies were running low, Cinna had to stop in one town on the way, but she left Lilia outside and deferred when offered an escort the rest of the way in the name of speed.

While the pair had to stop regularly due to Lilia being unaccustomed to riding a horse, they still made relatively good time compared to walking or riding a carriage drawn by living horses. It took them a only few days to cover the well-developed heartland of Selkarc thanks in large part to the higher quality of the roads close to the capital. A part of their ease of travel, though, had to be attributed to how little traffic they encountered on the way.

That detail bothered Cinna. It said much about the current climate in Selkarc. International trade had collapsed, and that had damaged the nation’s internal economy as well, but it shouldn’t have meant that travel ground to a near halt too. The lack of travelers implied citizens were still uneasy about the safety of the roads despite Cinna’s efforts at hunting down rogue undead in order to secure them.

She remembered her sister’s admonishments and wondered if merely eliminating the dangers threatening travelers had been only a part of the puzzle. Perhaps her focus on military endeavors had left Cinna blind to other factors. Responsibility had returned to her father now, but seeing the roads deserted nonetheless served as a stark reminder to Cinna that domestic affairs were important.

Such thoughts occupied Cinna’s mind as she did her best to endure Lilia’s constant complaining about being uncomfortable, and soon enough the two came within sight of their ultimate destination. Unsurprisingly, in the time it took them to reach the Warm Roads, travel through them, and return to the fortress from the other side, the battle had already begun. Cinna and Lilia bore witness to that fact before the fortress even came into sight. Although they couldn’t tell whose side launched them, the fireballs exploding in midair after being deflected by defending mages—or liches—could be seen for kilometers around.

“I’ve hardly spent a day in that fortress, and yet, coming back feels like home,” Cinna muttered as the gates finally came into view.

“Because your dad is here?” Lilia asked, surprising Cinna. Both with her perceptiveness and the fact she’d set aside her saddle sores for a moment.

“My father and my uncle both, I believe. It’s been far too long since I last saw my father in particular, though, and not since he learned some things that left him rather disappointed in me,” Cinna admitted.

“Oh. Well, I hope you can make up. It’s no good having your parents mad at you,” Lilia replied as if it were just that simple.

“…I hope so too.”