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"Perhaps if I ana’s hostility?"

Lanthe shook her head "It infuriates Morgana that this place is hidden, that she’s been unable to retaliate for all the harm done to her subjects She’d love to strip the wards here coine if she enlisted Portia and Emberine These islands arelike bu the firepower--literally--of dozens of fire deht to escape to the air"

With Lanthe’s every word, Thronos grew arcoat the problenitude of it

"There are other Sorceri with powers just as catastrophic," she said "Morgana doesn’t even have to get then on--she can simply control them That’s her sorceress power: the ability to control others’ powers"

"If they attacked in that manner, humans would be able to detect us," he pointed out

"Soest?"

"The sorceress in et scarce really quickly"

"I don’t understand," he said, the idea of fleeing con to a warrior like him

"Do you have an evacuation plan in effect? Everybody, even the strongest species, needs a contingency, a plan B, a rabbit hole" A harsh reality she’d learned by running from Vrekeners Fate is weird "Is there soo?"

"When the Territories reside over Canada, there’s a re bank cloaks the tops of the trees, so some have built cabins in the mist It’s an outpost of sorts"

"Perfect Maybe we could head that way? Oh, and can you and your guys devise a security alar system that would encompass all the islands?"

"I can see"

"Okay" She stood, cracking her knuckles "We’ve got shit to do I need pen and paper"

"Parch to say that?"

FIFTY-ONE

SPLAT

"Ugh!" Another inkblot on an official Vrekener queen docuers She looked like she’d been finger painting

Occupational hazard, she supposed, now that she was pretty much the royal letter writer For the last five days, her quill (because of course it was a quill) had been her sword

Lanthe wasn’t saying she’d dothat either

Her first letter had been to Sabine In it, she’d vowed to gold that things ell and that she was happy to have wed Thronos She’d written that she was now a queen and included a plea to get Morgana to enter into talks with her

Lanthe had known there was a risk in sounding like she adored it up here--everyone would think she’d been brainwashed--so she’d tried to sound as much like herself as possible

She’d had that letter delivered i all the factions who’d declared war on them

To Carrow, she’d explained that Thronos had turned out to be a wonderful surprise

Kind of like Malkom Slaine turned out for you, if I’m not mistaken? Do you remember how everyone in the prison cell disbelieved you’d wed hih no one will believe I willingly s, Crow: Say hi to Ruby, and please get the witches to back off

To Bettina, she’d written:

The old Vrekener king was a vicious fiend who got what he deserved Kudos to your new vamp husband for a well-played assassination and tournament victory

Lanthe had also written that the new Vrekener king would like to personally old

In her letter to Lothaire, Lanthe had reintroduced herself, then related that heaven was under new ement The Vrekeners wanted only peace with the Dacians, so could the two factions reach an accord? She hoped the et to the Enedoht who had yet to fail on a delivery

She’d also written to Nïx:

From Nereus’s bedroom(don’t ask), I saw Furie, trapped at the botto as well as can be expected--ie, cataclys the pain to Sargasoe soon? PS We sure could use soht up here in the Skye

With all those letters written, Lanthe had struggled with a thy explanation for her sister She’d started--then wadded up--more than a dozen of them She hadn’t been able to decide howto tell her big sister to her face: "Well, I kind of misled you for centuries" It was quite another to write it out

How to explain what Thronos had come to inning, the day she’d first otten to the--heavily edited--faux Feveris part She’d given herself a deadline of onethe sky for Thronos He’d be home soon to take her to the bastion for dinner

He’d beentheir defenses and ianized their first drill There’d been sos

His body was paining hiony in front of others The stress of leading a real He was exhausted frorief

In Pandemonia, he’d told her that when he’d realized his father had killed her parents, he’d looked up at the er He felt the same way about his brother--

She heard the now fas When she ith him and they were able to close out the world, life could be sublime When she wasn’t with himnot so much Unable to hide her customary jolt of excitement, she leapt up from the desk "You’re hoht for their bedroo body was like a tree gone tiood, huh?" She clis" When he parted them, she straddled the small of his back

He turned his face to the side "I had o dine with others right now