“Are your hearts loyal to Solaris?” Aldrik asked.

 The three gave their affirmation.

 “Then I will pardon you.”

 “On one condition!” Vhalla knew that grieving mother could whip Paca into an angry mob if there wasn’t a condition added. Some form of punishment was due for the people to rest at night.

 Aldrik turned to Vhalla. He gave her a long stare, but didn’t object. The singular act spoke volumes about the authority he had already given her.

 Vhalla took a deep breath, praying she had formulated a good enough idea so quickly. “If you run off or oppose Victor, he will take your lives and the lives of those you love. Your deaths will help no one. There are patrols, I assume you are meant to report in, and he has the power to find you beyond all that. You do not want to be examples for that maniac.”

 No one objected.

 “Loyalty at the cost of innocent blood is not the foundation for a throne.” She stared into the eyes of the Easterners, pleading with them to understand what she was saying. “Two wrongs do not make a right. And killing those who have only fought for their freedom, killing them for the sake of vengeance does not make us any better than that which we are fighting against.

 “So you may keep your lives, if you use them to help your brothers and sisters here in the East. Go as you were told. Use the crystal to find Windwalkers. But for every one you find, tell them to hide. Turn that wretched thing that Victor has saddled you wish as a gift. Be not the harbingers of death but the devotees of life. Tell the Windwalkers to flee, to perpetuate the belief that there are and will be no more in the East, for now.”

 Vhalla would not let go of her secret dream that one day Windwalkers could study safely alongside other sorcerers.

 “Spread this word to other Inquisitors who do not want to take children from their mothers. Do this and you will have earned your pardon.”

 The Inquisitors looked from Aldrik to Vhalla, trying to decipher if she truly had the ability to make such a decree.

 The Western man finally spoke. “At least if I am to die, then it would be as someone I can look in the mirror.” He stood. “If it would please our lord?”

 Aldrik took a deep breath and gave Vhalla a look that she couldn’t quite decipher. His eyes were sad, but bright with passion. His shoulders were limp and heavy, but the corners of his mouth tugged upward ever so slightly in the smallest of smiles.

 “It would please me greatly. As it is the first decree of your future Empress.”

CHAPTER 7

 Vhalla would forever remember the reaction of the people in Paca to Aldrik’s announcement that Vhalla would be their future Empress. The people embracing her, celebrating her, replayed over in her mind during their ride out of the small town. It played over until a different nagging thought crept up from the back of her brain, until this new thought spoke so loudly that she had no other choice but to address it.

 “I’m sorry,” Vhalla said guiltily. “For running off as I did towards the Inquisitors.”

 Her four companions looked at her in surprise.

 “You don’t need to apologize, Vhal,” Fritz said cheerfully.

 Vhalla shook her head. “It was reckless of me, and it put you all at risk as well. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

 “Well, be sure you do,” Elecia said in a haughty tone. Vhalla shared a small smile with the woman before she turned her focus back to the road.

 “Vhalla,” Aldrik summoned her attention quietly. “I would also be careful about letting people know our movements.”

 She thought a moment. “You mean saying we were headed to Hastan.”

 “We’re fairly easy targets right now. The more people who know we’re alive, the more people who will be hunting us.”

 “I’ll be more careful,” she vowed. Vhalla wouldn’t apologize again. Apologies meant nothing, and they weren’t going to help them. She simply had to be better than she had ever been before. It was a journey she had been on for some time now, and Vhalla was discovering that the path to being the person she wanted to be had no end point. That there would always be room for her to adapt, to change, and to improve.

 “Well.” Aldrik shifted in his saddle, casting off the weight of the morning. “You were never in any real danger. Those scraps of sorcerers can’t stand up to me.”

 Vhalla laughed for the first time in weeks. “I forgot I rode with the Fire Lord.”

 “Fire Lord,” Elecia snorted. “What a ridiculous title.”

 “We could think of a title for you as well, ‘Cia.” Aldrik paused a moment. “Stone-Skinned Lady?”

 “More like Stone-Hearted,” Jax sniggered.

 “There is only one title I’m interested in,” Elecia spoke only once she was assured she had stalled long enough for everyone’s attention. “The Lady of the West.”

 “We’ll see about that,” Aldrik chuckled. “Does your grandfather know you’re vying to overthrow him?”

 “I’d never,” Elecia gasped.

 “It’s nice to see you smile,” Fritz remarked to Vhalla from her left. “I haven’t seen it in I don’t remember how long.”

 Vhalla shrugged. “There haven’t been many things to smile about.”

 “There are, though. Don’t you think?” Fritz wore a small expression of joy himself. It was small, but it was there. “We’re all alive, aren’t we?”

 “That we are.”

 “I think we’ll likely give your father cause to smile as well, with his daughter coming back from the grave.” Fritz combed his fingers through his steadily lengthening hair.

 That was something Vhalla hadn’t thought about. They had known in Paca of Victor’s claims of her death. Fear gripped her. What if her father thought her dead and had left to flee Victor’s slow encroachment north?

 Vhalla looked ahead. This far into the middle of the continent, the hills by the southern mountains had begun to flatten, and there was at most a small slope to the land. She could see a far distance, but her home was still well out of sight.

 They rode the day with the wind on her cheeks. There was no spark, no magic calling to her in it. Once in a while, she’d clench her hands into fists, foolishly thinking that her magic would return simply by being in the East. But her magic would not return to her unless there was enough to restore the flow to her Channel.

 They saw an old road sign that was the first marker of Leoul. The dusty road and worn fences, which penned in livestock and pastures, began to look familiar to her. It all began to connect like a puzzle of memories, and Vhalla could suddenly recall obscure details like how many trees one farmer had in their field, or how many windows another home had.

 A child-like squeal rose up in her throat as Vhalla shot out her finger, pointing at a lone tree in the distance. “My farm!” She clutched the reins tightly. “Can we go faster?”

 “Works for me!” Fritz cheered and kicked his horse into a lively trot.