“The bulk of our troops have gone off to retake the cities along the Savria River. But as soon as we agree on a plan to take the capital, they’ll rejoin us,” Erik says from his place leaning against the stone wall near the door. He doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to any of us, instead focusing on cutting away the skin of an apple with a small knife the size of his thumb.
Maile scoffs. “The capital,” she says, rolling her eyes. “You’re still on about that foolish plan.”
It is a foolish plan. I know that, and I’d imagine deep down, Erik does as well. But with his mother so recently taken from him and the life he knew completely upheaved, Søren is the only family he has left, the only familiar thing in a strange and frightening world. I can’t hold his foolishness against him—I can only hope he’ll see it for what it is.
“Taking the Earth Mine is a foolish plan, too. That was yours, wasn’t it?” I say instead, tracing my finger along the route we would need to take to reach it, the one that passes several large cities and towns, any of whom would send word to Cress as soon as they spotted us. We might as well send her a letter ourselves, announcing our intentions.
Maile grunts but doesn’t reply. I look up at Dragonsbane. “What are your thoughts, Aunt? I have a hard time believing you don’t have plenty of opinions. Please share them.”
Dragonsbane purses her lips. “Maile is right, in a sense,” she says after a moment. “Every type of Guardian has their strengths, of course, but in terms of battle…if we could liberate the Earth Mine, any Guardians we add to our numbers will have the strength of twenty ungifted soldiers,” she says before tilting her head to one side thoughtfully. “But you’re right, too, Theo. The Kaiserin would undoubtedly be alerted and would meet us there with the brunt of her forces. We wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Those are our opinions,” I say. “What is yours?”
Dragonsbane traces her finger along the map, from the Fire Mine to Doraz. “Empress Giosetta owes me quite a significant favor,” she says. “She has agreed to take in the Astrean refugees until the war has been won. But perhaps she can be persuaded to lend us some of her troops as well. Perhaps I could take those troops around this way.” She traces from Doraz down to the east coast of Astrea, where the Earth Mine is. “It’s still a day’s journey inland, but the chances of our being spotted go down significantly. Especially if you are causing the Kaiserin problems elsewhere.”
I nod. “And can you persuade Giosetta?” I ask, remembering the empress from Sta’Crivero. She was one of the better suitors I met there, but she’s still a ruler with her own needs and interests. I doubt she will give us troops out of the goodness of her heart.
Dragonsbane considers this. “After the siege of the Fire Mine, you’ve become a less risky investment, and there are many who would be glad to see the Kalovaxians brought to ruin—Giosetta among them. She grew up near the Gorakian border, you know. She saw the Kalovaxians lay waste to that land, saw the echoes of it. She’ll need compensation, of course, but it’s not an impossibility.”
“What sort of compensation?” I ask, the words coming out sharp. I haven’t forgotten that Dragonsbane once promised the Sta’Criverans the Water Mine without my consent. I’m not about to underestimate her again.
Dragonsbane must hear my suspicion, because she smiles with teeth. “Giosetta has been trying to convert me from pirate to privateer for Doraz. Perhaps I will agree to it. After the war is done, I imagine there will be no more Kalovaxian dragons I will need to be the bane of.”
Dragonsbane is as hard to read as ever, but I think it might be an apology for Sta’Crivero. Whatever it is, I’ll take it.
“Well then,” I say, looking back at the map. “While you do that, where will the rest of us go? The Air Mine is closest—”
“In terms of physical distance, yes,” Dragonsbane says. “But we would have to get all of our troops over the Dalzia Mountains and either across or around the Savria River. Not to mention there are several of the same large cities and towns you mentioned that we would have to get past, in the middle of a largely barren landscape with nowhere to hide.”
I look at the map, at the large stretch of land at Astrea’s center. Dragonsbane is right. We could have made it from here to the Air Mine without detection before we liberated the Fire Mine, but now there are too many of us. We’d be lucky if we even made it to the Savria River before the Kaiserin got word of our actions.
“What of the Water Mine?” I ask after a moment. “It’s the farthest, geographically speaking, but we would be able to keep to the coastline, with the mountains for cover. There are some smaller villages we might come across, but we could avoid them or contain them as needed and they wouldn’t prove much of a threat. Water Guardians might not have the physical strength of Earth Guardians, but Artemisia is fierce enough, and I can think of a few war tricks to play with illusions.”
No one replies right away, but they all exchange glances.
“We received word from the spies we placed in the new Theyn’s household,” Sandrin says after a moment. “It seems he got word that King Etristo was…more than a little displeased that you fled Sta’Crivero, stealing his property.”
“You were refugees,” I point out. “Not his property.” Though I remember how the refugees I met had been given the worst jobs that no one else wanted and had been paid a pittance for the work. In the Sta’Criverans’ eyes, they were little more than slaves.
“No,” Sandrin says. “But the ships you stole were,” he points out. “However, I imagine he’s feeling the loss of the refugee camp just as keenly in many respects.”
“Right,” I say. “I forgot about the ships. How angry is he?”
“Angry enough to conspire with the Kaiserin—more than he already was. We received word that the Sta’Criverans and Kalovaxian envoys will be making a trade in five days’ time.”
“A trade,” I say slowly. “A trade for what?”
“Sta’Criveran troops, most likely,” Dragonsbane says. “But whatever it is, Etristo’s son, Prince Avaric, will be coming to secure the arrangement in person, so we can assume it’s important. The trade will happen at the Water Mine. Our sources say that the Sta’Criverans are on track to arrive around noon in five days, and the trade will happen at sundown. If we were to continue on there, we would be walking straight into them.”
Something seems off, but it takes me a second to realize what it is. “They wouldn’t send Avaric all the way here to bring troops—he’s not a general, he has no experience. And the Sta’Criveran army is subpar at best. You said it yourself, they’ve never had to fight a war. Why trade at all?”