Merecot’s lips twitched. “I’m always honorable, though the code I abide by is my own.”
Hanna snorted but didn’t argue with her. She’d already put her life in Merecot’s hands once, when she’d chosen to ride in her chariots. To balk now would be foolish. I didn’t come to Semo because it was the safe thing to do. “Let’s go.” She pivoted her chair and headed for the hallway, but Merecot stopped her.
“I have a better way,” Merecot said with an obnoxiously arrogant smile. Crossing the room, the queen threw open the windows. Mountain air swirled into the room, stirring the curtains.
Hanna suppressed a sigh. Merecot always did like to show off. Keeping a pleasant expression on her face, she wheeled herself back as Merecot summoned an air spirit. It swooped down, hovering just outside the open window. Like the ones who had pulled the chariot, this one had the shape of a winged horse. Its wings were closer to a bat’s than a bird’s, it had the sharp teeth of a wolf, and it wore a saddle that was, like everything here, dotted with jewels. Jewels must be as common as leaves here, Hanna thought.
With a flourish, Merecot turned back to them, as if expecting applause.
“You have your spirits well trained,” Hanna observed politely.
Merecot let out a laugh that was more of a bark. “Some of them.” And with that cryptically bitter statement, she climbed out the window and mounted the air spirit.
At Hanna’s command, her guards lifted her out of her chair and onto the spirit. Evenna whispered a steady stream of words of caution, and Serk grunted his agreement, but she had to ignore them as she settled into the saddle. She was sorry this was upsetting her guards. In truth, it was upsetting her—she wished this could have waited until tomorrow so she’d have a chance to rest. Not likely to—
The spirit launched itself into the air before she could even complete the thought. They flew northwest, wind in their faces and other air spirits all around them, flitting and diving and chattering on the wind.
As they flew farther, Hanna saw a red smear in the distance. It looked like an ember against the clouds. And then she lost sight of it as the spirit plunged into a cloud. They flew for what felt like hours, shrouded in murkiness whiteness. She lost track of time. The chill from the air settled into her bones, making them ache, and the roar of the wind in her ears became a steady hum.
When they at last emerged, the red smear was no longer distant. Hanna saw it clearly: a volcano, mid-eruption. A live volcano! In Semo! This can’t be!
Yet clearly it could.
Fire spirits danced in the center of the flame, and around the eruption, air spirits flew in circles rapidly enough to create a cyclone, the wind containing the fire and ash and funneling it upward. It looks, Hanna thought with a shudder, like what you’d see across the borders of Renthia, in the untamed lands. But that’s impossible—
“Look and witness!” Merecot called over the wind. “You see before you our bane! You know we have too many spirits. But what you and Queen Daleina don’t grasp is what that means. These ‘excess spirits’ chose me as their queen, the same as every other spirit in Semo. They’re linked to me. But unlike the others, they are not linked to the land. They can’t join with it, even though they want to; there simply isn’t enough land to go around. And so they seek to destroy it, to unmake it.”
Hanna reached out with her mind. She didn’t have much range, but it didn’t take much to touch the spirits in the wind. A fierce hunger slammed into her, and she recoiled. The spirits’ minds swallowed hers, and she couldn’t feel her own body, couldn’t tell if she was holding on to the saddle—and then her grip loosened, and she slid to the side, off the saddle.
She fell.
Spirits surrounded Hanna, and she was swept into the cyclone. She lost every sense of what was up, down, and sideways as she tumbled through the sky. The heat from the volcano pounded against the circle of wind, and the sound was a roar that penetrated into her bones.
If I die here, she will be blamed . . . but I’ll still be dead.
Hanna reached out with her mind and tried to control the nearest air spirits—but they were too wild, and she wasn’t strong enough. She felt herself slipping, blackness crawling into her vision and across her mind, until she lost consciousness.
When she came to, Hanna was lying awkwardly across Merecot’s lap, on the back of the air spirit. Raising her head, she saw mountains—they were nowhere near the volcano and cyclone. I’m alive. That’s a surprise.
“Not dead?” Merecot asked, and then exhaled an enormous sigh. “Thank the spirits. Or more accurately, thank me. Couldn’t you have strapped yourself on if you knew you were prone to fainting?”
“I am not prone to fainting,” Hanna said indignantly. “You have an active volcano in your land! Not to mention unchecked tornadoes.” She would have been satisfied with a more distant view. An up-close tour hadn’t been necessary. Merecot’s flair for the dramatic nearly got me killed. If Hanna weren’t positioned like a saddlebag, she would have delivered a scathing glare.
“What I was about to say, before you had your moment of melodrama, was that the excess spirits are the reason that I invaded Aratay. There’s plenty of room in your forests for them—look at all the barren areas! If I had been able to spread my spirits across both Semo and Aratay, then there would be enough land for all of them, and my people wouldn’t have to live in constant fear of an eruption or avalanche wiping out everything and everyone they hold dear.”
Hanna mentally checked her body. It all ached. She felt as if she were one massive bruise. It hurt to breathe. Even her legs twinged, though she knew that was false pain. And yet what bothered her the most was the nonsense penetrating her ears. “So this is why you tried to kill Daleina? You wanted to rule both Semo and Aratay, in order to save Semo?”
“Yes. Exactly so.”
“It never occurred to you to simply talk to her first? Ask for help? She might have been able to offer help with controlling them.”
“Frankly, no. But now that I know she’s amenable to negotiations, I’d appreciate it if you would present her with my request: send Queen Naelin to Semo to help me with the excess spirits. Our combined power may be enough to tame the excess spirits and save this land.”
Hanna shook her head. “Why would they possibly help you? Both queens have ample reason to distrust you. You attacked our country, and you poisoned Daleina. You took Queen Naelin’s children, and attacked the wolf Bayn.”
“I had to get her attention! Daleina promised in the grove that she would assist me, but that help hasn’t materialized. And Semo can’t wait much longer. You saw the volcano! Even I can’t contain forces like that forever, and when my strength fails . . .”
Hanna was surprised to hear frustration in her voice. And fear.
“Let me show you what’s at stake.”
At Merecot’s command, the air spirit soared eastward. While Hanna’s position across the saddle was not the most comfortable, it did afford her an excellent view of Semo. It was quite a populous land, with pockets of houses tucked onto the sides of mountains and in the valleys between them. Most of the lower slopes were farmed, with terraces and plateaus, and the houses themselves were either within the mountain, cavelike, or jutting out at dizzying heights. Hanna could see why they’d be afraid of out-of-control spirits—their lives were precarious enough as it was.
It’s responsible of Merecot to care about them, Hanna thought. Regardless of whether Merecot cared because she didn’t want to be a failure or whether she truly felt empathy, the result was the same—Merecot believed she was acting in her people’s best interests. That much was clear. Her passion was well placed.
It was only her choice of actions that was flawed.