Andrew waited for Lady Thalia and the others to respond to their report. They’d been gone longer than expected thanks to their detour, and they’d made a diplomatic decision for the country without the authority to do so. Of course, King Henry and Queen Emily had only seemed interested in the story of Peter’s duel. Daniel had seemed much more concerned, and Lady Thalia’s face was stoney throughout. Sol only perked up at the mention of Zech.

  “Seems as though this will be a good chance to get some information on them as well, then,” Sol said. Andrew gave him a thankful nod.

  “I agree,” Lady Thalia said. “While I would not have preferred inviting raiders to our summit, the information they have seems necessary. And… Given the circumstances there appeared to be little choice.”

  “Thank you,” Andrew said. His shoulders sagged with relief and he glanced over at Peter and Anna. They both grinned at him, and Peter mouthed, ‘told you,’ before Daniel started to speak.

  “Still, letting the Selasi know that the Nordar will be attending as well will be… interesting.”

  “Are you sending us for that?” Anna asked. “Because we’d hoped…” Anna paused. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

  “It’s alright,” Queen Emily said. “And no, we don’t intend to send you south again.”

  “You still need to get to Vulcuo, don’t you?” the king asked. “There’s not much time before the tournament.”

  Daniel nodded. “They do, and they need to hurry.” He looked back at the Wisp Seekers. “You won’t have much time to go over the book you sent or the notes you took in Selasem.”

  Andrew had been thinking over the question himself. “Getting from here to Vulcou could take between six and eight days depending on the route we take over the islands and Jarnvaror’s hunting,” he said. “Then, getting from there to Borac I think would take another week.”

  “Rounded to two weeks, that would give you about a month and a half on the island,” Sol said. “That’s not very long to look at old documents.”

  Andrew shrugged. “We’ll do our best to make use of the time,” he said.

  “Then you should take Daniel’s advice and hurry,” the queen said. “Take this afternoon and evening to rest, then head out in the morning.”

  The trio rose and bowed before taking their leave. Andrew was grateful they were able to move on so quickly. Of course, he wasn’t sure how well they’d be able to use their time, but Anna was confident they’d be able to make good use of it once they were with the monks on Vulcuo. For his part, Andrew doubted he and Peter would be much use once they arrived, but he didn’t mention that. Anna seemed excited they were finally going to study the artifacts they’d found.

  They set out about an hour after waking up, flying west toward the coast. They followed the same route they had on their way to Prohr and the Green Vale. Peter suggested they spend the night with the Thornwoods if they could. The others agreed, though they took a far more relaxed pace. Jarnvaror needed to hunt as well, causing them to stop for an extra night half way to the mountains.

  “Nothing to be done about that,” Andrew had muttered at the time. He chafed at the lost time. Anna seemed even more frustrated at losing the extra night, though she insisted they should still visit the Thornwoods if they were able to. Andrew didn’t take much convincing. He was interested in checking on Jeremy before they met up at the tournament in Borac.

  With their schedule settled and after they’d eaten their own dinner, Andrew pulled out map of the islands off the coast. “We should probably decide which route we’re going to take.”

  Peter, still polishing off the last of his food, glanced up. “Well, what’s the most direct route?” he asked.

  “You mean flying straight from the coast to Vulcuo?” Andrew asked. “Can Jarnvaror fly for ten hours straight without even a little rest?” Peter shook his head, and Andrew gestured for the other two to come over, rolling the map out. “There’s not many islands on the way, but there are some. And we’ll need to land a few times, if only to relieve ourselves.”

  “You said one of the routes might add two days to our journey,” Anna said.

  Andrew shrugged. “Well, I was defaulting to the longer one, and the more I’ve been thinking about it, the safer that seems,” he said. Most of the islands were in the south, closer to Prohr. Vulcuo was at the western edge of the map. They’d been told there wasn’t much beyond it, and Andrew believed it. “We’ll be flying a lot over empty water. If we go south to this island,” he pointed to one just north of Sharktooth Isle at the southern edge of the island chain, “and then follow these ones north, we’ll come to Vulcuo in about four days from now.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Peter crouched down behind Andrew, staring at the map. “What about these ones?” he asked, pointing to several small, isolated islands scattered in the sea north east of Vulcuo. “We’re a bit closer to those one’s, aren’t we?”

  “When did you learn to read a map?” Andrew asked.

  “Well, that’s the Green Vale, right?” Peter asked, pointing to a spot on the edge of the parchment. “That’s way closer to those islands than the others.”

  Andrew nodded. “Right. But there are only those three, and the closest of them isn’t even half the distance between Vulcuo and the coast.”

  Peter knelt next to Andrew looking at the map. He reached out, using his fingers to measure. “From Prohr to sharktooth was a few hours… But that was following the boat. We could have done it in… maybe a third of the time?” he said. His brow furrowed in concentration and he spent a moment fiddling around until he grinned and brought his fingers up to the northern islands. “Six hours. That should be a six our flight. Five if the weather is good,” he added.

  “A lot longer if the weather is bad though,” Andrew said. “Which it could be so far out to sea.” Andrew narrowed his eyes. “You’re not seriously suggesting a six hour flight with no breaks, are you?”

  “How many days would it save us?” Peter asked.

  “Probably three,” Anna answered in place of Andrew. “Though I’m not a huge fan of being in the air for so long.”

  “Or of being over open water for so long,” Andrew said.

  “We’d get to Vulcuo a lot faster,” Peter said.

  “It seems like a risk, still,” Andrew said. “We’ve never been in the air for more than three hours at a time. I don’t think it’s a good idea to double that when there’s no way to touch down in an emergency, like a storm.”

  “We’d see that coming for ages,” Peter pointed out.

  “Fast enough to out run it?”

  “Maybe,” Peter replied. Andrew raised an eyebrow, and Peter admitted. “I don’t really know how fast the storms move.”

  “Has Jarnvaror flown through storms before?” Anna asked.

  Peter nodded. “A few times. I’ve been with him for one. He told me once about one at sea that he flew in.”

  “Which is how we know those are worse than the one’s at home,” Andrew pointed out.

  “He was fine,” Peter said.

  “You’re the one who told us he described it as his worst flight ever!” Andrew said.

  “Yeah, but he was fine!” Peter said. “Come on. Do you really want to add half a week getting there on the off chance there might be a storm?”

  “If it means not plummeting into the ocean!”

  “Peter’s right,” Anna said. “If Jarnvaror can make it through a storm, that time might be vital to get more research done on the island.”

  “Or we could die at sea,” Andrew said.

  “We won’t die,” Peter said. “Jarn can make sure of that, at least.”

  Andrew clamped his mouth shut. What use was there if they weren’t listening to him? He raised his arms and moved away from the fire. He’d set up his sleeping role next to a large rock, and he sat on that, facing away from the camp.

  A few minutes later, he heard the rustle of feet approaching. “Peter, enough,” he said. “If you want to get yourself killed there’s nothing I—” he turned and saw Anna coming over. She stopped. Andrew didn’t say anything. He just turned to look out into the evening again.

  “Are you doing alright?” she asked. “Do you really think we can’t make it over that gap?” When Andrew remained silent, she continued. “I know it won’t be comfortable, but I’m sure Jarnvaror can do it. We may not have been in the air that long before, but I know he has. And he’s flown through storms before. I’m sure he can do this. I may even be able to get the Wisps to help him.”

  “Or we could take a path that doesn’t have any of these maybe’s to it,” Andrew said. “We don’t need to risk it just to get there a little earlier.”

  “Is it really that much of a risk?” Anna asked.

  “I don’t know!” Andrew said, spinning to face Anna. “Neither do you! Neither does Peter! That’s the point!” Anna took a step back, and Andrew saw her bracelet flair blue. He made an effort to calm himself before any of the Wisps tried to do so for him.

  “He doesn’t act like anything is a risk,” Andrew said. “Charging Sheil in the woods, dueling Inaros and Lief. Running in after Jeremy. He had no way to know if any of those would work. I didn’t know if he’d come out alive from any of them, and he didn’t either, no matter what he says. He’s lucky.”

  The blue glow remained in Anna’s bracelet, but none of the Wisps emerged. Anna nodded. “He is. He got hurt doing some of that, but he made it out okay. And thanks to that, so did we.”

  “Are you sure?” Andrew asked. “Are you sure there was no way for us to do what we needed without him getting himself hurt so bad?”

  “I don’t know,” Anna said. “We have to take some risks.”

  “He’s my brother!” Andrew said. “I’m supposed to watch out for him. But he doesn’t let me! And one of these days he’s going to take a risk like that, and he won’t be as lucky!”

  Anna didn’t answer. She clutched the bracelet to herself, stepping closer to him. “You don’t know that,” she said.

  “If he keeps taking risks, it has to happen sooner or later,” Andrew said. “But I can’t stop him.”

  “But you still help him,” Anna said. “When he does those crazy things.”

  “If I don’t, he’ll die for sure,” Andrew replied.

  “Maybe that’s enough,” Anna said. “He needs to do some of those things. He needs you at his back to make sure he can get back up after.”

  “A lot of good that would do him if he got cut in half by Lief or Inaros,” Andrew said. Anna made no reply to that. “I just don’t want him getting himself killed.”

  “I’m sure he knows that.”

  “I can’t tell, at this point.”

  “Maybe you should talk to him about it, then.”

  “You think he’d listen to me?” Andrew asked. “Maybe before we left the Iron Valley. But now? He’s ignored my advice the whole time.”

  “I don’t think he has,” Anna said. “But even so. You may as well try.”

  Andrew said nothing. The two sat there for a little while longer in silence, then Anna left to get some sleep herself. Andrew glanced over his shoulder. He could see Peter had gone to sleep on the other side of the fire. Andrew shook his head and lay down. He fell asleep wondering. If he told his little brother he was afraid, would he listen?”