Swiftly grabbing her bag, Lidea headed to the baths with Warchief at her side.

“Anyway, back to what I originally came here for. I just received a message from Wulf. Your letter was well received and rumors are flying through the palace. The king even organized an emergency meeting to address it.”

Though it was only a small victory, she couldn’t help her smile of satisfaction at imagining Morto’s panic. After seeing the northern slumps, she knew how little he could afford the bad publicity.

“Good.”

“Don’t be too smug. He also said that the king announced his plans to invade the south.”

“What!? Has he turned mad?”

The news came as a shock. Sure, she had expected war to be on the horizon but still not this soon. Conquering the South was akin to suicide with the kind of troops he had. Even if their southern neighbors did not have the magic battalions she had imagined them to have, their armies of mercenaries were infamous.

“That is what I’m wondering. I have heard the gossip of course, but I thought it to be without ground. Especially as the person in my camp who would know, has not mentioned anything of the sort. So tell me Lidea, is our opponent acting in bad faith or is he insane?”

She hadn’t meant to imply anything by her off-the-cuff remark, but it seemed to have opened a wasp’s nest for Warchief. His accusatory tone nettled her, it wasn’t as if she had been silent on the matter on purpose. He had just never asked.

Is that so?

A sense of guilt bubbled up as she considered the facts about her family which she had failed to mention as well. Perhaps some part of her was still unable to trust them truly.

“There is no answer to be had. At least not as of now. I assume you heard the stories of our current king’s father?”

“That the dragons decided to curse him and his family after he banned the riders from his land? As I said, I have been hearing the rumor, but it doesn’t sound believable. Dragons don’t involve themselves in human matters, and even if they did, they don’t use magic in the way of curses.”

Lidea didn’t doubt he was right. Still, it was true that something strange was happening within the Kyeira household. Many of its members started to behave oddly as they grew older. Irrational, paranoid and she had even heard whispers that they would talk to spirits. The old king himself had supposedly died by jumping out of his window proclaiming he was going for a swim.

“I don’t think they mean dragon in the literal sense. The royal house of Lynoës got their throne through the blessing of a dragon and ever since, they have been nicknamed the dragon’s line. My guess is that the curse of the dragon is symbolic of the illness that is passed through their blood.”

If she was, to be honest, it hadn’t been her theory but Valerian’s. Ever since he was young, he had spent his free time perusing medical scriptures but it had grown into an obsession after the queen had fallen ill.

More than once, she had helped him look through those dusty manuscripts. Trying to find a cure, of which she doubted its existence. It was on one of those nights that she had found him sitting on the ground with an empty look in his teary eyes.

“Do you think such a thing as fate exists?”

She had snorted at that question. Feeling it to be ridiculous.

“Does it matter? Even if it does, we don’t know it, so what is the point of worrying over it?”

“Because I’m afraid. Scared I will end up losing control over my mind just like grandpa!”

His outburst had taken her by surprise. She hadn’t even understood why he thought that would happen. Thinking back, she could only wonder if he had already seen signs of the future to come in his father.

They walked on in silence as Warchief digested the information she had given him. The sense of guilt returned but she shooed it away before it could settle in. It was time she truly accepted that she was a traitor now. There was no longer any space for sympathizing with the royal family. Besides, it wasn’t as if she had revealed some great secret really.

“Valerian doesn’t seem to be mad, from the little I have known him.”

Lidea shook her head even before he had finished his sentence.

“I suspect the symptoms appear later in life. The old king started acting strange when Morto was in his late teens. I would need to have detailed records on the previous kings' lives to know for certain, but for obvious reasons, they don’t exist.”

Warchief sighed in annoyance as he rubbed through his half-long brown hair. Causing it to look even more disheveled than it normally did. Up close, she could see the rings under his eyes and wondered if his nightmares were becoming worse.

“Just great. Not only are we greatly outnumbered, but now we might be facing someone who won’t back down no matter the costs.”

Lidea shared his concerns but it was his lack of cheerfulness that worried her more.

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“Nothing to do against that. If he is indeed planning his conquest south, then we need to prepare as well. He won’t leave us in peace. With his army mostly gone, he would be left far too vulnerable to an attack from us.”

Warchief nodded his head solemnly, unsurprised.

“They know we are here, but as long as the barrier holds strong they won’t be able to harm us. Still, I don’t like the idea of being essentially trapped in here. Our lives would be dependent on this centuries-old spell that might be running on mere fumes of energy.”

His remark made her look at the surrounding wall of the cavern. She could have sworn that she had seen multiple entrances and indeed she quickly spotted some of the dark spots that indicated an opening into the catacombs. It made sense with barriers as strong as theirs, that the riders wouldn’t have limited the amount of ways in and out of their shelter.

Having followed her gaze, he nodded before continuing.

“You are right, I suppose we wouldn’t be trapped in the literal sense. However, none of those are marked like the eastern entrance is. Ever since I arrived here, I have been sending men to explore those tunnels but they found nothing except for an endless maze of tunnels. Without a map, going in there would mean a certain death.”

She had assumed the royal army hadn’t blocked their way of passage because there had been too many entrances to cover. Creating essentially a game of whack-a-mole in which the resistance would just use a different exit when they would block another. Knowing that wasn’t the case, made them incredibly vulnerable, even if the barrier would hold.

“I guess that nobody outside of the resistance is aware that we only know of one way in or out?”

“Indeed. To be fair, I don’t think Morto has put any effort into stopping the resistance either. You were a far bigger threat than those couple of magicians who hid in their caves and mostly focused on saving people without involving themselves in combat. With you gone, it is only a matter of time before they realize.”

Lidea hadn’t thought of it that way. Her rebels and she must have been a great cover for the resistance to operate under.

“I just can’t believe that the riders wouldn’t have known where those tunnels lead. They probably had some sort of system in place, or a map. Both Crystal and I have scoured that whole library but they haven’t left anything of use in there.”

Thinking of her great uncle's letter, it wasn’t unimaginable that they had done so on purpose. There was no reason for them to leave anything of value in the hands of a regime that had exiled them. It wasn’t as if they had left in a hurry. Twenty years was more than enough time to ensure nothing would be left but some unimportant school books.

“I will try and look through the books as well, but I’m not holding much hope. It would be better to prepare ourselves to leave before they realize and trap us down here. Without another way out, it doesn’t even matter if the barrier holds or not. Either they enter and overwhelm us in numbers or they stay outside and wait until we starve.”

The thought of leaving worried her. After her home had been destroyed, her men and her had wandered through the countryside. Never staying long in one place, knowing that the royal army would find them if they did. She didn’t miss the uneasy restlessness it had caused.

“The crown won’t jeopardize the festival, gaining us some time to leave but I would rather not wait too long. Do you have a place in mind? Lynoës does not have great forests like Umbrae, Neoire, or Cinnaber. It is almost impossible to stay hidden for long while on the road. The only reason we managed it at the time, was because they didn’t expect us to dare stay so close to the Deadlands but that won’t work a second time. They will hunt us down until none of us are left.”

She couldn’t hide the bitterness in her voice and it drew a look of sympathy from Warchief.

“I won’t allow that to happen. If we have to flee, we will take refuge in Udrän. The nomads might not protect us, but they won’t cast us out either. Morto knows better than to send an army that way.”

He must have heard of the humiliation Lynoës had faced the first and last time they had tried to invade their eastern neighbor. Though the nomadic tribes did not have a collective army, they did band together when one of theirs was attacked. Causing Lynoës not to face only one foreign force but hundreds of camps, each of which had turned into an independent and highly trained cavalry unit.

Horses were a luxury in Lynoës, only afforded by nobles and knights of the highest ranks. In contrast, every person in Udrän owned one, it was part of their way of life, and on the grassy plains of Udrän, their horsemanship put them at a high advantage. Lynoës had not only lost, but it had to give up part of their eastern territories which until this day were never returned.

“We would lose all access to the capital, but we would be alive. Maybe Crystal can even charm them into joining us.”

She had meant it as a light-hearted joke, but Warchief’s sudden silence alerted her to something being off. Looking over, she could see him lost in his own thoughts with a hint of sadness in his features.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“No, just don’t say that around Crystal. Her bond with Udrän is complicated.”

He responded cautiously and Lidea could respect that he didn’t want to divulge more information on his friend’s circumstances than necessary, but it did make her curious. Until she remembered that Crystal’s father might have possibly been eaten. If that had happened, then she couldn’t blame the Udrän people for not treating her or her mother favorably.

Having arrived at the higher level, she looked over the great cavern and felt annoyed at having to leave such a perfect location.

“It will be hard to do anything if we leave. Information will get to us slowly and we won’t be able to help anyone anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised if Morto would take advantage of our absence to start a smear campaign against us. Are you sure that there are no fancy tricks any of the magicians here can do? I thought magic holders with an affinity for earth could detect tunnels. Can’t Firon help then? What is the point of having magic if you can’t do anything useful with it?”

Her grumbling caused a smile to finally return on Warchief’s face and he even chuckled as she went on.

“Isn’t that the truth? Believe me, I wished I could do all those amazing things as well, but it is as realistic as the average man picking up a sword and winning from a sword master. Except for me, no one here has enjoyed magic education further than the mere basics, so no, they won’t be able to do what took others years of studying to master.”

His words made her realize that she had never considered magic to be a skill. To her, it had been a talent one was born with and all people did with it was just a natural consequence of that talent. The fact that such a thing as magic academies existed, should have clued her in to that fact.

As they approached the bathing house, Lidea came to a stop as Warchief walked up to its door.

“Not coming?”

Raising an eyebrow, she wondered if he was being serious but seeing his honest look of confusion convinced her of his innocence. She wondered if he had simply forgotten the fact that she was a woman or if he was so used to female company that he didn’t think anything of it. Neither would really surprise her.

“No. I was planning to visit Crystal first and will go after. You don’t need to wait for me, just boil the water before you leave, so it isn’t icy when I go.”

At least there was one perk of having a magician around. Warm baths always.

“As you demand princess!”

She rolled her eyes as she saw him smirk before turning to the door. At least he had cheered up a bit. Still, she thought to ask Crystal to keep an eye on him.