"We are all in this together," Alexia said, her voice heavy with the tears she shed. "I will help you save your people, Leoquo."

Azi's deep voice gained that mighty strength that she had inherited from her father and Alexia knew she would stand rooted until she made everyone listen. "Whatever we can do to help your people, shall be done. For your people are my people now, as are all who are in the path of Daichin ezen Celegan."

Leoquo lifted his head from Azi's belly. His voice broke as he spoke, "I am truly blessed by your warmth, Princess Azurianna Sapphire. You are worthy of the mantle of queen. May you always be blessed with clear waters and calm breezes." He turned to Alexia, his lips trembling as he let out a sob. "You are not what I expected."

Alexia looked down, suddenly wishing that Azi would be the focal point in the room again.

"Alexia is like a flower that closes itself off to protect itself," Azi explained, smiling at her. "But when she opens, Leverith help the world, for there has never been anything as beautiful."

Alexia smiled, but the attention on her made her wish she could transfigure herself into a flower to hide from this conversation. "We will be stronger together, Emir Leoquo," she managed, her voice weak, the platitude feeling insufficient for his pain. She averted her eyes. Why can't I just speak to people like a normal person? Why!

Leoquo nodded but neither the Lion Prince nor the Second Great Wizard were able to meet the other's eyes.

"Unfortunately, my father is not in Sapphirica," Azi said. "King Gideon isn't expected to return to Saphirhold for the next moon. Prince Halius is his proxy and I doubt he can or will make any decisions to support you in our father's absence."

Leoquo suffered pain beyond tears. He glanced at Alexia, then shook his head before setting it in his hands. She needed to make his pain smaller.

"Even if we do not have the support of the Sapphire Kingdom," Alexia said, her stomach burning, "you have me. I will help you free the Everrain, even if I must go alone."

"Slow down, my favorite flower," Azi said, rising and heading toward the map rack. "Bloom too prematurely and wither too soon." She returned to her seat with two large scrolls. She unrolled a map of the Mahogany Isles, a chain of nine islands to the southwest of Leveria. The Everrain was on the eastern shore of Caleel, right along the coast near the great lake Dalazuli. Azi unrolled the second map, which offered a more detailed view of Caleel's beaches, jungles, cities, and landmarks. On the bottom corner of the map, was the mark of the great explorer Sikadzi Fartraveler.

Leoquo peered over the map, nodding. "An excellent replica. None have done it better than the Fartraveler."

Azi's hand went beside his as she pointed out the Everrain. "Assume we only have a small force, including Alexia. How would you rescue Sultan Leono?"

The prince traced the shore near Azi's hand, moving close until their shoulders touched. "These shores would be our landing zone." He ran his finger along the isle, tapping on several spots near the Everrain. "I'd send bondpairs here, here, and here to distract the tamers while I led the Second Great Wizard through a tunnel system," he pointed to another location, "here. We'd travel beneath Dalazuli, go up through the cistern, and sneak into the Everrain."

Leoquo met Alexia's gaze. "The Celegans have a chimaera and a shadow there. If we kill them and rescue my father, I think we can win back the isles."

"A shadow?" Alexia asked, swallowing the memory of seeing Allison transform into a shadow in front of her.

Leoquo's voice grew heavy, he spoke as if wading through molasses. "Yes. He is an enormous man of Isihlan descent who can disappear at will. I encountered him before I fled. He is evil, Zamael-tainted to the core, relishing the misery of others. Very few escaped his scythe. And the Chimaera is even more powerful."

Alexia wrapped her arms around herself. A shadow made their mission far more dangerous. Vara had detailed the deadly abilities of Quresh Shadowseer in Annals of an Anathema and Shadowseer. Alexia never dreamt she'd battle someone who could blanket areas in darkness, see within it, ooze shadows, blur their movement, and become invisible. The prospect of such an encounter terrified her and worse, if a generation of breeding Isihlan slaves yielded tamers who could use the powers of shadows or lightseers, their chances of defeating the Celegans were diminished even further.

Alexia shuddered, remembering the ogre's silver eyes and how it had neutralized Maleon's magic. Magic-dispelling lightseers, vanishing shadows, massive empagong tortoises, armies of lions, hostages held at the edge of a scythe, shipwrecking kalagoth in the water. And, above them all, there was a chimaera at the Everrain, a creature that could defeat dragons. Worse, a chimaera with the power to neutralize her magic and an invisible man that, if he didn't outright kill her, might have gold to suppress her channeling. On top of that, tamers could sense their minds and seize their bodies if they overpowered them. Her mind rapidly visualized how many different ways this could go wrong. For all that, if she did nothing when one hundred thousand people were in desperate need of help from their true enemy, she'd already given up.

"I'll do it," she said.

"What do you think, Azi?" Leoquo asked, meeting her gaze.

Azi put her hand in Leoquo's, closing her fingers around his. He held her back. "I think your plan is probably the best chance we have at helping your people right now."

"But?"

"But neither my father nor my brother would consent to sending Alexia to a battle on foreign shores while we are still at war with the Ruby Kingdom. Especially one as dangerous as you propose.

"Alexia is, in their eyes, the greatest treasure of the Sapphire people." Azi met Alexia's gaze. "And I'd say she's more than that. Alexia is a world changer. A Tuya, a Linus Peacemaker, a Queen Alexia Leveria."

Azi cradled Leoquo's hand in both of hers. "I know that every day we delay, your people will suffer. In your place, I would do whatever I could to take away even one moment of their pain. And, and, I think their best hope is to await a unified Mahagan, Sapphire, and Ruby force. Three armies bound together will do better than sending the most important person in the world on a suicide mission."

Leoquo pulled his hand free, walked around the table and brushed his hand against Covademara. "I have heard about what happens when three armies challenge an Alexia. Sometimes, it takes one person to change the world in ways that many cannot." His teary eyes found Alexia. "Are you that person, Alexia Bluerose?"

Shivers ran along Alexia's spine. Her heart thumped and her hand drew to her sternum as she felt the weight of three nations being placed on her shoulders. She imagined the suffering occurring in the Mahogany Isles and tried to see the world through Leoquo's eyes. If her parents, if Azi, and everyone in the Sapphire Kingdom were relying on her, would she be able to wait a moon while they were murdered and raped for the mere possibility of an alliance? No. There was no way in Zamael's Hells that she would wait when there was hope that she could do something.

Alexia's voice cracked, "This cannot wait." She put up her hand to silence Azi's protests. "I'm not going to sit here and do nothing for the next moon while the Tamers destroy the lives of our allies."

The more the words rushed out, the more she believed in them, in herself, and in the truth of what she must do. "My life is not more important than every life in the Mahogany Isles and I have no intention of dying before I see the Ruby and the Sapphire whole again. We leave now and Halius cannot stop us. I will take the Redeemed Men with me as my personal guard. Perhaps I can convince the archwizard to join us too. We restore the Everrain and I return to Sapphirica in time to push Gideon toward peace." Alexia slammed her hands onto the table. "Then, Ruby, Sapphire, and Mahagan will forge the spear that shatters the Tamers and ensures that they never threaten everything and everyone we treasure ever again." She met Leoquo's eyes and sealed all the cracks in her earlier promise. "I will do this."

Azi sighed. "The flogging flower is blooming." The princess shook her head, but she bore a proud smile. "You would be making yourself a fugitive if you leave Leveria without my father or brother's blessing."

"No," Alexia countered. "I will use the archwizard's authority. I'm certain that Theos Stormkin will join us. Until then, Halius need not know the true purpose of my mission."

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The Lion Prince looked ghastly with vacant eyes and his mouth slightly opened. Alexia knew what that was like, to feel the pressure of protecting thousands and the knowing that you couldn't protect them all. "I am with you, Emir Leoquo," Alexia promised.

Her words did not ease the Lion Prince's anguish. Azi cocked her head and frowned at Leoquo as he bent over the war table. He braced himself as his breathing sped. Alexia recognized that too. She was no stranger to attacks of panic that seized the body. His six attendants fidgeted or rose, their concern apparent in their alarm. Alexia attuned herself to Leverith, finding it easy to feel love for this man who came to save his people. Tendrils of blue mist burst from her, gliding into Emir Leoquo.

"What is she doing to him?" one of the Mahagan women asked, hands clenched on her spear. The man beside her reached for his scimitar.

"No!" Leoquo said, gesturing for his guards to ease through his own panicked breathing.

"She is helping him," Azi said. "This is the power of Divine Leverith, used for healing."

Alexia focused on Leoquo's heart, imagining its proper pacing and functioning. She thought of coronary arteries cleansed of clots, of brokenness mended, of lungs drawing unobstructed air and working at the right speed. Alexia felt compassion for the man and his suffering, the suffering of an entire people, a man torn from his home. The compassion powered her love and amplified her magic.

This man had fought hard and lost heavily. He lost more than his words could share and he was afraid that he would only continue to lose. His heartbeat fueled his body, but his heart was broken. Alexia pushed Leverith's spirit into him as Leverith's Loop amplified her connection with Leoquo Mahagan.

When she finished, Leoquo collapsed onto the table.

"Emir Leoquo!" a windjumper said, reaching for him.

Her bondmate pulled her back. "Listen, Siana."

Leoquo sobbed, hiding in his muscular arms. "Father," he said.

Alexia put her hand on his shoulder. "You can cry," she said. Her own marigold, sunrise eyes were sharing in his sadness, but also lit with hope.

"I can't do it!" Leoquo wailed. He launched out of his seat, pacing the room like a lion about to roar.

"Emir!" another windjumper said, her voice stern.

Azi's voice was soft, but not without her usual firmness. "Leoquo, what are you not telling us?"

All six of his guards reacted, Alexia feeling their apprehension as it became her own.

Leoquo glared at the stern windjumper. "No, Masozi. I must be true. I must, even though it may be the death of our people." He swung his arm, lion cloak fluttering. The Lion Prince roared. "I won't be their slave!" Tears in his eyes, he took a few deep breaths, his snarl softening as he set his gaze on Alexia.

The windjumper, Masozi, collapsed into her seat, her jaw quavering, her eyes a plea to her prince. "Listen to the wizard," she pleaded. "She will do this for us."

"No!" Leoquo roared.

Masozi, and everyone else, flinched. The windjumper put her head on the table and sobbed. The man beside her wrapped his arm around her. The other four Islanders looked dejected, broken, resigned, like they were headed to the gallows. Alexia was missing something.

"Tell us the meaning of this," Azi demanded, razor sharp.

"You say that your life is not more important than the lives of all my people," Leoquo said. "And yet, that is a price I am unable to pay."

"I know what it is like to watch others die because of my plans, Leoquo," Alexia said, softly as she attuned to Leverith. "But I can't do nothing while your people need me. As long as there is hope that I can help the Mahagan, I choose to help. That choice is mine. Not yours. Besides," she hesitated, choosing not to share that she thought the Tamers would rather capture her than kill her, "we can do this, Leoquo. We can free your people. Together."

Azi stepped between Alexia and Leoquo, a figure taller than either of them, her hand protectively over Alexia's heart. "What are you not telling us?"

Masozi shook her head, keeping her silence. The others frowned, whether they looked down or at Leoquo. Each bondpair clung together as if in mourning.

Leoquo sighed, the wind blowing out of his sails as he slumped back into his chair. "Sorry, father," he whispered. He sniffled, wiped at his eyes, then met Azi's glare. "You both deserve truth."

"Then provide it, Emir Leoquo," Azi said, arms folded in front of her chest.

"The Shadow gave my people an ultimatum. We could either be exterminated or I could deliver Daichin ezen Celegan his empress and we could live as slaves to the Chimaera."

Empress.

Alexia trembled as the pieces fell into place. She was back in the ogre cave, watching the silver-eyed ogre refuse to end her life. She was staring down a nacobon who charged toward another target. The Celegans didn't want to kill her. They wanted to claim her. She was Daichin's Chosen, just as Tuya had been Gurg's.

"He calls you the 'Great Dreamer,'" Leoquo explained. "The Chimaera believes you will help him unify the world and restore wholeness."

Alexia clenched her fists, but her anger wasn't toward Leoquo Mahagan who had come so close to fulfilling the ultimatum but chose her life over the lives of every Mahagan, his own father included. No. This wasn't Leoquo's fault. She gained a new level of respect for him, believing that very few people in this world would've done as he'd done.

Her anger was for the man who would tame the world and claim he unified it. The man who would name her his empress as he destroyed everything she loved. Her Elior would fight the Chimaera to the ends of the world. And so would she.

"He wants me to help him destroy until everything is the same, leaving behind a broken, empty world. That is the opposite of wholeness." Alexia felt the fires of Seraxa fill Aurora until the staff gleamed orange and heat overflowed into her body. The air in the room chilled and even the Mahagans noticed that summer's heat turned into winter's chill. She shot forth toward Leoquo. "The chimaera will burn upon the white shores of Caleel!"

Even before, Alexia finished, Azi was stomping toward them. "You would have delivered Alexia to this man! I should have Azureknights march you back to the sea."

Alexia barred Azi's path. The princess could have tossed her aside, but the look of grim determination on Alexia's face stopped her rage. Alexia knelt by the fallen prince, and put a hand on his shoulder as she leaned on her glowing staff. She gazed into his crying eyes. "You have lost so much and it feels impossible to keep moving when your heart is broken. Despite your pain, you have been trying to save your people, knowing that your only option was to trade the freedom of one stranger for the lives of all your people. I doubt anyone in your position would have made a different choice. Yet," Alexia's voice choked, "even the life of one stranger was too much to pay because you are the embodiment of all Queen Alexia Leveria taught. You, Leoquo, are your people's greatest treasure and you will free them. And your people are my treasures too, and I will still go with you when we reclaim your Isles."

Leoquo muttered for forgiveness to his people, to his father, to someone named Ulani, and to Alexia and Azi. Alexia embraced him, releasing Seraxa and retrieving Leverith once more. She let the Divine of Love's spirit seep into Leoquo's back, where she closed her grip on his lion cape

"I am so sorry," he said. "You who carries the Fourteenth's spirit as well as her name." He looked over Alexia's shoulder toward Azi.

"I have earned your scorn, Azurianna Sapphire. You are the most beautiful of pearls and I betrayed your warmth. I will swim in my shame as long as I live."

Azi sighed. "The most beautiful of pearls?"

Alexia let go of Leoquo, knowing when to move aside.

The Lion Prince nodded, wiping at his eyes. "I have loved, Blue Princess, but never have I seen with my eyes one as lovely." His guardians made scandalized gasps. "The only thing that matches your beauty is the strength of your spirit."

Azi fought against her smile. She lost. "And the Mahagan shall have my strength," she said. "But, if we do this, it will not be any half-hearted, smooth-brained plan that will get Alexia captured by that monster. No matter how many times you use your sweet words on me, Emir Leoquo Mahagan, I will still bludgeon your skull with a rock and feed you to the ocean if you get her hurt."

Leoquo's chuckle made Azi snort. It was really easy for Alexia to hold onto her attunement with Leverith.

"I will protect your flower, Azi, for I have seen how she blooms."

"Blooming beautiful," Azi said. "And I mean it. I will kill you if you betray her. Even if I'm dead too, I will find a way to finish you off."

"I'm certain you'd be the one to figure it out too."

"Azi's stubborn enough to see it done," Alexia agreed, smiling, feeling loved.

Azi reached for the maps. "We cannot start with the Everrain. Nor can we allow Prince Halius to catch wind of our plans. I think we need to extract your people from the other eight isles, bring them, here…" she slammed her hand down on Cherin's Point.

"First," Leoquo interrupted, "I need to offer my gratitude." He extended his hand to Alexia. "Thank you, Alexia Bluerose."

Alexia seized his hand, then pulled him into a hug. "Thank you," she returned, offering sincere appreciation for this man that appreciated Azi and chose to warn them about the trap rather than sell her to the Tamers for the lives of his entire nation.

The door to the war room creaked open. When Alexia lifted her eyes, her heart froze.

Prince Halius framed the doorway wearing a dazzling blue surcoat affixed with a silver cape. His arms crossed, his green eyes burrowed into Leoquo Mahagan's back. Alexia released Leoquo from the embrace, but the damage was done. She saw the same look on Halius's face that she had seen so many times as a child and for a flicker before she had left Saphirhold. The possessiveness flattened his handsome face, set his jaw firm. Those green eyes contemplated cruelty.

Alexia knew one thing, like all who've been stalked by an abuser. This was the beast that had tormented her youth and would claim her future if he could. Alexia was in the den of the predator, and she was still his prey.

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