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“Can we go and see mummy before we go back to Gaia?” Salia asked while they were preparing to leave. “I want to say goodbye.”

“Of course.” Matthias smiled down at her. “I want to tell her what happened anyway. She needs to know.” He looked over at Lydia. “Any luck getting your mentor to talk to you? I want to know what we’re up against before we try your plan.”

“So do I but I’m afraid not.” Lydia shook her head. “She’s calmed down a bit but she says she needs to think.” She frowned and wrinkled her nose. “There’s something she’s not telling me. I get the feeling she already knew the prison was breeched but not that he was around as well.”

“Hmm?” Matthias gave her a quizzical look.

“Something slipped out while she was panicking. She said ‘not him as well’ – I tried to ask her as well as what? She clammed up.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “That does sound like she knew something.”

“It does,” Alaryia agreed. “And that doesn’t just sound like the breech but I’m not sure what else it might be.” She rose to her feet. “I’m going to have to talk to Takilyan about it. He was directly involved stopping Likadrian and in the aftermath. He might know more and he’s not the kind to panic.” She tapped her tongue against her teeth thoughtfully. “I’ll ask Ystelyan if he knows anyone who might know as well when he finally wakes up.” She looked over at Lyrrekka. “We need to arrange for you to meet those people from my court, as well.”

Lyrrekka nodded. “I’m going back to Taloa with Matthias. Send an imp and we’ll arrange something.”

***

“Moppet!” Valeria swept Salia into her arms and hugged her. “You’re going back to Gaia now?”

“As soon as we’ve told you what happened, yes,” Matthias said. “We’d stay a while longer but I don’t want to give the Lavernes any time to get into position.”

“Yes, from what you’ve told me that would be a very bad thing.” She sat back down on the throne with Salia on her lap. “So what happened?”

After he finished, she hugged her daughter tightly and frowned. “Is it selfish that my first thought is ‘well at least he’s not after here’?”

“Just a little,” Matthias said. “But I think it’s understandably so.” He cocked his head at Salia. “Between the Lavernes, Emms and these Lost Ones of his, things are likely to be a little hairy on Earth. Are you sure you want us to take Salia back there? It might not be safe.”

Valeria considered the question then nodded. “Nowhere is safe at the moment and I trust you to protect her. You’ve got a lot of powerful people around you. And now the Core can’t block it, you can gate her here if you get into a battle.” She paused as her mother interjected a thought. “Besides, I want you to find her heart friend before someone else does, and she might be able to help with that.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Matthias said. “Little Arava as well. Except we never had chance to ask Ystelyan about giving us the Seeker’s pendant and I don’t know of any alternatives.”

“I’ll send him an imp,” Kyle said. “I doubt he’ll say no. I’m not sure if there are alternatives but if there are, they aren’t as reliable as the pendant. Mother might know.”

“It depends what you want to do,” Lyrrekka said. “We should be able to find Salia’s heart friend easily since she’ll be with us, but Arava’s still at Caerdu. Still since I doubt you’re hiding her the way you hid the knights, it should be doable.”

“Well, we’ll do that as soon as we’re sure it’s safe – or safeish – then,” Matthias said. “The first thing we need to do is get everyone together and find out if Carl managed to get any of the Laverne’s satellite families on our side.” He wrapped an arm around Sonia’s shoulders. “And you can go and sleep – you look like you still need it.”

“I’m fine, Matt,” she said. “I barely hurt at all and just listening won’t hinder my recovery. Will it, Sarah?”

“She’s right, it shouldn’t. Slow it down a little but not stop it anyway.” Sarah said. “But you do look trashed, Sonia. A nap would do you good and Nephele can bring you up to speed when you wake up.”

Sonia glared at her and threw up her arms. “Okay, you win. I’ll nap. Now let’s get going before something else happens.”

“Do you sense something?” he asked urgently.

“Not right now but something’s coming.” She shook her head.

“Okay, let’s go then.”

“Good luck.” Valeria rose to her feet again, giving Salia another hug and a gentle push towards Matthias before heading over to give Alban a hug as well.

He waited until Salia joined the group before opening the gate back to Earth.

 A/N: The ebook and paperback are now available! Check out the Books page for formats and places where you can buy them.

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Karen shot a thought at Alban then ducked under Mitakrian’s thorn whip and swung at his shins with her axes. His shield flared, turning the blow – though she nearly reached his skin – and she was forced to roll clear as roots suddenly erupted from the rock around her and attempted to impale her. Karen suppressed a smirk as she clambered back to her knees and Mitakrian strode towards her. His attention was so riveted on her that he didn’t realise it was a feint until the first of Alban’s glowing arrows caught him in the back; a second followed it before he could turn and a third took him in the throat when he did. None of them were a fatal wound for a dragon but the fact they were getting through his shield meant it must be weakening.

You two make a good team, Alaryia said in her head. And I think we’ve got him now. Read the rest of this entry »

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When her father had said it would hurt, he hadn’t been kidding. Karen lay in the fetal position with her head covered by both her pillow and the duvet to cut out any hint of light. The only good thing about it was that the physical pain was distracting her from her returned memories. She’d have to face them soon enough, of course, but for now there was just the headache. Read the rest of this entry »

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Dariad gasped as the throne projected an image of Ystelyan appearing just outside the wards and promptly sinking to the ground, bright blue blood seeping from his wounds. Rilletta knelt beside him and helped him to stand and they hobbled towards the gate. Daniel followed them and was also bleeding, though his wounds looked much less severe.

“Let them in! Ystelyan-mirian and Daniel-idan need this quickly.” Halia grabbed a jug of the reheated antidote and raced towards the doors. Read the rest of this entry »

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Mitakrian did try and follow Sonia and Kyle but Ystelyan must have put up a barrier. The black dragon disappeared, then reappeared looking furious and lunged wildly at Ystelyan, a strange mixed storm of thorns and ice shards flying before him. Read the rest of this entry »

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Karen’s memories were returning slowly but it was going to take a while – possibly all of the remaining school holiday – to reclaim them all. Her mother could only work on the memory cap when the other’s weren’t there, and worse, she would collapse after only a little work on it and have to spend the next day in bed. Read the rest of this entry »

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Matthias and his group got back not long after Kyle’s arrival. As Dariad let them through the wards, he couldn’t help noticing Halia wasn’t with them. He felt an unexpected pang of worry for the dragon until he realised they didn’t seem upset – though Matthias and Lydia did look anxious. Alaryia must have sent her somewhere.

As soon as they reached the throne room, Matthias and Lydia rushed over to where Sarah was treating Sonia with help from two of Dariad’s best healers. Of course they would have been aware of Sonia being in danger, wouldn’t they? Read the rest of this entry »

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Sonia responded before Karen could and a shield of wind – like black tinted smoke – surrounded them, sweeping the ice shards away. Karen blinked and frowned. Hadn’t Ystelyan said he had a life affinity? The fact that what appeared to be a whip of thorny vines was growing from his wrist certainly suggested he did, but then why was he throwing ice around?

Worry about that later, Kaz! Her mother snapped in her head as she swept aside a second blast. We’ve more important things to worry about right now.

Mitakrian scowled at Sonia but didn’t have time to launch a third attack before Rilletta and Ystelyan both took advantage of his distraction to attack him. It was a good job as well, Karen decided, because Sonia’s shield collapsed almost as soon as the second attack died. She gave a pitiful groan and collapsed in Karen’s arms. A quick scan confirmed Karen’s fears: the amount of power she’d used to block the attack had torn the wounds in her nearly healed essence open again. Not as badly as it had been, but enough to hurt. Read the rest of this entry »

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It didn’t take Karen long after she woke up in her bed at home to spot the gaps in her memory. Whatever had caused them had tried very hard to paper over the cracks to leave no trace, but it had failed abysmally. Something bad had happened to her and she wanted to know what. She lay on her bed and picked at the edges of it with her own mind affinity.

“Ah, you’re awake,” her father said from where he was sat by her bed. “And stop that. You’ll hurt yourself.”

“There’s a giant gap in my memory!” she said. “Something terrible happened… but…” she trailed off and looked up at her father. “Do you know what happened?” Read the rest of this entry »

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The sound of something shattering below them made Mela jump. She looked across the bridge and saw that Ystelyan had tensed and was staring alertly down the stairs.

“W-was that–” she began.

“Mitakrian shattered the door wards,” Rilletta said before she could finish. “Lyrrekka-ida, will you defend the bridge in case he gets past Yst?” Read the rest of this entry »