"... I wanted to make sure you were alright."
"Ha."
"I saw you leaving; the night that you and the others fled. I wanted to be sure you made it."
"And why do you suddenly care for my wellbeing?"
"I care very little for you, princess." The words were steeled over, the feigned kindness forgotten. "I care more for the end of Firica's reign, and know you want the same. The end of the Council. Their mage discovered me — likely sometime shortly after your own lover. My guise could not be held much longer."
"You haven't answered my question."
"Why here?" Rosa asked, walking again to the other side of the girl. "Because we have a chance of taking them together."
"And what if I want nothing to do with your war?"
The girl's breath tickled Amelia's ear as she whispered, "I'm not sure that you have much of a choice." When Amelia flinched away, the breath continued. "Besides... I have a feeling you want to see the end of Andrew and his councilmen as much as I do. And you, Amelia Kiari... have the exact resources we would need to make that happen."
Amelia had meant to let her words drift behind her as she exited the room, but in her hesitance to speak to Rosa, no further sound came. Rosa's words were meant for manipulation, and so, to Amelia, they meant nothing. It was in that time the younger decided she did not want to know under what circumstances Rosa had appeared again, nor did she wish to hear of what further schemes she had been devising. She could not see herself taking revenge on Andrew. Their motives were worlds apart.
"I want nothing to do with that world. I am exactly where I belong. And in case you hadn't noticed, we can not afford to risk the lives we have left."
"Don't be a fool. It would only take one Voerr to destroy hundreds of Firican li—"
"That is not the way we live here." Amelia felt insulted right to her core. "How dare you taint our spirits for your benefit?"
"They're blatantly attacking your kind! It is for your benefit that I recommend retaliation."
The last sentence was ignored. "And 'they' will be dealt with accordingly. But I will not consider risking Constentine for some blind attempt at overthrowing the government that you've always wanted to control." Amelia paused, feeling strengthened with the tone that she would have been so scared to use before. "I lost years of my life at the mercy of your rulers. I will not have the same for anyone else."
Neither figure, for a long moment, with answer or not, moved a hairsbreadth in any direction... and then Amelia, with great freedom, walked away.
Feren was in town when she found him stepping through the snow beside a form she did not recognize, then standing over a small family tending to their frosted branches. Feren was not the one to look when she approached, and he did not turn until a fist full of snow was smushed on top of his head, and those around them let out assorted chuckles. He turned, confused. She met his look with a smile.
The powder was shaken from his already-silvered hair, then Amelia took his hand. They remained among other voerr the rest of the day.
***
Twelve days they'd spent in Constentine when new Voerr arrived from the north. Rosa had been there a total of eight days. Teeknan and Varkner gone just as long. From Firica's capital it had taken them four nights to cross the Constentinian border, and Remalda was less than a day's ride from that border. Amelia began to grow worried. How much longer would it take? They weren't supposed to go all the way to the Capital.
Chapter Twenty: The Unfortunate Reply
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