The world tilted a little as El stepped through the portal, the others beyond already leaning against a trunk to keep their balance. Other than Sol, of course; that man stood as stable as any of the great trees around them.

  “So glad… I didn’t eat before… we came in,” Laze said between deep breaths.

  “Thought you would’ve learned that after the first time,” Nidina said.

  “Or the third,” Dayne added. “… or the fourth.”

  “Not my fault we always practiced after lunch,” Laze said, but the color had returned to her face, and she was standing upright again.

  “Everybody good now?” El asked, the vertigo and nausea having passed almost as quickly as it set in.

  “Yes,” Dayne said simply, the big man stretching his arms above his head and cracking his knuckles.

  Wait…

  “Dayne, where’s the Ember?” El asked, looking at his empty hands.

  “In my pack,” Dayne said, thumbing over his shoulder to the slim tactical packs they all carried.

  “You put the burning stick in your pack?” Laze asked.

  “Yes.”

  “The one on fire?”

  “Yes. Pack is fireproof. Leaves my hands free.”

  El couldn’t really argue with his logic. “Your other supplies? Your food?”

  “In a separate compartment.”

  “He’s right, it works,” Sol said, and El turned to look at him. The man had one of the packs open in front of him, flickering light like something on fire coming from within. “Good thinking, Dayne.”

  “Only Dayne would think of that. Just saying,” Laze said.

  “So, we’re really going further this time?” Nidina asked, her head swiveling slowly as she gazed between the wide tree trunks.

  “A lot further,” El said.

  “How long will it take us to get to the exit?”

  “Sol?” El directed the question to the man.

  “A few hours,” he answered.

  “Does anything live in here?” Laze asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Sol said, then cocked his head to the side. “Well, I’ve never seen anything.”

  “Might’ve been the three feet of snow on the ground before,” El said.

  “There was snow in here?” Laze said.

  “A lot of it. Up to my knees at the minimum. Up past my waist at other points,” El explained.

  “The storm was my medium to travel the In-Between,” Sol said. “Still, I never even saw tracks in the snow. I believe we’re alone in here.”

  “Doesn’t hurt to keep our eyes open,” Nexin said. “But, El, this is your show.”

  El looked at her brother, then nodded slowly. Her, giving him orders? Officially?! Ho ho ho. “Well,” she started, unable to keep the smug smile from crossing her lips. “Sol, you said the two exits should be close to each other?”

  “Yes,” the man said.

  “Okay, Sol, you’re in the lead. Take us to our portal first so we know the way, then as planned, we’ll head to your exit and drop you off,” El explained.

  “You’re sure you can find our exit again without him?” Nidina asked.

  “Definitely,” El said. “Once I know where a doorway is, it’s really easy to get back to. Not sure why…”

  “Connections,” Sol filled in.

  “Behind Sol, standard diamond formation,” El continued. “I’ll take point, Nexin in the rear. Laze and Nidina, you’ve got our flanks, and Dayne, you’re in the middle with the Ember. We’ll move fast, but not top speed. No need to rush and crash face-first into one of these trees. Take it from me, they’re made of sturdy stuff.”

  “Looks like you’re the precious cargo, big guy,” Laze said to Dayne, gently elbowing him in the ribs.

  “I’ve got the spices El asked me to bring for cooking,” Dayne answered.

  “Very precious cargo. I don’t want to live off these energy bars for a week if we don’t have to,” El said, thumbing over her shoulder at her pack. While the others just looked at her and shook their heads—Whatever—she ignited her wings. Without needing the electrum nubs on her shoulders, it almost felt like the blue-flame wings burst right out of her shoulder blades. A flex stretched them to their full width, almost sixteen feet from tip to tip, and small feathers made of joined snowflakes slowly fell.

  Around her, the others followed suit, four sets of red-flame wings igniting, while Sol spread his own wings made of solid ice. Despite the appearance, the wings would easily let him keep up with the Firestorm members.

  “You and your brother not needing electrum is just cheating.” Nidina straightened her weapon harness with six attached electrum hilts.

  “Believe me, I know exactly how you feel,” El said, all too easily remembering what it was like sparring with her brother before her Spark had been changed. Another second to make sure everybody was ready, and she lifted gently off the ground. Thanks to the magic of her wings, it wasn’t like they needed to flap, and she gracefully rose fifteen feet in the air.

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  “Follow me,” Sol said, twisting around when he reached her height, and then shot off between the trees.

  “Let’s go,” El said, bursting ahead. Sol wasn’t moving so fast she needed to flare her wings—and that would make it more difficult for everybody other than Nexin to keep up anyway—but he wasn’t exactly going slow. Wings sparkling like diamonds from the light filtering down through the towering treetops, he got more than a hundred feet before El and the others were moving.

  Savoring the feel of the wind against her, even though the magic of her frost armor shielded her from the worst of it, El zipped around the first tree. A duck and twist got her under a low branch, then she swerved back and forth around one tree and the next.

  “What happened to going in a straight line?” Laze asked over the magic communication that connected them through their armor.

  “No fun in that,” El said. “When was the last time they really let us out to just fly?”

  “Next, she’s going to ask us to race,” Nidina said.

  “Which is why she put herself in the front of the formation,” Nexin added. “She can’t lose.”

  “See? Cheating.”

  El half-ignored the good-natured banter of her friends as she weaved among the wide trees. Most of them were easily twenty feet thick, if not bigger, but there was more than enough space to have a bit of fun with it. Last time she’d traveled the In-Between, it had been snowing heavily—Oh, and I was getting chased by flame-spitting monsters and the Pycrin golem—it was almost like a different world. Now, the green grass whipping past beneath her stood tall and proud, not a hint it had been buried in the snow, while shafts of sunlight pierced the canopy.

  “Does nothing really live here?” Laze asked. “It almost seems too pretty to be empty.”

  “Maybe that’s why it’s so pretty?” Dayne asked. “Nothing to ruin it.”

  The others quieted after that comment, and the scenery flashed past them as they raced through the trees. Sol led them up to an altitude of around two hundred feet—though the tops of the trees still seemed impossibly far away—then straight along a path only he could see from there.

  “You said there were tunnels here,” Nidina spoke up. “I don’t see any. Just trees, trees, and… yeah, more trees.”

  “Tunnels was the easiest way to describe it. Currents would be another way. We need to follow the connections from one entrance to the next. And, while it’s possible to get lost, every path you take would lead to an exit. Just not necessarily the one you’re looking for,” Sol explained.

  “And, El, you can’t see these currents?” Laze asked.

  “Not until I’ve traveled them at least once. I can still feel the one that’d take us back to Guld,” El said, pointing off to their left. “Though I wouldn’t suggest going back there anytime soon.”

  “Our last visit didn’t end so well,” Laze agreed.

  “You think that giant fortress-golem is still stomping around?” Nidina asked.

  El winced just thinking about the monstrosity the Guldish had built by sacrificing their entire population to infuse it with their Sparks. Like a literal fortress. It’d been a miracle El had managed to slip through the cannon-fire to steal and escape with the Ember. Burn it, if the Pycrin golem hadn’t been battling Sol and distracting the fortress, she probably never would’ve even made it that far.

  “Without the Ember there to draw power from, it may eventually fall asleep,” Nexin said. “At least, that’s the prevailing theory.”

  “Sounds more like a prevailing hope to me,” Nidina said.

  “That too.”

  “Felps is working on a way to reverse the transfer,” El said. “But… he’s not sure if anything he can do will be able to restore their bodies. The best he might be able to offer would be a release from being trapped within the golem.”

  “Killing them?” Laze asked. “There has to be another way. Didn’t he invent the process? He must have something.”

  “Turns out he didn’t invent it,” El said as she tilted vertically to slip through the tight space between two trees. As soon as she passed through—a small trail of frost from her armor telling her the fit was just a bit tighter than she’d expected—she evened back out. “He said he found notes on it in some old records from one of our invasions of another country.”

  “Huh. Do you know which country? Maybe we can ask when we return the Ember,” Laze said.

  “Didn’t have a chance to find out,” El said. “I’ll ask again when we get back in a week.”

  “Even if we do manage to free the Guldish people from the golems, that isn’t going to instantly make peace between our countries,” Nidina said. “We’ve been fighting so long, I can’t imagine them ever forgiving us.”

  “Maybe, but it’s a start,” El said. “Just like returning these two Embers we’ve got with us.”

  “This is a big change,” Nexin said. “Both inside Pycrin and outside. People aren’t going to trust us, and with good reason. Our history is full of fierce battles and underhanded betrayals. There are places we’re going to be returning Embers to that no longer have civilizations to go with them. Because we wiped them out.”

  “We have a lot to answer for,” Laze said quietly.

  “Not exactly true,” Nexin said. “Our country may have a lot to answer for, but each of you were a big part of the change to get us back on the right path. You were the ones who realized something was wrong—that the Church was controlling us—and fought back. I’m not saying you shouldn’t learn from the mistakes of what we’ll see, but also don’t try to shoulder it all yourselves. You can be accountable without being responsible for our history.”

  “Look at you, trying to be all big-brotherly,” El said, glancing back over her shoulder to smile at her sibling.

  “Nexin is right,” Sol said. “There are few in this world with more reasons to hate your country than me. Your ancestors took… everything from me. I was the only survivor among my people. The only one. I watched the predecessors of the Firestorm plummet from the sky and commit atrocity after atrocity. Massacre would be an understatement. Even after they took the Ember, they didn’t stop the killing.”

  “Sol… I…” El started. He’d hardly ever talked about himself—And this is probably why.

  “I’m not telling you this to make you feel bad…” Sol said.

  “Sorry to say you failed on that part,” Nidina grumbled.

  “Let me try again. Do you know why I’m here?” he asked.

  “To return the Embers…?” Laze half-asked.

  “Yes, but here. With you? Do you think I need your help?” Sol asked.

  “Still not making us feel any better,” Nidina said flatly.

  “Sol didn’t need to stop the storm,” Nexin spoke up. “After his goddess defeated the Pyre, he could’ve let the storm come and bury Balacin. He could’ve frozen our whole city. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, exactly,” Sol said. “Then, over the next years… decades… centuries, whatever it took while you remained on ice, I could’ve returned the Embers at my own pace. It would’ve been slower, but safe. Only when I was finished would I have released the storm.”

  “But you didn’t do that,” El said.

  “No, I didn’t. Another option was presented to me,” Sol said.

  “Working with us.”

  “But you basically just said you hate us,” Laze said.

  “No, and this is exactly what Nexin was saying. I… hated your country,” Sol said. “What it had done to me and my people. And when I first arrived in Balacin, even as numb as I was from my goddess’s power, I still hated everybody from Pycrin.”

  “What changed?” Nidina asked.

  “Somebody was nice to me,” Sol said. “It may sound stupid, that such a small thing made such a big difference, but it reminded me that while people make up a country, the country itself doesn’t define the individuals. It opened my eyes and let me see things I didn’t expect. Let me see a different, better path. One free of the Church’s influence.

  “And, frankly, if this doesn’t work out, I will just drop another storm on your city.”

  “Thought you said you couldn’t do that!” Nidina said.

  “I’d find a way,” Sol said, but then he looked back at the others following behind him, and he smiled. “Getting to know you all better over the last few months, though, I don’t think that’ll be necessary. Except for Teth. That man’s rhymes are a crime that need to be stopped.”

  “Can’t argue with you there,” Nidina said.