Warrior of the Moon

12

Serena did not remember a whole lot of the Realm's geography. When she was a child, the royal tutor would give her lessons every day, and most of the time, she would sit through them patiently and strive to understand her future kingdom better. Other times, Tarin would have to go train with the armies, and it would be much harder for her to concentrate. Not because she worried about him, but because when he was there, he would whisper answers to questions in her ear when the tutor was not looking, and be so intent while listening to her think aloud that she was more determined than ever to learn and get things right.

She knew that Azure was at the very southern edge of the Realm, supposedly to make it more easily defensible... Of course, that strategy did not really work when the attack came from inside the castle itself. She knew a few of the major cities and their general whereabouts; Estrell to the far North, Reave in nearly the exact middle of the Realm's boundaries - but she would not know how to get to any of them. Fortunately, that did not matter for what she had planned.

More than anything, of course, in this dangerous situation, she wanted to find Tarin. The problem was, she did not know where he was - though she had bluffed that she did when Tank asked - and since Muiress still had her magic, she had no way to find out (even if she had managed to figure out a spell to track him). Her best guess would be that he was camped somewhere around Azure, since Tank had been boasting about how the throne room was their leader's new base of operations. Serena assumed Iliss, or Pevana, or some other like-minded villain had taken advantage of the surprise and confusion caused by Serena's own accidental demolition of her home. Tarin and his Wolves had not been there, and nobody had been prepared for such an event. It would have been the perfect time for them to strike. And if a traitorous Fae or an Infernal were sitting on Serena's throne, Tarin would not be far away.

She wanted to go to him, but she knew it would be a fool's errand. She could not head right into the base of Infernal operations and expect to be able to talk herself out of being taken prisoner as easily as she had Tank and Garnoc. These two mercenaries were gullible and greedy, but the closer she got to the castle, the more likely she was to come across the more trained personal guards Iliss, or whomever, had kept for themselves. And then she would be screwed.

The only other place she really wanted to go was Lake Muiress. Surely her great-grandmother would send water nymphs out of the lake to help her escape the clutches of these two Infernals, and after they were dealt with, she would be exactly where she wanted to be. Muiress could return her magic to her and tell her whatever she needed to know in order to reclaim her throne.

However, Lake Muiress was on the western edge of Azure itself, and there was literally no way to get there without passing quite close to the castle, which she was not willing to risk. She imagined Tarin's rage if he knew she was even back in the Realm at this time, let alone in this situation. Then she imagined how much it would flare if she was captured and he learned of it. His fury would light Lymeryth on fire if he let it out. And then he would come to her and try to save her, but Iliss would prepare for that, and he might be hurt, or killed. Serena was unwilling to risk that possibility most of all.

So she had to come up with an alternative: one that would keep her away from the Infernal base, but still provide her assistance, since she had no way of getting out of this captive situation except her wits. Even those would not help her for much longer if Tank and Garnoc did not get the results they wanted without much fuss.

When Tank asked her where they were headed, she told him the only city besides Azure she and Tarin had really ever talked much about in the last few weeks at all: Serenity Point, Tarin's childhood hometown. She had not had much time to think without looking suspicious, and it was the best she could come up with in the moment. It was to the northwest of Azure and they would be able to travel a good ways away from the castle and the Infernal-infested city to get there. Though Serena did not have any intention of making that whole trip.