(eng) Morgan Rice - Of Crowns and Glory 07 by Ruler Rival Exile

Author:Ruler, Rival, Exile [Ruler, Rival, Exile]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

***

It took time for Ceres to make her way down to the docks, and to gather supplies. The people on Haylon were as helpful as she could have hoped for: Iakos provided her with a small boat that she would be able to handle alone, and gave orders for rations to be brought to fill it. Even so, it was a long way down to the spot where it waited, and it took more time for her to gather clothes and armor, weapons and equipment.

She was still loading the boat when she saw her brother and father approaching, Akila limping along on crutches beside them. Jeva was there, still looking around watchfully for threats.

And then there was Thanos. Ceres had hoped to avoid this, but she should have known better. Of course she wouldn’t be able to leave without him finding out.

“Ceres?” he said, hurrying forward. “What are you doing? Where are you going?”

Ceres did her best to explain.

“There’s a place nearby where I might be able to regain my powers,” she said. She didn’t say how dangerous it was. She didn’t want to worry them. “We’ll need them if we’re going to fight off Felldust.”

Thanos frowned at that. “And so you were just going to leave? Without saying goodbye?”

Ceres could hear the hurt there. The same hurt that had been there earlier, when she had said no to his proposal.

“I didn’t… this is complicated,” Ceres said. “It’s dangerous. I thought you might try to stop me from doing this, and we need this.”

That wasn’t all of it, not by a long shot, but it was the part that she suspected they might understand. Even putting it like that, Ceres could see the hesitation on their faces.

“We don’t need you to go without telling us,” her father said. “You don’t have to do everything alone, Ceres.”

“Yes,” Thanos agreed, and Ceres could see the determination there. “Let us help. I could come with you and make sure that you come out of this safely.”

Ceres quieted him the only way she could think of: by getting out of the boat and kissing him until the sheer surprise of it seemed to slow him a little.

“You can’t come,” she said. “You know you can’t. You’re needed here.”

“We could still come,” her brother said from the side. “We want to help you, Ceres.”

Ceres shook her head. This wasn’t what she had wanted. Already, she could feel tears welling up in her eyes, because this was getting more difficult by the moment. She’d hoped to be away before anyone realized, simply to avoid how hard this goodbye could become.

“You can’t, Sartes. None of you can. Felldust will be coming, and you need to make sure that Haylon will be ready. Father, Sartes, you need to help give it the weapons it needs. The combatlords are needed to train the fighters. Thanos, they need you to help talk the Empire’s forces into helping. This is what I have to do.”

Some of them looked doubtful. Thanos looked as though he wanted to continue to argue, but Jeva stepped forward.

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