Read Phoenix in Shadow - eARC for Free Online

have been greatly missed.”
    “Many thanks, Vanstell.” Lythos took several bites, sipped at water, and seemed to finally begin to relax. “Milady Kyri Vantage, I bring to you a message from your aunt, your middle namesake Victoria.”
    Formality; it is an important message, then.
    Kyri had clearly caught that implication as well. “May I have the message, then?”
    From within a case bound to his armor, Lythos withdrew a gem and placed it in Kyri’s hand. Tobimar saw Poplock rise up in startlement. Gem of Speaking; haven’t seen one of those since I saw one conveyed by linkstone to Toron himself. They’re expensive and used only for carrying messages of great import.
    Kyri took the gem and held it tightly. “I am Kyri Vantage. Show me the message,” she said.
    Tobimar had only seen Victoria Vantage once, from a distance, in front of the Palace of the Dragon, but from that glimpse and the portraits around the house he could instantly recognize the older woman—hair streaked with silver, proud and sculpted features not terribly different from those of Kyri herself—who suddenly appeared in the air before them. She wore a brown and green travel outfit, with a pack perched on her shoulders and a staff in her hand.
    “Kyri,” Victoria Vantage said, “As you have this message, you already know that—by great good fortune—Lythos has returned to us. I hope this message finds you well and...successful in your quest.
    “I had hoped ,” and her voice was wry, “to return to Vantage Fortress relatively soon; I hardly intended to leave you with no support, even if the Dragon King could not aid you, and I was certain I could find someone to watch over Urelle while I returned to assist you.
    “However...Urelle took things into her own hands, and has run away.”
    Kyri gasped in shock. “ Run away ? Oh, Myrionar, no!”
    Victoria Vantage shook her head. “Now, don’t panic. At least, not terribly much.” The apparently apropos comment reminded Tobimar strongly of the message he’d received from Khoros, where every comment he thought to make had already been anticipated and answered by the ancient mage.
    “She didn’t run away from despair, nor to try and catch up with you,” Victoria continued, and Tobimar saw Kyri relax the tiniest bit. She doesn’t want to have that responsibility, of her sister’s safety, added to her problems. “Unfortunately, it is, in a way, your fault. And mine, I admit.”
    The tension was back, as the recorded message went on. “You of course recall young Ingram and Quester, who helped escort us here to Zarathanton. I also have little doubt that you noticed that Urelle seemed...rather taken with the young man. Which I cannot entirely blame her for, he is formidable, polite, and rather pretty. But a few weeks after you had left...well, obviously I had to inform your sister of what had happened. Keeping such secrets from her would be an insult to one of our family, and she had to know why you had left, and what it meant.
    “In any case, she was as you might guess more than a bit annoyed—one might even say quite put out—that we chose to keep her out of the adventure to avenge Rion and the rest. I believe she actually went out one night and tried to get Myrionar to call her as well!”
    Nervous as she obviously was, Kyri laughed at that. “Oh, she would . And I’m half-surprised Myrionar didn’t.”
    “Well, a few weeks after that, Ingram received a courier message from home—from Aegeia itself, one that had been spelled to find him—and it apparently contained dire news of his homeland. I of course gave him leave to return home—we had found a decent household by then—but when he did—”
    Kyri finished the line along with her distant Aunt, “—Urelle had gone with him.”
    “Without warning,” her aunt added. “I don’t believe this was a romantic action—or not entirely. Urelle’s a bit more dramatic in that area than you, Kyri, but she’s not witless. I