The Lost Queen (Book 1 of The Lost Queen Series)

Chapter Twenty-Two

"I saw where they were holding Sterling."

Kai sat back on his heels as the words sank in. The mere two hours of sleep he'd managed had not been nearly enough, and his thoughts felt fuzzy around the edges.

"What is it?" Kestrel asked, coming over to join them. "What's happened? Did you have a vision?"

Instead of answering, Seraiah asked a question of her own. "Have you ever heard of a seer being able to interact with their visions?"

Kai scrubbed a hand down his face, trying to think through the fog. "No, I don't think so."

"What do you mean by interact?" Kestrel asked.

"Like touch things or talk to someone and have them see and hear you," Seraiah said, tilting her head to look up at Kestrel.

His eyes went to the cut on her throat. It was scabbed over now and barely visible in the moonlight. He might not have noticed it if he hadn't already known it was there. "You spoke with Sterling?"

"Hold on. What? Can one of you tell me what's going on?" Kestrel crossed her arms over her chest.

"I saw Sterling. I saw where they were holding her," Seraiah paused and looked down at her hands twisted together in her lap, "and I think she might have seen me."

She fell silent again, and he waited for her to continue when she was ready.

Kestrel had no such patience.

"And then what happened?" she demanded, dropping down next to them on the bedrolls.

"Aren't you supposed to be keeping watch?" he asked.

She waved him off. "This is more important. Now tell us what happened from the beginning," she said to Seraiah.

Seraiah looked at him, and he nodded his encouragement.

"I dreamed I was in a small room. It looked like a prison cell," she said.

He listened intently as she explained how she'd seen Sterling wearing metal manacles and how she touched her hand.

She described the two men who came to collect her.

"Do you remember their exact wording?" he asked. Whatever they'd said might be a clue to who they were or who they were working with. He still suspected it was mages.

Seraiah pressed her lips together while she thought. "No. It was something about taking her to the meeting room. It sounded like they were handing her off to someone."

"What can you remember about the room she was being held in?" Kestrel asked. "Give me every detail."

"I think it was underground. It was cold and musty like a cellar might be. Everything was stone except for the door—that was wood, and I think there was a window. It was up really high, though, and barred."

"Anything else?" Kestrel tapped her fingers against her leg, a nervous habit she'd had since childhood.

"Um, there was some straw in the corner and maybe a bucket? I didn't look closely. I was focused on my sister."

"You said you watched them take Sterling out of the room. Did you see anything beyond the door?" he asked.

He already had a suspicion he knew the place Seraiah was describing.

"No, it was too dark. Do you think it was some place in Baromund? If they were hiding her underground, then that could be why no one saw her. We could go back." She looked so hopeful as she suggested it, he almost didn't want to tell her she was wrong.