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My eyes narrowed. That couldn’t be good.
“If you wish to enter the safe haven of Duteliera,” the woman called. “You must pass inspection. Understood?”
Clay gave a quiet scoff, muttering so softly, I doubted anyone else beyond our group could hear. “Uh, no?”
I was baffled too. Safe haven? Inspection?
What in the gods’ names was going on in my country?
The woman’s eyes narrowed like she could tell we weren’t in agreement with her demand.
“What is this inspection?” Dex called back.
The woman didn’t respond, but instead simply motioned sharply to the younger man and then started toward us. He and several armed guards followed her.
We tensed.
“Everyone here will handle the object inside this box,” she said as they came closer. “If you have no reaction, you will be allowed into the city. If you do react, you will be killed instantly for the safety of all humanity.”
“What the fuck?” Clay sputtered.
Her mouth tightened.
“Um, apologies, but…” Niko tried for a polite smile, though it couldn’t hide his worry. “Might we know what you have in there?”
Not responding, the woman nodded to the young man. He opened the boxand reached inside. I braced myself for magic to lash out at us.
He extended his hand. A bulb of garlic rested in his palm.
“Wait, what?” Clay laughed. “Garlic. You want us to touch… garlic.”
“Oh, dear,” Casimir murmured.
My eyes darted to him.
“Draw upon your magic,” he continued to me in the same low voice, his lips barely moving and his gaze never leaving the Aneirans. “I will do the same to help us both.”
I had a thousand questions, and I couldn’t ask a single one, not without the woman and the guards noticing.
But I started scrambling inside myself for any trace of magic I could reach. It was too much to hope I could grip the diamond pendant that now rested beneath the sweater Clay had fashioned for me to replace the massive one belonging to Ozias. Such a motion would undoubtedly make the Aneirans think I was trying to get away with something.
One by one, the young man extended the garlic bulb to my men, who took it briefly and then returned it, each of them giving him a baffled or wary expression when they were done.
Except for Byron. He lifted the bulb and then returned it, and when the Aneirans approached me, every line of his body was tense.
Just as I feared, the woman caught it. “You worry the princess or her companion will fail this test?” At her words, several of the guards put their hands to their weapons. “Why?”
“I fear any test with such a seemingly subjective outcome.” Byron’s voice was cool and analytical, but even though I’d only known him a few weeks, something about his tightly controlled expression made me suspect his tone wasn’t really the truth.
No, the scholar was as on edge as I’d ever seen him.
“Trust me when I say there is nothing subjective here,” the woman replied.
She jerked her chin at me in a wordless motion for me to take the bulb. Nervously, I reached out for it, still struggling to draw up any magic inside, though what the hell I was supposed to do with it, I didn’t know.
Casimir’s fingers dug into my back. His grip was hard, nearly painful with his tension, but instantly a warm and soothing sensation spread from his touch like golden light shining just beyond the corners of my eyes. None of the Aneirans reacted, as if they couldn’t see anything at all.
My hand closed around the bulb.
