“This way,” Ione gestured, tucking her wings. Her boots crunched along the pebbled cave floor as they came upon a circular wooden door. Ione rapped on it—three short knocks, followed by a single pound, followed by another two short knocks.
They waited several seconds before the door swung inwards to reveal a handsome Beastrunner male—a lion bi-form, based on his scent and his golden hair and eyes—wearing a red jacket and gold helmet. The tell-tale uniform of an Imperial soldier.
“Darius,” Ione said, clasping the male’s hand, then turned to Tristan. “One of ours.”
Darius swept down to one knee. “Your Highness.”
“Report?” Ione asked.
“The Emperor’s been particularly unhinged these past few weeks,” Darius sneered as he rose. “Worse than you can even imagine. Ever since the battle in Staurien Pass, he’s been calling his soldiers back to Delos.”
Ione’s lips flattened. “Have you figured out how he learned we were after that shipment?”
“Not yet,” Darius said, head bowed.
Ione turned to Tristan. “If someone from our group is feeding him information, he may know of our plans to take the city. Why else would he be concentrating his forces here?”
A thought crept into Tristan’s mind, a flicker of something he remembered from the colonies. “He was having obliviated humans shipped here. Do you have any idea what he’s doing with them?”
Darius shook his head. “The ships unload daily, herding scores of humans onto an island behind the palace. Every few days, he has several delivered to his quarters, but what happens to them there, we haven’t been able to tell.”
Tristan looked to Ione. “What’s he planning? Could it be another weapon? Something even our Anointed couldn’t combat?”
“I don’t know,” Ione said, frustrated. “Let’s go before we lose our chance to get the Compendium.”
Darius held the door open for them. “I was able to buy you a sliver of extra time. Sent the first shift guards away early. You’ve got twenty minutes. Make it count.”
Ione slapped her cuff onto his wrist. “You too. Your assignment’s over. Tell the others as well.”
Darius reared back. “Why? It’s the worst possible time for us not to have eyes and ears within the palace.”
“And it’s about to get far too dangerous for those eyes and ears. Especially if the Prince and I succeed today. I will not lose good people to Eamon.”
Darius turned to Tristan. “May I speak freely?
Ione gave an annoyed snort, but Tristan waved a hand, encouraging Darius to continue.
“I’ll send the others back to Lebaedia, but I’d like to stay. You cannot take back your throne if you are blind to the goings-on inside this palace.”
“Are you sure?” Tristan asked. “If he discovers what you’ve done today, he could torture you for information about our movement. You’d be a liability to us.”
“I’d sooner die than break.” Darius drew up to his full height.
Tristan glanced to Ione, who merely shrugged as if to sayyour call.
“Permission granted,” Tristan said. “Use that cuff to get the rest out. And for Creator’s sake, becareful.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Darius bowed gratefully as Ione pushed past him into the hallway, Tristan a step behind. Ione slid Tristan a smirk, then wrapped her wings around her body, shaking them to activate her…camouflaging feathers?
Tristan tried to reign in his shock. He had no idea she’d inherited his Ghostwalking abilities. She grabbed his hand as he did the same with his own wings, then pulled him through the maze of marble hallways.
They passed a set of stairs, the bottom half of which was crafted of rough stone that led down into the dungeons. The marble upper half led into the palace proper.
A memory flashed through Tristan’s mind, there and gone in an instant, of he and Eamon walking down those same stairs centuries ago. Back when they’d been close. Back when he was fretting about having fallen in love with Ione and Eamon had told him he may have a solution for him. Back before Eamon had betrayed him and he’d been exiled to the colonies, believing Ione was dead.
If Tristan had known she was alive all these years, how different would his life have been?
He shook those thoughts away—they would do him no good right now anyway—as they approached an opalescent door with a Teles symbol carved into the center.
