Nobody rushed to answer him. A ripple of discomfort rounded the table. It was Kai, of course, who finally did answer, slow and reluctant. He turned his palm up as he spoke, staring once more at those silver-white scars as he so often did when he spoke of Avette. A reminder, she supposed, of what had been done to him; of what he’d lived through and the betrayal that had followed.
“Ultimately, yes. Nobody is safe—nobody is trulyfree, until she’s gone. We could try to take the pendant, but she’s reclaimed it once already.” A frown flickered over his brow, like his cousin had presented an equation he struggled to solve. “We could imprison her; let her live out a life sentence in captivity, but—”
“But she’s powerful, and we risk her escape,” said Oswalt.
Kai nodded distantly, still eyeing his scars. Then, laying his palm flat, he looked up at them all; his eyes were bright and charged, two lightening bolts beneath the storm cloud of his brow.
“Avette’s ultimate objective is power, plain and simple. She’s had six hundred years to consider the implications of what she’s done, and she has made itabundantlyclear she’ll atone for none of it. So yes. Her death is our goal.”
“But that’s not a plan.”
This soft croak from Ceri drew every eye, or perhaps it was the minute pulse of green in their periphery. She had picked up Kai’s pendant where it sat on the table, and turned it between her fingers, her swollen eyes fixed on its intermittent glint.
“Killing her isn’t a plan. To get that close, you still need to get into Eisalaan undetected.”
“We can’t,” Kai said simply. “The messenger said the ports are half frozen; there are fewer ways in now. I will have to return with the Eisalaan Gard—”
“We,” Adeline cut in, the single syllable splintering between her teeth.
Kai paused, but didn’t correct himself. Her heart fought through the mess of soot and grief and shock to sink and settle in the pit of her stomach, but before she could do more than glare at him, Ceri spoke again.
“There is another way in.”
She held the pendant up before her, pinched between thumb and forefinger. Its glow spread, making green rivers of the teartracks on her cheeks.
“The Sealgair’s tunnels,” said Alun. His voice was low and awed, and even without looking around, it wasn’t hard to hear his smile. “Ceri, that’s brilliant.”
“The Sealgair hate us,” Kai said bluntly.
Ceri’s lips had found a soft curve at Alun’s praise, and now fell flat as her eyes flicked to her brother’s, the movement so sharp it sent an unspilled tear rolling down her face.
“The Sealgair hateyou, Koo. But ifIasked them—”
“No,” said two voices at once.
Kai glanced around, brow pitched a little as though surprised that someone actually agreed with him. But Alun didn’t acknowledge his king at all; he was still staring at Ceri, hard, no trace of that awe to soften his handsome face.
“Absolutely not. I’m the emissary of this Court. I’ll approach the Sealgair.”
“Nobodyis approaching the Sealgair,” said Kai. Exasperation buoyed his lilt high and loud. “They hate me because of what they experienced beneath the Laune. You're welcome in Nua Laune; yoursafetythere is entirely dependent on my exile. Now you want to ask them to escort you to the place that broke them? How rational of a reaction are you expecting from ancient, vengeful hunters who kill fishermen like they’re swatting at flies?”
“What I’mexpecting,” Ceri said hotly, grip tightening around the pendant, “is that they’ll welcome the opportunity to see Avette defeated. If they hold a grudge over your mistake, imagine the hatred they must feel over herchoice.”
“I’llask them,” said Alun again, louder.
“Nobody is asking them,” Kai boomed.
The glow flared in Ceri’s grasp, fractured between her taut fingers so it speared out in each direction and blinded them all. Adeline was thrown, her senses momentarily overwhelmed, so she didn’t register the juddering rattle of glass on the table until a stream of cold water landed in her lap. She jumped up, gasping, and heard the shriek of four other chairs scraping against the floor, everyone scrambling to escape the splash.
When the scurry had passed, they looked around at the jug overturned, the wide splatter of the water—and Ceri’s guiltilypursed lips as she leaned over and carefully laid the pendant on the table.
“Um,” came a nervous voice from the archway. “Should I come back, or—”
Kai’s response and Adeline’s tumbled over one another.
“Please do.”
“No, come in.”
