“You’re on the council?”
“Don’t sound so surprised. I’m pretty important around here.” He tugs on his collar as if to adjust it.
“Oh, I don’t doubt that one bit!”
He laughs. “You know I’m not one for stuffy political conversations, but Ryder insisted I be his second in command and I couldn’t exactly refuse.”
“You poor thing,” I tease. “Who else is on the council?”
“That you know? Jace and Akari. There are others I’m sure you’ll get to know at some point.”
“What about Elias?”
Artemus pauses with his hand on a doorknob and turns to me. “No one’s told you?”
“Told me what?” My voice shakes as concern washes over me.
“Elias was at the Sector the day of the bombing. He had to return from the Military Zone for a Leadership ceremony. They were going to make him an interim Head Officer while Damien was away.” Tears start filling the rims of my eyes and Artemus grabs me by the shoulders. “He’s not dead, Reign. He’s alive.”
I throw my head back and take a deep breath, thanking The Mother for saving me from having to mourn yet another person.
“He was looking for Emeric in the Quad when a bomb went off. He lost his right leg and almost died, but they were able to cauterize the wound enough to keep him from bleeding out.” I cover my mouth with my hands, taking in everything he’s telling me. “As you can imagine, he hasn’t been the same since.We’ve got him in a wheelchair for now and he mostly keeps to his room. Even Emeric can’t seem to get through to him.”
“Isn’t there something that can be done? Some sort of spell or something that can bring his leg back?”
“A mender could do it, but they’re rare and so far, we haven’t been able to find one here in the Shadow Lands.”
“Well, what about in the realms? There has to be someone,” I insist.
“We’re already on it. Roman is seeing if anyone here knows of any menders back in the realms. Ryder has already agreed to send out a unit to retrieve them if we find one.”
“A unit? So, there are people sneaking into the realms then? What about Kane? We have to go get him!”
“Whoa there.” He lifts up his hands. “There’s a big difference between retrieving a mender and sending men into the palace to extract King Cimmerian’s prized possession.”
I hate that he refers to Kane like some kind of object, but he’s not wrong. That is how the king views his Collectables.
“We still have to try,” I persist.
“I don’t disagree, but it’s going to take a lot to convince Ryder to take that chance.” I bite back the instinct to argue, but Artemus isn’t the one I need to convince so I let it go for now. He finally opens the door we’ve been standing outside of, and I follow him inside. “This is the war room.”
Chairs surround the large, round table in the middle of the room, and it reminds me of the one the king and his Circle convene around back in the kingdom.
“What do you think?” Artemus asks, walking around to the other side of the table. I take in the different maps pinned to the walls and the mountain of scrolls rolled up in the corner.
“Looks exactly how I would imagine a war room to look.”
“This will be your seat.” He pulls out one of the chairs with the high backing and motions for me to sit.
“Oh, sure,” I play along as I settle into the soft, burgundy chair.
“I’m being serious,” Artemus says, pushing the chair closer to the table. “The Mother didn’t gift you to this world so that you could sit on the sidelines. If we win this war, you’ll be a big reason why.”
“What?” I’m taken aback by his words. “I don’t know the first thing about war.”
“Maybe not. But you know about death. You know about adapting. And you know about doing the right thing even when it’s not the easy thing. You deserve to be at this table just as much as the rest of us. Maybe even more.”
“I’m not sure Ryder would agree with you there,” I quip.
