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“Besides the fact that he brought this on himself a year ago,” Peter muttered.
“I think we should put it to a vote,” Sebald said.
My brow went up a bit. The Sons had voted on things before, but only when we’d reached monumental crossroads.
Then again, if this wasn’t a crossroad, I didn’t know what was.
“Fine,” Jace said. “All in favor of telling Magnus what Dmitri told Anton right now and allowing Magnus to deal with Dmitri as he sees fit, raise your hand.”
Jace and Peter immediately raised their hands. To my surprise, Gennadi raised his hand as well, and I didn’t think it was because he felt compelled to vote the way Jace did.
The rest of us hesitated for a long while. Too long.
“Those in favor of waiting until Jorgen and Hati get here?” I raised my hand.
Neil and Sebald immediately raised their hands along with me.
That left Lefric as the tie-breaking vote.
As soon as Lefric glanced around the pool and realized it, he blurted, “Fuck! Why are you making me decide this? I don’t want Dmitri’s blood on my hands any more than anyone else, but I also think he’s a colossal prick who should get what he deserves.”
“It isn’t you deciding the man’s fate,” Jace argued. “Dmitri decided his own fate a long time ago. You’re just voting to speed things along a little.”
“Well, what if I don’t vote?” Lefric said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall of the pool. “What if I abstain?”
“You? Lefric? Abstaining?” Peter joked.
Lefric burst into a sheepish smile and let his arms uncross. “It’s not what I usually like, no,” he met the joke with a grin.
Another thought occurred to me. “How about a compromise?” I asked. “What if I ask to wait just one day, until tomorrow?”
The others looked at me. Jace scowled.
“We have other things to worry about today,” I said. “Lord Vikhrov wants to know who killed his steward, and since you think it was connected to the other murder, I agree that it’s important to figure that out first. And you wanted Hayk and Billie to look at the notebook to see if they know anyone else who is a spy for King Julius. Can we take the rest of today and tomorrow morning to do all of that and then worry about Dmitri and General Rufus after lunch?”
“We have way too many things going on,” Sebald said, shaking his head and rubbing his face with both hands.
“But really, it’s all just one thing,” Lefric reasoned. “All of it—Gregorius’s murder, Eneko’s murder, King Julius’s spies, this General Rufus person, and the meeting with Jorgen and Hati…it’s all the same thing, really. It’s all about deciding the fate of the frontier and our places in it.”
Lefric was right. Everything was tied together now. Not only that, I had a feeling that resolving one issue would lead to solutions for the others, and that, odd as it felt, General Rufus was the key to everything. If the man did what Dmitri said he wanted to do and severed the frontier from the Old Realm for good, it wouldn’t matter how many spies King Julius had in the Old Realm or whether Gregorius and Eneko were killed by those spies or conspirators who wanted to put someone loyal to King Julius in charge of the city. All that would matter was how the kingdoms of the frontier allied themselves and how fast they could build up their strengths in the coming years.
“I would be willing to wait one day,” Peter said, though I could sense the reluctance in his statement. “But only if Dmitri stays hidden wherever he’s run off to within the estate. If I see him, I’m going to tell Magnus to wring his neck on sight.”
I wanted to be angry with Peter for taking such a hard stance, but I couldn’t be. I understood where he was coming from.
I nodded. “I can agree to that.”
“I think we can all agree,” Neil said. He glanced to Peter, took his hand under the water—at least, I assumed that’s what he grabbed, since the rest of us were sitting right there—and asked, “Can’t we?”
He was asking Peter about more than just Dmitri, that much was clear to me. The way Peter looked back at him, the love and devotion in both of their expressions, sent a pang through my heart, like it always did.
But unlike every other time the bond between Peter and Neil showed itself and made me feel like I was missing something, Hayk leaned closer to me and rested his head against the side of mine.
The gesture was so unexpected that I jumped. That caused Hayk to straighten and grin at me.
“You really need to learn to loosen up and accept affection,” he told me quietly.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” I mumbled.
