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“Last night,” Queen Lana said softly. “Quite late. We thought Archer and Morgan had come home early from Brisant, but they were Mage’s Guild delegates. It’s about Kaya.”
His heart sank. “Does she know?” A sudden terror gripped him. “They didn’t take her with them?”
“No, no. She’s still in her quarters,” Cato said quickly. “They delivered the letter to a patrol and left, they didn’t come close enough to the mountain to detect her. She’s safe.” For now, Cato’s worried expression said.
“It’s not good news, Callan. It seems the Dean reached out to them with questions about her identity. They know she’s on the run, and they’ve written to the governing body of every insula requesting full cooperation with her recovery.” The Queen hesitated for a moment, then handed him the letter to read. “I know this is a matter of personal significance to you, but we’d still appreciate your diplomatic insights.”
Callan could hardly hear her over the roaring of his blood in his ears. He fought to keep calm, to focus on the cramped script of the letter in his hands. The tone was all too familiar—stiffly formal, far more detailed than necessary, and openly hostile. Even without the seal, he’d have recognized it in seconds as a communication from the Mage’s Guild. And his heart sank further when he saw his own name on that cluttered page.
“They want me for questioning, too,” he said softly. The Queen nodded, looking worried. He frowned down at the page. “Refusal will be considered an act of war?”
“Subtlety’s never been a strong suit with these guys,” Cato said softly, his light tone not doing much to lighten the mood. Callan finished reading the letter, then set it down with a heavy sigh.
“At least we have a little time,” he pointed out, failing to see any other positive to the situation but feeling the instinct to say something vaguely hopeful. “The delegates will be back in three days to hear our answer.”
“It means we can consult with Conrad, which I’m grateful for,” Queen Lana agreed. “He’ll be returning tomorrow morning with Mira. We can talk about Kaya’s suggestion that we facilitate her escape to Earth.”
He felt his stomach twist again at the reminder, but if anyone noticed his expression shift, they didn’t mention it. “I wanted to discuss this with you before we talk to Kaya,” Lana said, leaning forward in her chair. “Now that you’re implicated in this, too…”
He tried to force himself to focus on something other than Kaya. This diplomatic crisis was rapidly spiraling out of control. “It does change things,” he admitted, frowning down at the letter as he scanned the lines again. “It may have been possible to get away with hiding Kaya from the Guild, especially if we do go ahead with her suggestion… but I’m a different matter. I’m a known resident of this insula. They’ll be unlikely to believe that you weren’t complicit in aiding my escape if they come to question me and find that I’m missing.” He sighed, rubbing his forehead. “The simplest solution is that I go with them.”
“Absolutely not,” Cato snapped, surprising them with the force of his voice. He cleared his throat, clearly a little abashed by the attention. “Sorry. But—no, Callan, that’s out of the question. I’ve known people who’ve gone to the Mage’s Guild to answer a few questions. Ask me how many of them I ever saw again.”
“I could cover Kaya’s escape and protect the Valley,” he argued. But Cato was shaking his head harder.
“No, you couldn’t. They’ll pull the truth out of you by force, and I don’t need to tell you how much of that they have at their disposal. They don’t care how much damage they do in the process, either. By magic or by torture, you’ll tell them exactly where Kaya is and exactly how she got there, and then you’ll die a death I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Sorry,” he said again, eyes flicking up the table. Queen Lana shook her head.
“Surrendering you is out of the question, then,” she said.
“And surrendering Kaya?” That quiet voice surprised Callan. Alpha Seth had leaned forward, his silver eyes darker than usual. “Forgive my bluntness, but it’s a suggestion we haven’t discussed.”
Callan fought down the anger that swelled in his chest. “They’ll kill her. Or worse.”
“And what will they do to us if we refuse their demand?” Seth nodded at the letter. “As long as that letter is, I don’t think ‘act of war’ leaves much to the imagination.”
“Are you suggesting we hand an innocent woman to an organization that’s made it all but explicit they’re going to kill her?”
“Are you suggesting we go to war instead?” Seth’s voice was utterly calm. “I need absolute clarity on the decision-making process I’ll be explaining to my pack, to the hundreds of wolves whose lives will be on the line again.”
“Enough,” Queen Lana said firmly. “Nothing’s been decided yet. We’ll reconvene tomorrow morning when Conrad returns from Earth, and we’ll talk about what we’re going to do.”
“Queen Lana—”
“Callan, can I ask you to go to Kaya’s quarters to explain what’s happened here?” The Queen’s voice was as calm as Seth’s had been, but he could read the implicit order to stand down in her voice. “I imagine she’d prefer to hear the news from a friend rather than in front of a courtroom of strangers.”
Callan nodded agreement, swallowing down the anger and fear that threatened to choke him. Seth’s expression was implacable, and Callan did his best to keep his own expression neutral as he offered the table a little bow and strode from the room. The worst part was, nothing Seth had said was unreasonable. Their little community had barely survived an attack from a dozen unsanctioned mages—to go to war against the Mage’s Guild was a terrifying prospect, and absolutely needed to be discussed as a real risk if they protected Kaya.
But Callan was beginning to worry that he shouldn’t be a part of these discussions at all. Because he knew in his bones that he’d do anything, no matter how destructive or ill-advised, if it meant protecting Kaya.
Chapter 24 - Inota
Despite her exhaustion, Inota felt like she’d barely had a wink of sleep when she dragged herself drowsily out of the too-soft bed the dragons had given her. Strange, how the light in here worked—with no access to sunlight, it seemed that some ancient builder had imbued the stone itself with some kind of phosphorescent glow that mirrored the natural rhythms of day and night. There was a similar system in place at Brisant, though the quality of the light was different. Eerie, really. She was looking forward to getting away from all this dragon nonsense. She’d had enough of living like a prisoner in her own life.
She straightened her back when she heard the knock on the door, taking a last glance at the mirror to make sure her face still looked the way it had looked yesterday—when she was this tired, it was best to be cautious. She’d expected a palace guard to be there, ready to bring her to the Queen to hear her decision. But instead, it was Callan, and one look at his face told her that he’d probably slept even worse than she had.
She was acutely aware, as he stepped into her room, that they hadn’t spoken alone since before they’d arrived at the Palace, and that he was probably expecting an apology for the way she’d blindsided him before the Queen. But before she could so much as open her mouth, he was speaking, low and urgent, his sentences tumbling over each other with disorganization that was most unlike him. But by the time he’d finished, she, too, could feel panic threatening to overwhelm her.
“Three days?” she clarified softly in the ringing silence that followed his explanation. He nodded, his face a grim mask. “Three days.” She exhaled. “That’s okay. That gives us time to get out of here.”
