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Cassia rose from her dressing table, and Knight removed himself from her feet. “I need to take Knight out before we go to the nightly conference.”
Perita put the unused hairbrush down with a sigh. “Don’t bother. Let him do his business on Honored Master Prettyface’s shoes.”
Cassia laughed. “We’ll only be a moment. You go ahead and meet Callen.”
“We’ll just be in the gallery, my lady, keeping an eye on Sir Segetian.”
As soon as Perita shut the door behind her, Cassia hurried out into the courtyard with Knight. She reached for the wraith of spell light and shadow who awaited her. He manifested fully in her arms.
“Is everything all right, Lio? I didn’t leave a stocking in your workshop, did I?”
He shook his head, his gaze fixed on her hair. “You didn’t let Perita disturb the braid.”
“Of course not. The embassy is too superstitious about gifts from the fair for me to wear my green silk ribbon in front of them, but no one can stop me from wearing the braid.”
He ran a hand down the length of her braid, his eyes agleam. She was so glad she had encouraged his hopes last night by the statue. Ever since, it seemed the failures of the fair had no power to dampen his spirits. She felt as if he fed his hopes to her and kept hers alive in return.
“I just relieved Basir and Kumeta,” Lio said. “They reassured me that Skleros made no attempt to approach the illusion of you last night.”
“So we are no closer to understanding what he wants with me.”
“He is also no closer to achieving it. Tonight’s Summit events will not provide him with any opportunities to threaten you, unlike the confusion of the fair. Of course, I’ll shadow you during Chrysanthos’s conference as usual.”
Cassia let out a breath. “Did you get a chance to speak with Kassandra?”
Lio pulled her closer, tucking a scroll into her belt. “Your revised copy of tonight’s itinerary.”
“She agreed to the changes?”
“Yes, she supports our decision not to save her lesson on the economy of Orthros for after the negotiations. As much as we hoped to use the embassy’s visit with her to talk trade deals once a truce had been secured, she is ready to change her tactics and hold up commerce as a temptation instead. After the way everyone reacted to Lyros’s display last night, she agrees this will be effective.”
Cassia nodded. “I’ll do my best to put them in a receptive frame of mind.”
“When I patrolled through Chrysanthos’s study just now, I discovered something that may help. I believe we can take advantage of this to regain some of the ground we lost at the fair. Could you contrive a reason to pay the Dexion a visit in his study some time tonight and take witnesses with you?”
“Me, trespass on his territory? My pleasure. What are we to witness?”
“The spoils of his tour through the fair. It turns out that what he and Tychon were doing last night was visiting every pavilion to collect all the fair gifts the artists and crafters were offering our guests.”
“This, after the mages expressly forbade the embassy to accept anything. It was much too generous of the artists and crafters to oblige him.”
“Aunt Lyta advised them to play along so she could watch what Chrysanthos does with his plunder and perhaps catch him in wrongdoing.”
“I regret the waste of fine Hesperine works. What in the world can he mean to do with them?”
“Unravel all our mysteries, apparently. I knew the culinary crafters shouldn’t have hidden the secret of immortality in the gumsweets.”
Cassia laughed. “Does Chrysanthos really think this will come to anything?”
“Regardless, Aunt Lyta instructed me to keep a close eye on his activities tonight. He has yet to do anything that gives us a justification to intervene, but I think you will agree this still presents a valuable opportunity for us to encourage the Tenebrans’ disinclination toward the Cordians.”
“Chrysanthos has a room full of all the luxuries the men were drooling over last night.”
“Precisely.”
“We must use this rope to give him a little choke.”
Lio rested his hands on her arms. “But not right now.”
