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By the time they entered the mages’ wing of the guest house, Cassia had accumulated Lord Gaius and a satisfactory retinue of uninvited guests, and Benedict had rejoined them.
At a door halfway down an elegant corridor, one spell light gleamed brighter in its iron sconce than the others. Cassia looked closer and caught a glimpse of Lio standing sentinel there.
Eudias walked right past him and halted at the door. The apprentice cast a forlorn look upon the invasion he must announce to his master. Cassia stopped within arm’s reach of Lio. She gave the apprentice an apologetic smile. Eudias licked his hand and tidied his hair under his cap before disappearing into Chrysanthos’s rooms.
A moment later, Eudias reemerged. “I’m afraid the matter will have to wait until the conference, Basilis.”
Lord Gaius crossed his arms. Benedict frowned. Lio smiled in anticipation.
“As I said, it cannot wait,” Cassia told Eudias, “and it will not do for us to have an audience.”
The apprentice cast another glance at the audience behind her.
“I must object to a colleague turning away a brother in Anthros,” Master Gorgos puffed.
Lord Adrogan cast a sour glance at the Dexion’s door. “He expects us to be at his beck and call, but the first time we knock at his door, he dismisses us?”
“Apprentice Eudias,” Lord Severin said, “Lady Cassia’s sense of urgency is justified, and her discretion is to be applauded. Your master has certainly seen the itinerary and understands this.”
“The royal representative is here to see him,” Benedict insisted. “He must see her.”
Eudias swallowed. “So I said to him, my lords, but you have heard his answer.”
Lord Gaius smiled and put a finger to his lips, then clapped the young man on the back. Eudias skittered out of his way.
Lord Gaius grasped the door handle, and his knuckles tightened. Locked. He raised his eyebrows at Cassia. She nodded. Benedict and Lord Gaius exchanged a long look. Then they both put their shoulders to the door. The spell light flared, and the door gave way.
“Easiest siege I’ve ever led,” Lord Gaius muttered.
Benedict half smiled. “Neither of us ever thought Hadria and Segetia would man a battering ram together, did we?”
Lio smiled and bowed to Cassia as she led the charge into the room.
Chrysanthos, his expression clouded with outrage, looked up from the spacious desk that furnished the study. Tychon was on his feet, his hands fisted.
Skleros sat across from the Dexion with his boots propped on the desk. The necromancer did not bestir himself from his chair, but his teeth clenched around his smoke.
Cassia paused for effect in the center of the room, and Knight stood just in front of her in a challenge stance. She turned all around, sweeping her gaze over the objects that covered the desk and every cabinet, chair, or cloak hook in the room. From glassware to silks, metalwork to pottery, she saw every fair display represented in the hoard. Skleros used a coffee tasting cup as an ash tray. One of the toymaker’s silk dolls lay dissected on a side table amid wads of stuffing and the lingering buzz of Anthrian magic.
“What is the meaning of this?” Cassia demanded.
Skleros spat out his smoke, then pulled another from his robes. “Boy,” he growled in Eudias’s direction.
“Oh. Yes, Master.” Eudias dug in his pockets, then handed his own flint and steel to the necromancer.
Skleros lit his smoke and settled back in his chair. Apparently he had decided to be a spectator, rather than rise to the defense of his brother-in-magic. Nonetheless, Lio loomed over the Gift Collector’s shoulder with a silk handkerchief over his mouth and nose. The verdurous fog coiling around them all must smell awful to a Hesperine. Knight snorted and growled, pressing back against Cassia’s legs.
“We are working,” Chrysanthos said. “We will arrive at the conference at the appointed time. Until then, I will thank you all not to disrupt my research.”
“Research?” Cassia shot back. Vandalism, she wanted to accuse. She took a deep breath to calm herself, then regretted the noseful of smoke. “Kindly explain how all this came to be here, and for what purpose.”
Chrysanthos’s eyes narrowed, and he skewered her with one of his smiles. “I must have misheard you, Basilis, for I am certain a lady such as yourself would never ask a mage of Anthros to explain himself.”
She took a step toward him, although Knight resisted her effort to approach the threat. “I am indeed concerned for the health of your ears, Honored Master. Allow me to assist you by speaking more clearly. The royal representative of Tenebra is demanding an explanation from the embassy’s spiritual guide as to why you make yourself inaccessible to those in your care in order to dabble in blood magic.”
Lio’s eyes gleamed with amusement. She was glad he was enjoying their display.
Chrysanthos rose to his feet and propped his hands on the desk. Did he think that scared Cassia? The king had worn out that trick over the years.
