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“I will escort you all back to Rose House now, honored guests,” Lio said. “Please accept the founders’ regrets that you cannot join them for the next ceremony at the Queens’ ward. The festival is on a tight schedule, which requires that all attendees step between events, a demand to which we would not subject you.”
“Ah, sailing over would take too long, of course.” Eudias sounded disappointed.
“That’s perfectly all right, Ambassador.” The diminutive Semna, reclining on her litter on the shoulders of the knights, was on eye level with Lio.
“I don’t fancy another trip on the choppy waves,” Perita muttered, “to say nothing of this stepping sorcery.”
“A considerate decision,” Lord Gaius said.
Benedict nodded. “Especially on behalf of our ladies.”
Cassia and Lio exchanged a glance. They need not fend off any untoward curiosity after all, for the Tenebrans had accepted his justification for their exclusion. The embassy seemed content to be free of the obligation to attend, blissfully ignorant that the founders’ visit to the ward upon the Festival of Sanctuary was more than a mere formality.
Lio took his leave in the entry hall of Rose House and disappeared into the gallery to the New Guest House. Knowing her seafarer would remain on this shore, Cassia could not have felt safer. It was highly unlikely the mages, unaware of tonight’s events, would try anything in the few hours the entire Stand was at the ward with the founders, but Lio would make sure.
The lords and knights drifted into the main hall. Cassia was about to follow them, when a draft drew her attention to the door. It was still open, just wide enough for thin Eudias to linger there. He gazed out to sea, and the polar wind tugged his hair out from under his cap. His brow gleamed with sweat.
“Perita,” Cassia said, “be so kind as to pour me a goblet of Notian red, would you?”
Perita glanced from her to Eudias. “Certainly, my lady.”
Cassia ran her hand over Knight’s shoulders to remind her bodyguard she was not without protection.
“At your leisure, my lady.” Callen gestured to their seats in the main hall, which were visible from the entryway. “We’ll be just inside.”
As their footsteps receded, Cassia approached the young mage. “Apprentice Eudias? Are you all right?”
Without a twitch or a tremble, his hand closed over the handle of the door. He thrust the heavy panel shut. The thud echoed, and the cold air was gone.
Standing tall, Eudias turned to Cassia. She had to tilt her head back to look at him.
“I am all right, perhaps for the first time in my life.” His voice, devoid of timid tones, was almost unrecognizable. “It is time to act.”
“I am glad you do not regret coming forward.”
“I have barely begun. You cannot imagine all I have seen and heard in my time studying magic.” A flicker of distress reappeared in his gaze, and his voice faltered. “I wish I’d realized sooner. I really should have understood what it meant. But then, how could I, until I knew what I know now? Oh, no time to look backward now, time is of the essence. I must tell you, in case it is significant.”
“I’m sure you know a great deal that can be of aid.”
“I may be able to help the hostages, Basilis.”
“I beg of you, tell me!”
“Bear with me.” Eudias took a deep breath. “Master Skleros has been working with certain members of the Aithourian Circle for some time. Not officially, you understand, for the elite war mages would never let on there is anything they cannot accomplish, much less that they condescended to ask a Gift Collector for help.”
“I have often wondered at Skleros and Chrysanthos’s rapport. It is clear they have a history.”
“The Synthikos holds himself above the rules that he and the Akron enforce upon their subordinates. Dalos and Chrysanthos have always done the same. They did not hesitate to employ a Gift Collector when it suited them. In their vicious competition for the position of Dexion, they resorted to the most extreme means at their disposal. Master Skleros is the best at what he does.”
“You mean he assisted them against one another?”
“He did what he was hired to do, whichever it was who hired him. Now, however, he is no longer the occasional associate of two Honored Masters of the Aithourian Circle. It is the Dexion himself who encourages the all-seeing Order of Hypnos to turn a blind eye to Master Skleros’s activities.”
“What do you know about the nature of the work Master Skleros does for the Dexion?”
“Why, his work. Don’t you see?”
“Oh, I do see. How could I not have seen? You are brilliant.”
