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Her neck popped with the tension in her. “Under protest.”
“Understood.” Lio turned to the embassy. “Lord Gaius, have you ever had in your custody one of the enemy’s men who knew where your own were imprisoned?”
“To be sure,” he answered.
“What did you do to the enemy you had captured?”
“One time we gave him bread, and he told us everything, and we sent him on his way. Another time, it took a fair bit of coin. Sometimes it’s enough to get his wife and children to safety, and then he doesn’t care how his liege punishes him for talking.”
“I hope you know I would give the Gift Collector all the provisions and wealth in Orthros, if he would accept. But those things matter little to him, and family even less.”
Lord Gaius eyed Lio. “No one here is going to regret the Gift Collector, Ambassador.”
“If you’d had a thelemancer with you in the wars, would that have made your interrogations easier?” Lio asked.
Cassia held her breath.
Lord Gaius’s eyebrows shot up. “I wouldn’t trust a mage of dreams. But if he spared me having to torture a man, I’d thank him.”
“I am not a mage of dreams,” Lio said. “I am a Hesperine mind mage.”
Perita clapped a hand over her mouth. Callen held her a little closer. Cassia was grateful Lio had won their trust before this moment. Murmurs of dismay swept around the table, but so did exclamations of triumph at securing a formidable ally.
“Gods.” Chrysanthos took another swig of Lord Gaius’s flask. “Next you’ll tell me you’re as powerful as Argyros.”
“I stopped the heart hunters in Martyr’s Pass,” Lio replied.
Chrysanthos wheezed a humorless laugh and leaned on the table.
“Is that what you call diplomacy?” Benedict demanded, his face ashen.
“I call it a last resort,” Lio answered. “Ask yourself if I would bother using diplomacy to persuade you, if my scruples would allow me to simply change your mind for you with thelemancy. If you are familiar with my Uncle Argyros’s history, you will not find it surprising that he trained me in both.”
“Oh, my,” said Eudias. “When the combined forces of the Orders of Anthros and Hypnos and the alliance of Cordian princes came to raze Hagia Anatela, Argyros held them off—with his mind.”
“He has also led every embassy from Orthros for the last sixteen hundred years,” Cassia told them, “risking his life to show Tenebrans that Hesperines mean no harm.”
“Tonight,” Lio said, “it falls to me to take any risk necessary to discover the hostages’ location from the Gift Collector. I will return to all of you when I have the information we seek.”
He turned away from the table. It took all Cassia’s Will not to reach out and hold him back. Was she to just stand here and let him go, alone, into what might well be the worst danger he had ever faced?
No, they must do this together. Her Sanctuary ward could not safeguard his mind, but could at least protect his body while he dueled Skleros. She must convince him to let her go with him. Now.
As she was wracking her mind for a means of persuasion, Eudias spoke.
“Ambassador?”
He turned to them again. “Yes, Apprentice Eudias?”
“Would it not be best to bring the Gift Collector here, before us all? Let it be a sign of trust between our peoples, unlike the secret conspiracies against one another that have done so much harm.”
“I am eager to demonstrate Orthros’s trustworthiness to Tenebra. However, my foremost duty is to ensure our guests’ safety. The Gift Collector is a very dangerous man. He will not submit to my magic quietly.”
“You’ll need help,” Chrysanthos said.
Lio raised his brows at the Dexion.
The war mage managed to smile and to make it appear insulting. “I’m familiar with your combat abilities. You won’t be able to fend off a Gift Collector’s attacks while you work to bring down his dream wards.”
