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“Hm, I think we can do better than that. What do you say to a friend?”
Lio stopped to wonder if a Hesperine diplomat and a war mage could ever be friends. But he already knew the answer. He had seen into Eudias’s mind.
Lio extended his hand. “Thank you, my friend.”
Eudias gave him a Hesperine wrist clasp. “I hope you don’t regret it once you realize how full of presumptuous questions I am.”
“I would expect nothing less from a fellow overeducated, open-minded scrollworm.”
“Very well. Do you and Ambassador Cassia have an understanding, then?”
Oh Goddess, had Lio made a mistake with Nike’s spells? An equally troubling question was, why was he so tempted to tell Eudias the truth? He could never reveal what Grace was to any Tenebran or Cordian. There was too much risk of Orthros’s enemies using Grace bonds against Hesperines.
Eudias interrupted his internal debate. “I heard her, you see. When you and I were in the Collector’s mind game. Her voice was around every corner, helping us. I think the two of you must have a very deep understanding, indeed.”
Lio breathed a sigh of relief. Eudias already knew a version of the truth. And judging by the thriving cult of Sacrificial Maiden Cassia, he had also been keeping their secret safe for them. “She isn’t staying in Orthros for the treaty. She’s staying for me. Forever.”
“Well, I can hardly blame her,” Eudias said lightly. “Your library is much more tempting than the horses or hunting dogs or whatever it was that Lord Flavian offered for her bride price.”
Lio laughed. “Ah, I think it was the greenhouse that won her over, in fact.”
“Ah. Yes, that would make Ariadne almost as jealous as the books.”
Lio rubbed his face. “I have to get Cassia out of this betrothal. I was hoping you would be willing to help.”
“Marriages, or in this case, unmarriages are one of my areas of expertise as a mage of Anthros.”
“Are there any grounds on which a woman may break her betrothal? If not, what can a…” He grimaced. This was all so Tenebran. “…rival suitor do to…extricate her?”
“I’ll need to familiarize myself with the differences between Tenebran and Cordian law. I’ll do some research for you.”
“You have my gratitude.”
“Once you’ve freed Cassia from her promise to Flavian, are you hoping for a legal marriage to her?”
The words took Lio completely aback. “Is that…even an option?”
“One would think an Anthrian marriage to a Hesperine heretic would be impossible, but there are a surprising number of loopholes in sacred law and tradition. I can try to find one for you, if you wish for your union to be respectable in Tenebra.”
Lio had never even considered the possibility. Marriage was a mortal institution that had given a cruelly neglectful man power over his mother. Wedding vows had only ever threatened to take his Grace from him.
He had never thought of them as something that could bind Cassia to him.
If a marriage could help win Solia’s blessing…if it could wipe that smile off of Flavian’s face…
“I will speak with Cassia about it,” Lio said.
“Of course.” Now Eudias tugged on a leather thong around his neck, pulling his lightning charm out from under his robes. He closed his palm over the wooden artifact. “As for tonight’s spell, I had in mind a third-level aerial synthesis. What do you think?”
“I think if you can already cast a third level synthesis, it’s surprising they didn’t promote you sooner.”
Eudias seemed to hide from the compliment by concentrating on his casting. Lio let his thelemancy flow into the current of the river and the patterns of the magic. The structure of the spell was impressive. When not under duress, Eudias was a precise and intuitive caster.
Eudias’s magic carried Lio’s along, racing to circle all the mortal minds gathered at Patria. Lio heard Tuura’s casting in the distance, rising and falling with the rhythm of an Imperial chant, drawing nearer. Then a gust of wind snapped his magic aloft, and his stomach dipped as his power sailed up into the storm clouds.
Lio rolled over the tents and the castle and the tiny human lights within. Hundreds of unguarded minds, their ramparts and swords useless against either a benevolent Hesperine thelemancer or an abusive mage of dreams.
Lio would never forgive the Collector for making it necessary to trespass on so many Wills. He could only pray he had gotten to them first.
