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I swallowed. Anger ate my words, so I took a moment, allowing her to speak first.
Elise’s expression hardened. “I know,” she said, her hand white knuckled on the post. “And we’ll find out why, Alys. Someone’s going to pay for hurting him, for the destruction, for the bargain you had to make. I hope you’re lucky twice.”
I fought laughter. It put a whole new meaning to ‘getting lucky’. An appalled look crept across her face as she realized the double entendre, even if she didn’t know the context, and I lost the fight.
I let out a series of soft snorts that didn’t disturb Dmitri. Each puff made a tiny explosion in my chest, but they were worth it. Elise relaxed.
“Who’s going to find out how Becky’s replacement was screened? I want to know how she ended up there. If he were a typical toddler, he would have died.”
Elise turned wintry eyes to me. “Oh, we’ll find out, don’t worry.” The iron she concealed under silk was bare in her tone.
There was a knock at the door, and it eased open, revealing Walker.
Elise stood. “Is there any word on Kara?”
He shook his head. “Silver’s currently flipping all the rocks over with the Wardens, looking to see what crawls out and if it can be arrested. He’ll find her, Elise. And whoever hasn’t turned her over is going to be answering some harsh questions.”
“Can you scry her?” Tears had risen close to the surface. Elise's eyes glittered with them.
“I already tried—she’s behind a ward. Everything that can be done is being done; perhaps you should rest for a little bit?” Concern radiated from his eyes and voice.
Elise shook her head, straightened from her defeated slump, and walked to the door. “Alys, do you want to help with the bath when he wakes up?”
Dmitri hated getting into a bath and hated leaving it once he was in the water.
“Yes,” I said. “Let me know when he wakes, please.”
She nodded to Walker, regal once more, as she left the room.
I waited for questions. About Chance, about Dmitri, about the elf. Not knowing what exactly to say made me shift from foot to foot. It wasn't that I couldn't handle him being mad, it was that I didn’t want him to be angry, which was strange for me. Normally I liked riling people up.
He regarded me, then cupped my face in his hands. “Will you be safe?”
The concern in his voice melted the icicles around my heart. He wasn’t prying, his concern was for me.
“I will.” I laid my hands over his. “You understand that I can't share other people's secrets, right?”
His eyes narrowed with amusement. “Would it help if I told you that I know exactly what the Stormdust look is and while your friend Chance has worked very hard to conceal it, seeing the two of you near each other the resemblance is subtle, but distinctive.”
“Are you going to tell Silver?” I asked.
“No. I make no guarantees that he hasn't figured it out, but if his people can't catch your friend out then when they discover the truth they'll have to go through another training exercise. I highly doubt that he can do any damage to the Guild beyond the superficial.”
I held my peace on that one. Chance was very good at finding things out, that was why he was a spy. And my fondness for Walker didn't extend to a fondness for the government of the Guild. I'd done what I could to cover for Chance.
“I don't want to press, and it's obvious you survived the first encounter, but I am worried about you fulfilling your bargain to bear that elf’s child, Alys. I wasn't kidding about the number of battle mages who've died because the Guild very much wants to have elvin blood in their high level mages.” He turned his hand so now that he held mine.
“I'll be honest that I don't want to be in the Guild when the next one is born,” I said, smiling or a close approximation of it. “I was in no danger of dying the first time,” which was actually stretching the truth a bit, but in a good cause, soothing his worry, “and it was the only way to save everyone. Are you jealous?”
“No. What we have is a lot more than a single night of sex. But I do know all the information that has been gathered about elves through my recent research and I know that just because you survived the first time doesn't mean you're guaranteed safety.”
I bumped my head in his chest a couple times in frustration. “If it's a new baby he wants, killing me is not the way he'll get it. They're strange but they're not stupid.”
He kissed my hand, then framed my head with his hands in a gentle grip. “I’ll trust your judgment in this, Alys.”
“What do we do next?” We had some privacy for the moment.
“I'd suggest we clean up, change, then we’ll talk to whoever created the shadow,” Walker said. “I think the attack on your son might be connected to whoever is connected to the shadow.”
