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Walker put his hands on my shoulders. Yes, we were a couple, but we couldn’t work our problems out while we were in the Guild and I couldn’t stay. I still had to sort out how I felt about him being Rope. Not so much the executioner part, but the part where he didn’t tell me what he was after he knew I’d fallen for him.
“So, it’s like that, then?” Flint considered us.
“Yes, it is,” Walker said.
“I’ll see to it that the Dumonts arrive in Sensen in good order.” Flint regarded Silver. “So, what do we tell the legislature and the people coming here to find out what happened?”
Relief flooded me. This wasn’t going to turn into a fight, they were working to make Dmitri come to me. I hadn’t wanted to blaze into the Capitol, killing people and risking going elf again.
Silver shook his head. “We can’t say Alys is dead if we’re going to deliver her son to her. Do you think officially writing the rest of her sentence off as time served is best? They can’t argue legally with returning the child if she’s been deported, Especially if Robert and Elise have already moved to Sensen and handed him over.”
“Wait, I thought the Tree sentenced me?” I snapped.
Silver shook his head. “The Tree found you guilty. We sentenced you under the guidelines of Guild law. Guild law also gives us the power to pardon, if we see fit.”
“Commute it,” Rue said. “That way no strings can be attached later and make everything messy.” She looked and acted nothing like the character in the holodramas about the Judges. In fact, none of them did. Frost wasn’t here, but all four of the others were. Four of the five of the most powerful people in the Guild, even if they were subject to orders from the government.
“We haven’t used that in ages, and we should remind Capitol we can do that. They’ve gotten too secure, too decadent. We’ve all withdrawn too much, and now we need to clean house. This situation could have been incredibly messy—had the mage-Ridden attacked a major population center.” Rue tapped Cohen’s body, a statue made of ash, body with the side of her boot. It collapsed in a heap. She wrinkled her nose.
Then her face became stonier than the ground under her feet. “And those who died here need to be buried with full honors and their families recompensed, since they were enslaved at the Administrator’s behest. And we need to make public what he did, if not how he was stopped. Collaboration with the Ridden can’t be tolerated.”
Flint took out a red baggie with a hazard symbol on it and swept ash and bits of bone into it from the collapsed heap. “This should be enough for a positive ID. Be ready for arguments from the President’s office, Rue.”
“The Wendigo,” I said. “Tuuli Lahtinen- she’s here, in the county, but she’s not coming close. I don’t think she trusts you. But she confirmed it was summoned, and Melissa Cohen is the only person other than her still living.”
Silver nodded. “Melissa is being monitored. The evidence is still circumstantial unless some records survived here.” He viewed the devastation. “Which isn’t likely.”
“Why not simply say that we all fought the mage-Ridden that Ross Cohen had helped create, and Aly’s sentence was commuted in light of her service? Make her a heroine, sway public opinion toward her and her son. The legislature and the President still need votes,” Walker said.
“I like it. Wardens and news will be arriving soon.” Rue’s expression went blank for a moment. “I’m told Kara Dumont has been delivered to her parents. Frost is blocking the Road until we’ve made a final decision. She’s complaining about it as usual, but she’s already voted for commutation.”
“Agreed?” Silver extended a hand, palm up.
Rue nodded.
Flint grunted. “Yes.”
“Aye,” said Walker.
“Then your sentence is done. You have until sundown to leave Guild territory and may return once you’ve filed the paperwork for a visa, Alys Stormdust-Quinn.” Silver said it with a finality that chimed through my body.
I snorted. As if I wouldn’t be back if Robert and Elise didn’t bring Dmitri to Sensen in three days. Possibly to rescue all three.
Rue said, “Good luck. I hope…no. I’ll keep my oar out of your business.”
She scrambled out of the ruins without further comment. I felt the magic shift as she called the Road.
“Walker, would you be so kind as to escort this undocumented alien to a border, preferably Kalderon’s?” Silver turned back to the wreckage. “The other alien should also take himself away from my sight.”
Chance glanced at me, his expression questioning.Do you want Walker to take you?
I nodded.
He too, called the Road and left. He’d probably hoped they hadn’t noticed him listening in.
With each person leaving, I felt a little better. Even though they’d tried, and to an extent managed to blur their emotions and I’d been ignoring them, still it had pressed against me. I need to go back to my family.
Walker stood by me, but we didn’t speak.
