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Julita speaks up in a thin voice.Even though I knew Wendos couldn’t be trusted… He trickedmetoo. Not just with the note. Our two classmates that I pointed out to you during the hunt—who knows if they’ve done anything at all? He might have realized I was keeping an eye on him and purposefully gotten close with them when I was around to lead me astray.
After everything else Wendos has done, I wouldn’t be surprised.
My jaw clenches. “We need to find out who his actual associates are. And we can’t go by Julita’s observations—or maybe mine either. He was suspicious of us, so he did whatever he could to confuse the situation.”
“Who did?” Alek demands, just slipping from the conjured passage. “What’s happening?”
“Wendos,” I say darkly. I’m coming to share Julita’s automatic revulsion to the name. “He’s been involved all along.”
Alek’s eyes widen within the frame of his mask. “He really— Gods. With Julita watching him that closely, it must have taken him a lot to hide what he was up to.”
I grimace. “Seems that way.”
Benedikt hustles from the passage, nearly bumping into Alek in his haste. His stride turns jauntier as he veers around the other man and glances us over. “Another emergency. Exciting times we’re living in.”
I wrinkle my nose at him. “I’m not sure ‘exciting’ is the word I’d use.”
He pauses, his gaze lingering on me, and I’m abruptly reminded that this is the first time we’ve spoken to each other since my near-murder. Since his mocking comments in this very room.
Benedikt dips his golden head and reaches a tentative hand to brush my arm through my cloak. “It’s good to see you on your feet again, whatever the circumstances. You gave us quite a scare there.”
I can’t stop my voice from going tart. “Well, I suppose it wouldn’t have beenthatgreat a loss.”
He winces, and I see Alek stiffen at the edge of my vision.
Benedikt’s hand drops to his side. “We were all in a bit of a lather about the whole situation—I said things I shouldn’t have. I would vastly prefer to tackle scourge sorcerers with you at our side than without.”
“Yes,” Alek says quickly. “In case I didn’t make that clear enough earlier, I completely agree.”
Nothing like almost dying to shake a little sense into people, apparently, however much they’ll mean it when the current crisis is over. I notice Stavros hasn’t bothered to outright apologize so far, even though he laid into me the most.
I shouldn’t care. I shouldn’t care what any of them think of me. It hardly counts when they don’t know the worst part of me anyway.
So I shove down the pang that’s filled my heart with their words and keep my tone firm.
“I wouldn’t be here at all if this mission didn’t matter to me more than anything else I could be doing.” I look from Benedikt to Alek, feeling the former general’s presence looming behind me.
Any response they might have given is interrupted by Casimir’s arrival. As he emerges from the wall, his face tight with worry, another shudder of the building’s foundation makes my pulse hiccup.
Nothing at all is going to matter unless we fix this catastrophe fast.
I clap my hands. “All right. Here’s the deal. Wendos has been jerking around a whole lot of people to cover up his involvement in the conspiracy. He arranged Julita’s murder. And he’s got to be up to something even worse right now—him and the others. The daimon have never been this worked up before. We have to stop them, fast.”
Benedikt and Casimir take the revelation in with a flicker of shock that they don’t let interfere with the discussion ahead.
“All right,” Casimir says, soft but steady, and looks at Stavros. “Can you get the Crown’s Watch involved at this point?”
Stavros nods. “That’s my next stop. But the guards are awfully noticeable—easy to dodge. I think we’ll have a better chance of tracking the prick down first.”
Especially if Wendos hasn’t realized who Julita and I have on our side.
I glance down at the blueprint. “So someone needs to check his dorm. Obviously the dining hall is a possibility. Benedikt, you said you’ve played cards with him before, didn’t you? And isn’t he in one of the clubs Ster. Torstem runs—the one for studying bugs?”
The corner of Benedikt’s mouth kicks upward. “You’ve got it all figured out. I can sweep the ground floor of the Domi to check the dining hall and the recreational rooms.”
“I’ll go by his dorm and see if anyone there has seen him recently,” Casimir says. “Although—we need to be able to signal each other if we find him. I want Ivy to hold on to my locket.”
Alek motions to him. “We can stay close together. I’ve got his class schedule memorized. I’ll take a look around the professors’ quarters while you’re checking his dorm, and then we can head over to the Quadring not too far apart and see if he’s arrived early for his afternoon session or gone to any of the offices for extra help.”
