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“But the government isn’t serving the kingdom if they’re too focused on protecting themselves,” Gia said. “They need to send out their best people and track this Grey down before he can twist more minds. It’s the only right thing to do.”
Renley grimaced. “It’s awful to think that every day we delay may mean more minds forever tainted by Grey’s lies.”
“Actually…about that.” Nik’s hand tightened around mine again. “There’s something Hayes and Amara didn’t know when they sent that message. Delphine has worked out how to purge mesmerizations. So once we find them, we can free the minds Grey has touched.”
Gia shot upright. “Really?” She stared at me. “But that’s amazing news! Father can stop being so afraid and start actually doing something.”
“It’s certainly an unlooked-for boon,” Hayes said. “But at this point, Delphine hasn’t been able to teach anyone else to do it. So the skill is limited to Delphine herself.”
Gia winced. “That’s unfortunate.” She shot a look at Renley. “Maybe we should hold off telling Father about this new development just yet.”
“You want us to defy the king and go hunting for Grey on our own?” Luna asked in a neutral tone.
Hayes’s frown deepened, and I caught the worried look he sent in her direction.
Gia waved her hand airily. “Oh, nothing as subversive as that. I’m merely suggesting that you aren’t under any explicit orders to report directly to the capital, so it might be worth our while to take a more circuitous route there.”
Nik nodded slowly, and Gia grinned.
“I like rebellious Nik,” she said. “If I hadn’t been so worried about you for the last two years, I would have been cackling and rubbing my hands in glee to see you go rogue.”
This time it was my turn to squeeze Nik’s hand. Hayes had clearly been right about Nik’s family being worried about him.
“I’m not so sure about this.” Hayes looked to Amara. “Anka is a trained law enforcement official, and she’s very good at what she does.” He turned back to Gia. “I don’t know why you think we could do any better.”
“Actually,” I said slowly. “There’s someone in Tartora who was tracking and studying Grey before Anka even knew he existed. The same person who found this camp when she couldn’t.” I looked at Nik. “And he’s here with us.”
Amara considered my words, looking thoughtful. “Nik certainly knows more about Grey than I do. So tell us, expert—if we were to entertain this plan, what would you be advising?”
Nik disentangled his fingers from mine so he could lean both his elbows on the table, his eyes narrowing.
“Did you talk to Anka?” he asked his sister. “What’s her strategy?”
“They’re assuming his goal is the capital—it’s the only thing that makes sense given his ability,” Gia said, glibly handing out what I could only assume had to be state secrets. “Grey doesn’t need to spend time raising an army before attempting a coup. All he needs is direct access to those at the top.”
“And so they’ve made a fortress around themselves,” Nik murmured, his eyes narrowing. “But it’s been an entire season, and Grey clearly hasn’t managed to infiltrate the court. So what else have they been doing?”
“He’s in hiding, clearly,” Renley said. “So the theory is that he must be either laying low in some remote region, trying to avoid notice, or else he’s lurking somewhere nearby, ready to make a move. So Anka has split her forces. She only has a few who have personal experience with him in Caltor, and she’s sent some of them to circle through the more remote towns, while others have finished scouring Caltor and have now moved on to Ostaria, working their way out from the capital. Of course constant rumors about him crop up everywhere, but none of them have borne fruit yet.”
“As far as they know,” Gia said. “Because of course there’s the constant fear that the people they sent to investigate may have encountered Grey and been forcibly turned.”
Nik raised an eyebrow. “In that case, it’s obvious. We should start in Eldrida.”
“Eldrida?” Hayes asked.
“If I’d been in the capital, I would have recommended they start there, but instead it seems to be down the bottom of their list of places to focus.”
“Why Eldrida?” Amara asked, her expression giving nothing away.
“It’s not an obvious staging point for the capital,” Hayes added, his eyes also fixed on Nik.
Nik shrugged. “Maybe not, but it’s the place Grey knows best. He and his people must have contacts there. They were stationed at this camp for a long time, and Eldrida was their only trading point.”
Gia jumped to her feet. “See! I knew there would be something we could do. And this is perfect. No one could criticize us for returning through Eldrida. It’s basically on the way.”
Hayes and Amara exchanged a look. Finally Hayes spoke.
“Very well, then. We can travel from here to Eldrida and from there to the capital. It would have been our likely route anyway.”
