Brand eyed the guards nearby, their faces a perfect picture of disinterest.
“Why?”
“Because going to Glynmor is a mistake. It’s not a coincidence they’ve asked for your help just as the rest of thisshite is happening. We’re going to take a female who can’t even raise her voice?”
All of the lightness left him, the weight of reality settling on his shoulders.
“I never truly thought it was a coincidence,” he said quietly. “Though, I may have tried to hope.”
His frivolous worry over whether Lunara would like a sunset had allowed him to ignore the riddled message for a few hours. The deeply personal nature of it.
“We shouldn’t go.”
“We will absolutely go,” he said, pushing into the main hall. “This is exactly the point of my existence and position. If not me, or my brothers, then who? Fortunately, we’ll have a marginally trained Sorcerit on our side by the time we do.”
He crossed the empty space, his mind on the kitchens at the far end. On food, then sleep and forgetting. And… maybe another thing. If Lunara liked giving gifts, perhaps she’d like receiving them in return.
“How, exactly, do you plan to accomplish that in a matter of days, Brand?”
Lyriat emerged from his secret passage behind the thrones, the stone melting back into place as he stepped away from the opening.
Hedda pinched the bridge of her nose with a long-suffering sigh. “Where are your bloody guards?”
Lyriat at least had the decency to look guilty. “Probably scrambling in a panic somewhere near my quarters while they try to figure out how to tell you they’ve lost me. I figured the passageways were safe enough.”
“Except you’re notinthe passageways, are you? You’re right fucking here, out in the open!”
“No one outside of the family knows they exist. What danger is there? Since I haven’t been able to take a damned piss innearly a week without someone looking over my shoulder, I needed a moment to myself. Ergo…”
Hedda looked between him and Lyriat, mouth gaping. “Am I the last one left in Straelon with a fucking brain? I swear.”
Lyriat waved that away. “I could take on the lot of you with a hand tied behind my back and still come out the victor. I’mfine. Besides, it’s rather late for you two to still be awake. Is something the matter?”
“I was just informing Hedda of the delay in our journey, and how she will now be spending the extra days training Lunara before we go.”
“What?”she shrieked.
Lyriat chuckled. “A fine choice. How long?”
Brand took a moment to consider all of the possibilities. Too long, and the wait would unravel his already fraying nerves. Too short, and there was no point in it. “A week?”
“If it were up to me, you wouldn’t be going at all. I’m happy for you to postpone as long as you want.”
Hedda pressed two fingers into each temple. “You want me to turn her into a warrior in seven days?”
“No.” Brand paced as Lyriat flopped into his throne, watching them. “I want you to make sure she can defend herself within seven days. I want you to be certain she can hold her own as a last resort.”
“That would probably take years,” she grumbled.
“It’ll take a week, because that’s how much time you have.” Mind made up, Brand strode away, heading not for the kitchens, but somewhere else entirely.
“Where are you going?” Lyriat called after him.
“To send another message.”
It didn’t matter that Vann had yet to answer the first, more important missive. After the debacle over the damned fabric the Demons relied on, his brother owed him.
“To whom?”
