Cillian voice drops low but still audible to everyone around the room, “She rememberseverythinghe told her.”
Niko stands with this revelation, and Cillian pulls himself up from leaning over the desk. They hold each others gaze for a breath, the tension almost unbearable even to me.
“If all of you will excuse us.” Niko’s eyes are still fixed firmly on Cillian, but they have a new level of intensity. “The kingand I have some security matters to discuss, privately.”
From the root system that I occupy, I take in each of the Guardian’s faces as they stand to leave the room. Each one silently eyeing their commander and king.
Slowly they file out of the room, closing the door behind them. For multiple heartbeats, no one moves. Niko and Cillian still unmoving, watching one another over his desk.
I ease out of the root system that concealed me, materializing and collapse onto a floating couch that the top Guardian’s just vacated. Niko finally cracks a smile and begins a slow clap. I quirk the corner of my mouth at Cillian as he turns towards me, rolling his eyes.
“Lord Commander, really?” Niko says his title with gusto, lifting an eyebrow at his best friend who has settled down next to me.
Cillian lets out a short laugh, pulling me close. “It felt right in the moment.”
Niko’s smile drops. “Did you see some of the looks on their faces? That was fear,” he says.
Cillian nods soberly. “With luck it shouldn’t be too long.”
Niko leans down, pulling out a sphere filled with numerous sirilis guppies. It’s taken days to gather them and get them here. We all watch them closely in fascination.
The tiny fish are an oddity, only found in the deepest parts of the ocean that separates Solevara and Varethiel. In the past, they were more readily available but the beasts that now plague the seas make it a perilous undertaking.
“Where did Hazel even get this many sirilises on such short notice?” Niko asks. He eyes the little fish that are needed to create the markings that run up his neck.
“I have no idea.” Cillian wasn’t happy about asking Aiden for the favor. He still isn’t sure we can trust Varethiel’s princebut we knew the witch could help with what we needed.
We fall silent when the mouthless fish begin to shimmer and swim along the outside edges of their confinement. Suddenly, a dozen voices flood the room.
We flinch at the chaotic chorus of voices that flow from the sphere. But as the sirilis fall into a pattern, their scales shine brighter and begin to sift through the words, separating the conversations.
“Did you see how mad he was? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Cillian like that.”One voice fills the space between us.
“What do you think he confessed?”
“Who knows with everything that entitled prick did.”
We glance at each other. “Just because they don’t like him doesn’t mean they were part of it,” Niko says.
“Thank the Goddess the queen woke up. I was starting to think we lost them both.”
“Mhmm,”is all the relief about my life being spared is met with.
“Can you imagine the storms Gaia would have sent…”
We continue to listen to Guardian after Guardian discuss the day’s gossip along with the show Cillian and Niko just put on for them.
Niko writes down a few names. Clearly some of the Guardians have realized, or been told, that the storms are connected to Nova and me. But there’s no definitive evidence that any of them were involved in my kidnapping or any of the previous treachery.
As conversations begin to shift to drills and schedules, my heart sinks, losing hope in the plan.
“Maybe this was a bad idea—” I start but my voice breaks off as Niko holds up his hand.
A panicked voice echoes through the room.
“Your Highness…”
Chapter
