Our weapons were inside. Our blades, our daggers. Asherah’s chest plate. Even my stave.
“Are you going after the shield now?” Aiden asked.
“Change of plans,” I said, still stunned.
“Okay, well grab your weapons everyone, and someone tell me what the fuck we’re doing.” Aiden looked terrified, the way he’d looked when the akadim attacked, but his face was full of resolve.
“We’re leaving,” Rhyan said.
“Wait, ” Dario said suddenly, looking exasperated. “Rhyan, before you try to argue with us again, we know. We know fucking everything. About Garrett, about your mother …”
Rhyan paled. “You do?” he asked, his voice shaking.
“Fucking hell. Of course, we know. How could we not? We know you. Okay? Look, the contract your father made Lyriana sign,” Dario said. “We have one, too. We can’t disobey direct orders, unless more than a day has passed. That’s why we couldn’t say anything. But he messed up. Forgot to give us our orders today with everything going on.”
Rhyan’s breath caught. “You … you don’t blame me for Garrett? Or … my mother? Your father?”
Dario’s jaw clenched. “No. We don’t. I mean, look, I’m pissed as hell at you. And you deserved those punches. It was your hand. And then right after, you left and never came back, never even fucking wrote. We’ll talk it out later, whenwe have time. Okay? But we’re with you now.Me sha, me ka.On my life.” He pressed his hand to his heart.
“And mine, too,” Aiden said quietly. “I swear. We’re ready. Whatever this is, whatever we’re doing, we’re at your command.”
Suddenly Rhyan was moving toward Aiden and Dario and all three were hugging.
“Heartwarming. Really,” Tristan said. “But we’re on the clock right now and that clock is running the fuck out of time.”
Rhyan’s eyes were red, but he stepped back, nodding in agreement.
While everyone gathered their weapons and I clasped Asherah’s chest plate around my neck, I filled them in. Told them we were going after Jules, which room it was on the maps, and that after we were escaping to our original rendezvous point. We were abandoning the shield completely. And to get close to Jules and Galen, Rhyan and I were going to pretend to be bound and allow ourselves to be handed over.
“You had three guards,” Aiden said quickly. I could see his mind racing, tracking all the details we’d just fired at him.
Tristan nodded.
Aiden pushed his auburn hair back, and his eyes turned to slits, his face showing an expression of deep concentration. “I can’t hold this for too long. But long enough to get us inside the interrogation room. Long enough to take them by surprise.”
He pointed his stave at his chest, and his features distorted until he looked like an older, paler version of himself, with darker hair, and a beard. His blue mage robes were replaced with a green cloak, and the pale golden armor of the soturi who served the Emperor. A golden Valalumir tattoo appeared on his cheek.
He’d glamoured himself into a Palace guard.
Tristan’s jaw dropped, but Dario clapped. “Yes! Yes, this is perfect. Do me now!”
Dario was changed next, his features following a similar distortion, though Aiden turned his hair blond at the last second, and he moved onto Meera. She looked a bit unsettled, taking on the appearance of a man, while Tristan seemed simply shocked by the whole thing. He clearly had never seen Glemaria’s Apprentice to the Master of Spies at work. I was just glad this time that he wasn’t using his glamour magic against me.
Finally, Rhyan and I were changed. We still looked like ourselves, but instead of armor, it looked like I was in a sleeping gown, my hair mussed as if I’d been pulled from bed. Rhyan was in a simple tunic and pants. And most importantly, we appeared bound. Aiden brushed sweat from his forehead, his entire body tensed.
“Follow me,” Tristan said.
We exited our quarters and entered a long hall with soturi standing every few feet. I sucked in a breath with each one we passed. Finally we came to an empty hall I recognized from earlier.
“How did no one hear the fight back there?” I hissed.
“I cast a silencing spell,” Tristan said. “I didn’t want any other soturi to be alerted, and I didn’t really know how this was going to go. Particularly with Hart.”
I glanced at Rhyan, but he only shrugged. “I mean, he’s right.” Then Rhyan slid closer to me as we rounded a corner. “Lyr, when we get in there. I need you to do me one more favor,” he said, his voice low.
“You’re calling in an awful lot of these,” I teased, willing my stomach to stop turning.
But then Rhyan’s good eyebrow furrowed, his face serious. “You can’t touch Jules. At all. You can’t be the one to rescue her, no matter how much you want to be, and you can’t heal her. Not until we’re outside the Palace.
