Unfortunately for Avalon, it didn’t go into much detail abouthowthey’d used their magic, and none of them had any magic remotely comparable to Avalon’s.
Vox cleared his throat. “Are your men on the boat staying well stocked? Do they need anything?”
I kept the suspicion from my face, though it was difficult. “Yes, they’re fine. They have supplies.”
“I see your second around the halls also. He’s settling in okay?”
Vox Vylan was making small talk with me, and it was as awkward as I’d have imagined. “He’s fine. He’s strong in his own right, and I’m sure that most of the staff believe he’s been on the books for years by now.”
That made his jaw tense. It might have seemed casual, but a throwaway comment about the depth of our power was my intention. I wanted him to know that we were dialling it back on purpose. I could make the whole of the war college dancearound the cobblestoned courtyard until their feet bled, if I was so inclined.
Clearly, he understood. “We’re having a meeting tonight in the Ninth Line dorm with a few people we trust implicitly. You and Iker should be there.”
“A meeting about what, exactly?” I narrowed my eyes.
“The existence of the Second Line. My father’s plan to starve out the Eleventh and Twelfth Lines. We need to come up with a way to feed the West of Ebrus.” He dropped his voice lower. “The need for change. I will tell them that I believe we should join your revolution. It’s time. The rot has gone too deep, and surface-level remedies won’t help; I know this better than anyone. We have to cut it out once and for all.”
I poked around inside his head a little, looking for deceit, and finding nothing but genuine regret. “You’d betray your Line? Your family?”
He looked at Avalon. “I’m saving my Line. And she is my family.”
I nodded, not needing to be inside his head to hear the truth in his statement.
I felt my heart pound in my chest. This was it. It felt right. “We’ll be there.”
Nine
Avalon
I’d never had this many people in my dorm room… well, ever. I was fairly sure that these four walls probably hadn’t seen this many people in a century, unless one of my predecessors had been more social than the rest of us.
Lucio and Shay stood in the corner talking softly, and I wondered if they were thinking of an easy way to take me out completely, because let’s face it, since I’d come along, their Heirs, the people they’d pledged their life to, had died at least three times between them.
Not that Shay and Lucio would know that. We’d decided to keep my powers between us for now. Well, us, the Librarian, Lierick, Iker, and most of the Second Line army floating out there off the coast of Boemouthe.
The Twelfth Line had turned up with food. I hadn’t even considered supplying snacks, because this wasn’t a party, it was the seed of a rebellion. But the Twelfth Line brought some kind of little stuffed potatoes and a cask of mead, which shifted the intense feeling of the meeting into something more like a gathering of friends than a cloak-and-dagger affair.
That was the magic of the Twelfth. They turned any collection of people into a community.
Hayle wrapped an arm around my shoulders as he took a bite of his potato. “Try this,” he groaned, putting it to my lips. I took a bite and hummed happily. It was creamy and smooth. Somehow, they’d hard-baked the skin, whipped the insides with butter and dried bacon, and put it all back inside with some herbs I couldn’t name off the top of my head. It was delicious.
“So good,” I agreed. “Should we get started?”
I searched the rest of the faces. There were six people from the Twelfth Line: Viana and Acacia of course, Link and Polus, and the two most senior Twelfth Line conscripts, Eliot and Rosalie. They were chatting with Alize from the Eleventh Line, who I’d only ever spoken to in passing, as well as two other Eleventh Line conscripts I didn’t recognize.
Vox was speaking quietly to Lierick and Iker, and the difference between Lierick and Vox was like night and day. Seeing them together when they weren’t focused on me was like watching a solar eclipse, the sun and the moon battling it out to see who would prevail, if only briefly.
Lierick caught my eyes, and his whole face softened. Giving me a crooked grin that made my heart thud faster in my chest, I wondered how any man had the right to be that beautiful. The two of them together made my whole body tingle in a way that was one hundred percent inappropriate lust. Quickly squashing it down, I gave Hayle a tight smile as he glanced at me, a question in his expression that I wasn’t ready to answer.
He cleared his throat. “Thanks for coming. Most of you might have guessed the purpose of this meeting, but I wanted us all to be on the same page in regards to our actions going forward.” He paused as the atmosphere shifted from party vibes to something more somber. “For some of us, the appearance of the Second Line has been a revelation, and for others, it’s the airing of a generational secret. None of that matters now. We are at a historical knifepoint.” Although his expression was calm andauthoritative, I could see the tension in his shoulders and the way he had his back teeth clenched.
“Anything said in this room is to be met with the strictest confidence. I don’t want to threaten you to keep this to yourself.” Hayle mightn’t want to, but the insinuation was there, and the whole room knew it. “If you don’t think you can keep the secrets of tonight, I invite you to leave. No one would think less of you.”
If I had the option, I might’ve left. But no one did, and I sighed with relief. We’d agreed earlier that if anyone did leave, Lierick would wipe the night from their mind. I hated the idea of scrubbing holes in the memories of my friends like that.
Seeing everyone stay put, Hayle gave them all a pleased expression. “Just to reiterate, and in case you haven’t seen them around the halls of Boellium, this is Lierick Hanovan, Heir to the Second Line, and his second, Iker Hanovan.” His handsome face grew solemn again. “I need you to know that what we’re talking about isn’t as simple as keeping a secret anymore. Everything said after this moment will be considered traitorous. A rebellion at best, and if we’re successful, a revolution. I need you all to understand the gravity of this.”
He looked at Shay and Lucio then, arguably the two with the most to lose if they were discovered. They’d be tortured by the First Line, if it was discovered they were part of a plot to overthrow the current Baron of the First Line.
