“You could go into hiding, much safer,” Safir said. He’d calmed from earlier. Before I’d started working with Lhorine I’d had a quick word with him. I’d told him I appreciated all the work he’d done on my behalf and would seek his guidance, but that he couldn’t be doing things on his own anymore. He had to run things by me first and learn to accept that others would be involved in the process.
He, in turn, had conceded that he’d been a bit of an ass lately. He’d been on his own for so long that giving up control hadn’t been easy. I expected there’d be more clashes between the two of us… or him and others… but for now at least, he seemed to be trying to help me, not run my life.
“I’d still be hunted, so notthatsafe,” I countered.
He conceded that point with a grimace and a bobble of his head.
Koar, leaning against a nearby wall, grunted. “Yeah, a thousand gold is too good for anyone to pass up. We’d not be able to trust anyone.”
“I’m still not sure we can trustyou!” Safir grumbled, mostly under his breath, but he quieted when I threw him a warning look. Even after our talk, he wasn’t fond of Koar. The dragonhadpunched him earlier, so he may have good reason not to like the big man.
“I have to fight.” I didn’t want to, but it was my only option. “If we want people to follow me, I can’t be some hidden princess who does nothing. I need to be fighting for this nation, for these people, and they need toseeme doing it.”
“Hidden princesses are much safer,” Oli mused, then sighed. “But active ones would rouse the people far more. She’s right.”
Thank you, Grandma.
“And I’m well aware of my shortcomings,” I said. “So what we need is a plan, how can I fight and win. Perhaps the others on my team…?” I glanced over at Koar, I wouldn’t mind him backing me up.
He shook his head. “Dragons are forbidden from participating. We possess too many elements.” He grinned. “We’re hard to control.”
Damn.
“You need a team of four,” Lhorine said softly, almost as if talking to herself. “Do you know anyone with strong elements who’d fight for you?”
“Vyns!” I said immediately. However, I recalled something he’d said about himself and dominion. “But… he has light magic, and I remember him saying that wouldn’t be useful.”
“Not for the main purpose of the game, no,” Lhorine said. “Light can’t push people off the field… but he could still be useful, blinding your opponents, so they can’t see you, can’t attack properly.”
“Oh… and he has a wall of light, like a shield-thing, he can do.”
“More useful than he thinks,” Lhorine agreed. “Anyone else?”
I sighed. I didn’t know if I was still friends with Rook.
Safir brought him up. “What about that incubus? He’s also half salmaeri, isn’t he? That’s fire magic.”
Olinara grumbled. “As much as salmaeri have an affinity for fire magic, most of them are not incredibly strong. Saldrea’s sylph friend would probably blow out his flames without a second thought.”
“I have a nymph friend, Tala,” I offered.
“Is she strong?” Oli asked, then put on a wide, cat-like grin. “Like me?”
“Ah… no.” By her own admission, Tala wasn’t strong in water magic.
“I could put on a new face and be some new nymph friend,” Grandma offered.
“If we were fighting a bunch of guys, you’d be my first choice. You’d be one hell of a distraction, but I don’t want to put you in danger.”
“And if Saldrea figures out who you are, she might make the connection to who Izzy is. Though that’s assuming she hasn’t already,” Safir added.
That was the big unknown: did Saldrea know I was a royal? In many ways it didn’t matter. This was a trap either way.
“I have to believe she doesn’t,” Lhorine said. “I know the princess and her mother well. If she thought you were a royal, a true threat, she’d hunt you down and end you. But instead… she’s trying to draw you out. She’s toying with you. That’s what she does to enemies she believes aren’t a real threat to her status and power.”
That made sense.
“It’s still a risk though, revealing yourself,” Grandma warned.
