“It’s fantastic!” Kaia cries, bouncing in her chair. “Cat’s a Goddess!”
Heat rises in my face. “I wouldn’t go that far.”Really, I wouldn’t.
Anatole leans forward, looking more serious than I’ve ever seen him. “As shocking, and interesting, as that new revelation is, what does any of this have to do with the Chaos Wizard in Fisa?”
I answer before Piers can jump in and steal my thunder again. “He’s a conduit for the Gods, especially Zeus. He’s completely insane. His knowledge is essentially Chaos, a whirling mass without form. Everything. Ever.Forever. If the Gods are listening, and feeling generous, they can help the wizard to focus. If you go about it the right way, he can tell you anything.”
Piers looks skeptical. “So Grandfather Zeus is going to help you out? Tell you where the Ipotane are and how to not get massacred by them?”
I narrow my eyes and lift my glass, tilting it toward Piers in a slightly mocking salute. “Here’s hoping.” I take a sip.
“What’s the right way to get answers?” Griffin asks, always the pragmatist.
Good question. “We’ll figure it out.” Although the last time I tried, I got stuck with a fate-of-the-world prophecy instead.
My dinner suddenly feels like a block of marble in my stomach. I’m going to have to tell Griffin about that.
“We leave in four days,” Griffin announces. “I need to put things in order here, prepare for an absence.”
“So soon!” Nerissa pales.
“Are you serious?” Piers all but growls. “Just because Cat suggests something doesn’t mean you have to do it!”
“It’s a good idea,” Carver says. “If we wait too long to act, Acantha Tarva could regroup and attack. Leaving now gives us a chance to get the Ipotane on our border before she makes her next move.”
“This can’t be the wisest course of action.” Piers addresses Griffin alone, as if the rest of us don’t exist. “I can build a bigger army. I’ve already started.”
“Our recent successes won’t hold off Delta Tarva for long,” I say. “A few months, maybe. She’ll be distracted by preparations for the Agon Games for now, and tradition dictates that the Tarvan royals attend at least the final rounds and then greet the victors.” There’s no need to explain what the Agon Games are. The highly popular, bloodthirsty competition only happens once every four years and is slated to begin several weeks from now, hosted by the equally bloodthirsty Tarvan royals. “A lot of people, especially Magoi, take the Games very seriously, and having them canceled because of an invasion could easily stir up trouble and resentment Delta Tarva doesn’t want.”
Griffin readily agrees. “She wants Magoi support, not anger.”
“Helen’s right to think Delta Tarva won’t take action again before the Games. And then it’ll be the rainy season, which might hamper her, too,” I add. Storms could buy us time. “But even a few months from now, Piers’s army will still be green. With the Ipotane, we don’t have to worry about that. With them guarding the border, they’ll stop any attack before it even starts.”
Piers focuses on me with barely suppressed ire. “Ifyou come back. Going to the Ice Plains is rash, even for you. Dragging Griffin and Carver there is even rasher.”
Evenfor me?DraggingGriffin?“Should I sit in the library, read all day, and then dazzle people with my ability to retain information I’ll never act upon?”
Piers’s eyes glint furiously. “Maybe you should stop being an arrogant show-off and think about the danger you’re putting people in.”
“DidIbring your family to this castle? DidIsuggest taking over the whole Gods damned world?”
“Cat! Language!” Nerissa says sharply.
I don’t look at her. My expression would make her flinch.
Piers holds my stare. His voice drops in anger. “You’re making things seem possible that aren’t, that would never have seemed feasible before you came along.”
“Came along? I was abducted!”
“Semantics.” Piers flicks his ink-stained fingers in the air.
My jaw drops.Words are important!He’d know that if every single falsehood friedhimfrom the inside out. “Griffin took over an entire realm before ever laying eyes on me. He had a vision. He made it happen.” I level a frosty look on Piers. “Is hope forbidden now? I didn’t get that scroll.”
Piers leans toward me, crowding me with his wide shoulders that throw me into shadow. Is he trying to intimidate me?Ha!
“It’s nothope, it’shopeless. Almost no one survives the Ice Plains. Surviving them, then a war with Tarva, then a war with Fisa…” He shakes his head. “There’s no way.”
“There’salwaysa way,” I say fiercely. “You just might not like it.”
