You are mine,Hannelore said.
I know.
Vines grew around her, sheltering her until she was totally enclosed in the tiny alcove.It hurt, as it was so reminiscent of the magic she’d used with Connor when they’d played hide and seek together in this very spot.
We are one.
Did that mean Hannelore missed Connor too?Felt betrayed by him walking away?She wiped the tears off her cheek.Time healed.She knew that.But she wished she could move forward faster.Let go of the pain.
Sparkling ice-blue flowers began to bloom along the vines.She reached out to touch the cold petals.They were her favorites.The flowers normally bloomed very rarely.The plant needed a warm climate, but the flowers only grew under icy conditions.The sparkles were actually frost, coating the whitish blue petals.
You belong here.
I know that too,she said, her heart calming with a sense of rightness despite the lingering pain.But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.
Time is its own magic.We will heal.
What do I do until then?
Be my guardian, as always.
Chapter 30
Ravensmere Keep, Realm of Calderre
Aweekoftensionknotted Connor’s shoulders as he sat down to yet another clandestine meeting in the dark of night with Ryan, Thalia, Cass, and Morgan.He was itching to do something other than brood and worry, but they were stuck without enough evidence to actually do anything.
Ryan’s victorious grin heralded good news when it was his turn to report.“That is some code, let me tell you.”
“What took so long?”Morgan asked.
“The symbol Connor recognized is for water, if taken literally.But it can also be expanded to mean vastness, depth.Rain, winter.Emotion.”
“Magic, intuition,” Cass added.
“Yes, exactly,” Ryan said.“Using the literal word as a key to decode the letter would have made it quick to break.But it wasn’t.For that symbol, the key was actuallyemotion.Each of the letters we found used a combination of four symbols to decode, rotating through them over and over until the message was complete.”
“You were able to decode them both, though?”
“Yes.”The previous happiness at breaking the code dropped from Ryan’s face.He pulled out two pages of short, plain text.Offered one to Connor and one to Morgan.
“These are the messages I extracted from the letters we copied.If we recover any of the other letters, I can decode them, too.But I didn’t see any in her desk.She may have burned the older ones.”
Taking the page with a queasy stomach, Connor forced himself to read the contents.It seemed to be a status report, updating Alison on the progress of the drug research.
Youth and teen lab trials satisfactory.Severe side effects of brain infection and internal bleeding have been mitigated enough to continue to next phase.Initial field trials seem promising.Teen age group continues to have a higher mortality rate than the youth with prolonged exposure.Per leadership recommendation, an additional lab trial for the teen age group will occur alongside the planned adult trial.An urgent request for fresh test subjects has been sent to our contacts with the mage trade.Funding needed for trial continuation and for the second phase of drug development.
Connor’s stomach rolled, knowing they were referring to children like Veda and Opal.Either of his girls could have easily been swept away to a lab like this, used as test subjects for the drug research.
He passed the page he’d read over to Thalia without comment.Across from him, Cass had taken the second message out of Morgan’s hand to read it.
“I know, it’s bad,” Ryan said softly, looking just at him.
It truly was.Connor directed his words to Morgan when he finally spoke.“Is this enough to charge her?Combined with the drug vial?”
“It’s enough to arrest her,” Morgan specified.“The interrogation will have to gather more to make it stick.But the military isn’t the proper jury for her.She needs to be tried for treason.”
Beside him, Connor felt Ryan and Thalia’s tension mixing with his own.They had wanted justice for the death of their teammates.This wasn’t the same.Crimes against the state were long and drawn out.There hadn’t been one for treason in his memory.
