My eyes widened. “Twins?” I asked in a hushedvoice.
She beamed. “We are doubly blessed,” she said, planting a kiss on Comenius’scheek.
I hugged them both, feeling absurdly excited for them. “I’m so happy for you both,” I said. Everyone seemed to be increasing their families…but Iannis and I would get around to that eventually, when things settled down a bit.There was no rush, I toldmyself.
“You haven’t had any more trouble with your in-laws in Manuc?” Com asked, leaning in as he lowered his voice. We’d told Comenius and Elania what had happened, as well as Fenris and Mina, but no one else knew the truth about our long “vacation.”
“No, and I don’t expect to hear from them again,” I said firmly, sincerely hoping I wasright.
“Good. They sound far tootroublesome.”
“If you need any help with them, we are at your service,” Elaniasaid.
“I know.” I smiled at them, glad that in all likelihood, they would never need to face a Tua. There were some things better left to oldlegends.
Iannis and I made our rounds through the gathering, talking to Rylan, who complained how boring his life was these days, and to Janta and Tinari, who were doing fine. Tinari had been overcome with joy when I’d returned—when she’d first laid eyes on me, she’d wrapped her arms tight around me and refused to let go for a very long while. Janta informed me that she and the other girls felt guilty, and I’d had to assure them all that what had happened wasn’t their fault. Ta’sradala would have found a way to get to me even if I hadn’t been playing hide-and-seek in thegarden.
Fenris and Mina’s friends, Barrla and Marris, a cheerful young couple from Watawis, were playing with Liu, who had got the afternoon off for the occasion. Trouble was observing everything from the curtain rod and occasionally repeating something in his raucous parrotvoice.
“We’d love to stay longer,” Iannis finally said to Fenris and Mina, who were sitting with Fenris’s “grandparents” in the corner, “but unfortunately, Sunaya and I have to be off to the Minister’sreception.”
“Of course.” Mina and Fenris rose. “Thank you so much for doing this for us,” Mina said, reaching up so she could hug Iannis. “It is amazing what you two have pulled together on such shortnotice.”
I laughed. “We couldn’t have done it without my assistant,” I said as I hugged her next. “I’m just glad I got to see the two of you married. You two were made for eachother.”
“Yes, we are,” Fenris said, putting an arm around Mina’s shoulder. He kissed the top of her head, and she snuggled into him, her face glowing with pleasure. Exchanging glances, Iannis and I left them to enjoy the rest of their reception, and we changed and got into thecarriage.
“We’re nearly done with all this wedding business now,” I said to Iannis as we slowly progressed through the heavy traffic. “How is the Convention going?” It had kept him very busy, since he was the head of the Canalo delegation and had missed all the preliminary horse-dealingsessions.
“Reasonably well.” Iannis smiled. “Yesterday we managed to defeat a new law that the Minister proposed to extend the mandate of Toring’s new agency over the entire Federation. Garrett will still need to work with the Chief Mages, and seek their permission, before he undertakes investigations in ourstates.”
“Garrett won’t like that,” I said. I could imagine the disappointment on his face when the bill was struck down. “Was there really any chance of something like that getting passed, though? Surely the Chief Mages would not vote for something that decreases their autonomy somuch?”
“You’d think so, but it was a near thing. I’m sure they will try again at the next Convention. Toring is nothing if nottenacious.”
We arrived at the concert hall and were received by the Minister, as the host. There was some initial tension between him and Iannis that made me wonder if it was just because of the defeated legislation or something more serious—but this wasn’t the time to ask Iannis, as both of us were swamped with felicitations, questions, requests, and gossip. The hall was packed with close to a thousand people, including forty-seven of the fifty Chief Mages and many of their families, the entire Federal Government from Dara, the most important foreign diplomats, and the heads of numerous institutions, museums, newspapers, and bigcompanies.
Supposedly, all these bigwigs were there to celebrate Iannis and me getting hitched. It was more likely that they were all here to hobnob and trade favors with each other, but I just went with the flow, chatting with everyone I was introduced to, sipping at my wine, and letting the glitter and noise wash over me like a river. Yes, it was more mind-numbing than filing paperwork, but at least I was back home instead of fighting my way through another one of Ta’sradala’schallenges.
As usual, there were a few mages who eyed me with disdain, but I ignored them. I couldn’t wait to seal my bond with Iannis, our commitment to each other, in front of the mage community, and finally shut up the naysayers who insisted our romance would never work out. After everything Iannis’s grandmother had put me through, I wasn’t ever going to let anyone say that I wasn’t worthy of Iannis. I had survived those tests for him, and we had made it through the last one together. If that wasn’t a sign from the Creator that we were meant to be a couple, I didn’t know whatwas.
22
“Sunaya!Iannis!”
I froze, mid-conversation with a nosy socialite, at the sound of Fenris’s voice in my head. It sounded staticky, like it was coming through a bad radio connection, and I frowned. Was I imaginingthings?
“Miss Baine?” the socialite asked, giving me an odd look. “Is everythingokay?”
I shook off the strange feeling. “Everything’s fine,” I said. I must have imagined his voice. What would Fenris be doing here anyway? He was supposed to be back at the palace, enjoying his reception withMina.
“Sunaya!”Fenris’s voice came through loud and clear this time, blowingthattheory out of the water.“Can you hearme?”
“Fenris?” I called back, alarmed now.“Are youhere?”
“Outside. I forgot my invitation and the guards won’t let us in. We have a theory that the Resistance may have found a way to smuggle in bombs and are planning to blow up the concert halltonight.”
“Fucking hell,” I swore. A possible attack? I’d thought we were past allthis!
