“Sounds rather vague. Perhaps you have more information on this?” The Commander flourished a scroll then handed it to me.
I unrolled the parchment. Each word I read increased my concern and outrage.
“And if you notice—” he leaned over and tapped the bottom “—it’s signed by all the Councilors, but it’s lacking two Master Magicians’ signatures. Curious.”
Curious wouldn’t be the word I would use. Disastrous sounded more fitting. I worried about Irys and Bain. If the Council tried to coerce their signatures, what had happened to them by refusing? I focused on the paper in my hand. Fretting wouldn’t help Irys and Bain.
In short, the letter warned the Commander about my renegade status and suggested my treasonous companions and I be killed on sight. Probably the reason Roze had been confident I wouldn’t be safe in Ixia.
“They seek to undermine your credibility all the while planning to attack me. Do they think I’m a simpleton?” He relaxed back in his chair and sighed. “Explain to me exactly what’s going on.”
“If I knew exactly, then I wouldn’t have sounded so vague.” My turn to sigh. I wiped a hand over my face, thinking how best to tell the Commander about Cahil. Did I mention the Fire Warper or not? I had no idea what role he played in all this. Exactly the problem.
So I explained about Ferde’s escape with Cahil’s help and how Cahil had turned it all around to implicate Marrok, Leif and me.
“Sounds like assassinating the Council would be a good deed for Sitia,” the Commander said.
“That would give Cahil and his cohorts evidence they were right to suspect you. Sitia would rally behind them in support. Valek agrees with me. He hasn’t targeted the Council yet. He’s on his way here.”
If the Commander was surprised, he didn’t show it. “So you already delayed my preemptive strike. Yet you have no proof.”
“None. That’s why I wanted you to wait before launching another attack. We need more information. Valek and I—”
The office door opened. Star came into the room, carrying a tray of food. The Commander’s food taster froze in shock when she recognized me. My own pulse skipped when I saw my old uniform being worn by her. And not just any woman, but the former Captain Star, who had been the leader of a successful black market and racketeering ring before Valek uncovered her operation.
Star stared daggers at me. Her goon’s unsuccessful attempt on my life had led to her capture. Already warned about Valek’s setup, Star could have disappeared into her own underground network. Instead, she had let petty vengeance rule her and now she tasted food for the Commander.
“At least you survived the training,” I said to her.
She looked away. The long red curls of her hair had been tied into a sloppy knot, and her prominent nose led the way as she walked. Putting the tray onto the Commander’s desk, she performed a fast taste and left. Even though two lunches had been set on the tray, she tested only the one.
I eyed my food. Star seemed surprised at my presence, but that could have been an act. She could still be nursing her desire for revenge. The Commander handed me a plate. Not to appear rude, I took a tentative bite of the meat pie, chewing slowly and rolling the food around my tongue. The beef was flavored with rosemary and ginger and lacked poisons. At least, I couldn’t taste the poisons I remembered. I lost my appetite when I remembered Moon Man’s comment about learning by doing and how easy it was to forget dictated information.
We talked about minor things while eating. When I complimented his new chef on the lemon-wedge dessert, he told me Sammy now held the position.
“Rand’s fetch boy?” I asked. He was thirteen years old.
“He worked with Rand for four years and it became evident only he knew all the ingredients in Rand’s secret recipes.”
“But he’s so young.” The kitchen during meal times had been a cacophony of ordered chaos guided by Rand’s firm hand.
“I gave him a week to prove he could do it. He’s still there.”
I had forgotten age didn’t matter to the Commander. He could have forced Sammy to divulge the recipes, but he respected ability over experience or gender. My young friend, Fisk the beggar boy turned entrepreneur, would have flourished in Ixia.
When we finished lunch, the Commander moved the tray aside and repositioned his snow cat statue. Glints of silver sparked from the black stone. The single piece of decoration in the room, the cat was one of Valek’s carvings. Killing a snow cat was considered impossible. The citizens of Ixia avoided the lethal creatures living on the northern ice pack. The cat’s preternatural ability to escape death made it feared.
Commander Ambrose was the only person to successfully hunt and kill one, and in doing so, he proved to himself that despite his mutation he could infiltrate a man’s world just as he had lived among the snow cat’s world. He believed his female body had just been a disguise for his soul. Only the Commander and I knew about his hunt and dual personalities. He had sworn me to secrecy when I had rescued him from Mogkan’s mind control.
“Before Star came in with lunch you mentioned getting more information about the Sitian Council. Now that you’re a wanted criminal, how do you plan to achieve that?” the Commander asked.
“I had hoped to infiltrate the Citadel and talk to one of the Councilors. But I fear the Master Magician’s magic would discover me, so now I want to borrow Valek and a few of his men. They could assist us in contacting the Councilor.”
“Which one?”
“Bavol Cacao Zaltana, my clan’s Councilman. He has been my strongest supporter and if you see by his signature…” I picked the Sitian letter up and pointed to his name. “He didn’t include his family name, Cacao, in his signature, so it’s not an official inscription. I believe it’s a message to me that he can be approached.”
The Commander stared across the room as if considering my words. After a while, he brought his attention back to me. “You want me to risk my chief of security to help you gain information. All the while I’m to do nothing and hope the Sitians don’t attack before you discover what’s going on?”
“Yes.” Although, the way the Commander said it made the situation sound terrible. There was no sense sugarcoating it. And the last thing I wanted was to put Valek or anyone else at risk. But it had to be done.
The Commander rested his chin on his folded hands. “The information isn’t worth the risk. I could wait to see what develops with the Council and then decide how to handle it.”
“But—”
A warning flashed in his eyes. “Yelena, why would you care what happens to the Council? They have turned their backs on you. You can’t go back to Sitia. You would provide the most help here with me as my adviser.”
An unexpected offer. I considered. “What about my companions?”
“Magicians?” A small crease of distaste pinched his forehead.
“Two.”
“They could be part of your staff if you want. But they can not use their magic against any Ixians without my permission.”
“What about my magic? Would you place the same restrictions on me?”
The Commander’s gaze didn’t waver. “No. I trust you.”
I froze for a moment in shock. His trust was an honor, and, considering the recent reaction from the Sitian Council about me, the temptation to become his adviser warred with my emotions. It would probably be easier to stay and help defeat Cahil from this side of the border.
“Don’t answer right away. Talk to your companions. I should have news from Valek soon. We’ll meet again then. In the meantime, do you need anything?”
I thought about our dwindling supplies. If we left, we would need more provisions. “Could you exchange Sitian coins for Ixian?” I rummaged in my pack, placing various loose objects on his desk to get them out of my way.
“Give them to Adviser Watts. You remember my accountant?”
“Yes.” The covering on Opal’s bat had come undone and was all over the bottom of my pack. I
removed the glass animal and freed it from the wrapping. The Commander gasped.
His focus was riveted on the statue in my hand; his fingers poised as if to snatch the bat.
“May I see?” he asked.
“Sure.”
With a snap of motion, he plucked the statue from my palm. He spun the bat, examining it from every possible angle. “Who made this?”
“My friend, Opal. She’s a glass artist in Sitia.”
“It glows like there is molten fire on the inside. How did she make it?”
Trying to comprehend his words, I stared. He saw the inner glow. Impossible. Only magicians could see the light.
The Commander had magical powers.
20
THE GLASS BAT GLOWED for the Commander. I had theorized only magicians could see the inner light. But I could be wrong. Maybe I hadn’t tested the bat on enough people. If the Commander had magical power, his magic would have raged uncontrolled and flamed out by now, killing him. The Masters in Sitia would have felt him long ago. Irys would have sensed it when she stood next to him.
Shaking those ridiculous thoughts out of my mind, I answered the Commander’s questions about glassmaking.
“But what causes it to glow?”
I knew if I said magic, he would drop it as if burned. Instead, I told him the internal workings were a family secret.
He passed the glass bat to me. “Extraordinary. Next time you see your friend, please ask her to make one for me.”
I found the coins I had been searching for, and repacked my bag. Only when I had slung my pack onto my shoulders did I realize I forgot to rewrap the bat.