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I covered my eyes with my hand. “I didn’t need healing, just a long sleep—like a total novice. Please don’t remind me.”
He pulled my hand away with gentle fingers.
“Next time, please spare a single thought for yourself.”
“I’ll do my best,” I murmured. “No more overreaching for me. But thankfully on this occasion I had you there. I only remember it vaguely, but you were the one who carried me to the hospital, weren’t you? Thank you.”
He shook his head, looking frustrated. “I hope you really mean that about the future. It was only chance I even knew you’d arrived in Eldrida. And there I was, foolishly thinking you couldn’t run into any trouble in your two days on the road.” He shot an accusatory glance at Amara, reminding me of my earlier fear about her withdrawing her permission for the plan against Grey.
“Never mind that.” I put a hand on his arm and turned to my master. “The important thing is what happens next. If the storm wasn’t natural, could it have been sent by Grey?”
“I’ve been wanting to ask the prince’s opinion on that question myself,” Hayes said. “He’s our expert on Grey.”
Nik’s face twisted at the unwanted title, but he didn’t deny it.
“Grey himself is strong,” he said, “but he has a healing affinity. He couldn’t direct a storm. And while he does have elements followers, he’s been forced to take untrained youngsters from the fringes of society, so none of them are mage strength. And it would take several skilled mages working together to drive a storm that large.”
“So it wasn’t Grey,” Clay muttered. “I wish that was better news. But that storm came from someone, and if it wasn’t Grey—who?”
“There’s no way it was Calista,” Hayes said with confidence. “Not unless it was a group of mages gone rogue. And honestly, I don’t think they have the capacity for that to be an option yet. They still have so few strong mages that they’re all gathered in the capital where most of the rebuilding work has been done.”
“You have that much confidence in the integrity of their new Mage’s Guild?” Amara asked. “They wouldn’t consider it worth the consequences to push their problems south to us?”
“My confidence is in their king and queen,” Hayes said. “As the strongest two mages in the kingdom, they work very closely with their fledgling new Guild, and they would never sanction such a thing.”
“No, I suppose not,” she murmured. “Not given Queen Cadence’s sister’s position in Tartora.”
“They’re not that sort of people regardless,” Hayes said firmly. “I would stake my life on it.”
Amara raised her eyebrows at that, shooting a glance at Nik. When he slowly nodded his agreement, she let the matter drop.
I spoke into the silence. “In that case, we have two mysteries on our hands. What is causing the blight, and where did that storm come from? Would anyone wager they’re unconnected?”
All three of the mages exchanged worried glances.
“Which means we need answers more urgently than ever,” I continued, fixing my eyes on Amara. “And we know Grey has at least some of those answers. So when do I leave for the desert?”
ChapterSeventeen
It didn’t end there, of course. Amara protested about the danger to me, and we all talked in endless circles for over an hour. But we’d all been in the middle of the storm, and no one could deny the new urgency to discover Grey’s secrets.
Adding weight to my position was Hayes’s report from the capital. After extensive consultation with the king and Triumvirate, they had agreed to back Nik’s plan with only a few modifications.
As well as the squad of guards they had brought from the palace, Hayes and Clay had already recruited more from the local barracks—focusing on those with experience of both the local area and the desert. They had even hired an expert desert tracker—a rare breed since no one lived in the desert region.
“I have a friend among the local mages who’s helped us with the selections,” Hayes said. “I’m confident the ones we’ve recruited can be trusted, and we’ve told no one else the purpose of our visit. Officially, I’m here to give my apprentice broader experience.”
Luna beamed. “Happy to be of assistance.”
“And I’m here consulting with some of the local clinics on new techniques,” Clay said. “The clinics in Eldrida have the most experience healing sea creatures.”
“You get a lot of those in Ostaria do you?” I asked with a snort.
“I’m sometimes called south to the coast for consultations with local healers,” Clay said with dignity before cracking a smile. “It was the best I could come up with, but I have old friends here, so no one has asked too many questions.”
“We have no need of the tracker,” Nik said caustically, having been mostly silent through the conversation, his eyes narrowed and steely as he watched the mages talk. “Or don’t you trust that I can get you there?”
“I think it’s getting back that’s the primary concern,” Hayes said when no one else immediately answered.
