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‘Fine!’ Edored burst out in the same moment, swinging a furious gesture at the door. ‘Have it your way! What time are we leaving?’

‘We?’ Lyn repeated, her young voice cracking.

‘Yes?’ Edored aggressively stepped back, noticing me for the first time. A quick snort was the only greeting I was given. ‘Someoneneeds to keep an eye on this madness, for Orin’s fucking sake. When are we leaving?’

‘At noon, but Edored—’

Too late – he had already stalked off, deliberately not fading to his room so he could slam every door he encountered on his way there. The living room seemed twice as large in the absence of his boisterous objections, and ten times as quiet.

‘Well,’ Beyla said, her eerie voice suspiciously amused. ‘That makes for seven, then.’

‘About that.’ I cleared my throat. ‘Would you mind if Agenor came along to Lyckfort? To … you know, show us the way?’

Lyn threw me a glower, the tips of her fingers still smoking faintly. ‘I take it you already invited him?’

‘I’m trying to besubtleabout this, Lyn,’ I said indignantly.

She grinned mirthlessly as she jumped down from the table and rubbed her face. ‘Naxi? How many people do you think you can reasonably protect from the plague magic, assuming you and Creon will both have to sleep every now and then?’

‘Oh, eight will be fine,’ Naxi said brightly. Only then did I notice the redness of her left cheek, as if the upper layer of her skin had been chafed off over the night; her right hand was wrapped in linen bandages, her wrist covered with some herbal salve. ‘I don’t think anything up to ten will give me much trouble.’

‘What in hell have you been doing?’ I said.

‘Sneaking out into the world above,’ Ylfreda said sharply before Naxi could answer, ‘and trying to take on plague magic without any help or instructions. I suggest no one else follows her example. These burns are no joke.’

‘Don’t be such a worry-wort, Freddie,’ Naxi said, fluttering invisible concerns aside with her good hand. ‘I’m perfectly fine. Turns out it’s fairly simple to counter that magic, once you know what you’re doing – speaking of which, is Creon up already? I should demonstrate the technique to him before we leave.’

‘He’s usually awake around this time,’ I said, tactfully circumventing the fact I had kissed him awake myself not too long ago. Her wicked grin as she danced out told me she’d heard the words between the lines clearly enough.

Ylfreda groaned as she got up, chucking some leftover bandages into her bag in the corner. ‘If anyone else decides to throw themselves into any suicidal undertakings—’

‘We would never,’ Tared said.

She glared at him. ‘You better not show up here like a piece of charcoal in ten days, Thorgedson. And for the love of the gods, make sure Edored doesn’t wander off in search of any lost treasures or dragon eggs, will you?’

‘I do havesomesense in me, Freda,’ he said wryly, and she huffed and faded into nothingness.

‘I’ll go get Agenor,’ Beyla said, vanishing before anyone could reply.

Then Lyn and Tared were the only ones left, and they were both ominously silent as I chewed my bread and waited for the inevitable questions to come.

But when Lyn finally sighed and sat down, all she said was, ‘Someone should probably check on Nenya before we leave. Don’t want her to go see Bakaru and … you know.’

‘Will do,’ Tared said, probably having heard the underlying message, too: that she wanted a word with me, either about Creon or about arcane womanly travel advice to which he was not invited. He got up with a quick smile at me, added, ‘Don’t start any wars before I’m back,’ and dissolved into thin air in that way that had started to seem perfectly natural after a few months in an alf household.

I glanced over my shoulder to check the living room door. Edored had expertly slammed it shut; it was still closed.

‘Well,’ I said.

‘Well.’ Lyn’s smile wavered as she turned towards me on the bench, folding her feet under her short body. She looked tired in that brief moment. I almost felt guilty, then reminded myself that she had her own worries about the public opinion to blame. ‘Next time you want to pull a stunt like this, tell me beforehand, will you? A little more preparation would have made it much easier to handle the Council.’

‘It wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with the Council,’ I said, a little too curtly.

She groaned. ‘I know. Is Creon alright with the change of plans?’

‘More or less.’

‘More than I dared to hope,’ she muttered, sending me a side glance. ‘This is … not his specialty, Em. People, I mean.’