Page 124 of With Wing And Claw

Were they going to start fighting witheach othernow?

‘Yes?’ The sudden politeness in Tared’s voice was an unmistakable sign of alarm. Every single time alves had unexpectedly developed manners around Thysandra, hell had broken loose the next moment. ‘Something about family being there when it counts – not that I’d expect that to make much of an impression on you, of course.’

‘I beg your pardon?’ The phoenix’s widening eyes were the only outward sign of her outrage – but outrage itwas, and she didn’t seem to care in the slightest that she was in the presence of an ally-to-be. ‘It was my impression that I’d been invited to a diplomatic gathering, not to a lecture from—’

‘Um,’ Thysandra interrupted, managing only with the greatest of efforts not to frantically look back and forth between them like a child trying to figure out the rules of some brand new sports game. What for the gods’ sake washappening? ‘Would … would this be a good moment to return to the matter at hand, perhaps?’

Yndrusillitha’s nostrils flared. ‘Anexcellentsuggestion.’

‘Absolutely brilliant,’ Tared dryly agreed. ‘In fact, I vaguely recall proposing something similar myself, before we were regrettably interrupted. Let’s get down to business, then. Where would you suggest we start, Your Majesty?’

Somehow, that title got more unnerving every single time he used it.

It sounded like a joke. Not even a malicious one, the way people like Bereas and Orthea had sneered it to her face – rather, the sort of casual quip one might exchange with fellow soldiers after receiving an unexpected promotion. As if her life didn’t depend on the outcome of this meeting. As if he didn’t bloody wellknowthey were putting her right in the line of fire with the conditions they’d posited in their letter.

‘Actually, I do have a place to start,’ Helenka said, crossing her ankles on the low pedestal where she’d seated herself. Her shimmering, pupil-less green eyes were narrowed a fraction. ‘Would the High Lady care to explain to us just why this meeting had to take place on such short notice? I’m still catching up on a few decades of lost sleep.’

‘I’m sure certain alves agree with you,’ Nenkhet muttered under her breath, and Tared snorted a laugh.

Helenka ignored the both of them. ‘Thysandra?’

‘The … the matter is we’re running out of cells.’ She didn’t dare to look at Naxi as she let the lie fall from her lips – a lie she’d prepared for, yet somehow it had sounded a lot more reasonable when she’d expected them to show up with stern faces and stiff shoulders, armed to the teeth with regulations and demands. ‘Our efforts to arrest the individuals on your list have been unexpectedly successful. We could wait longer to capture the rest, of course, but we’re already seeing people go into hiding, and …’

‘Really?’ Helenka interrupted, tapping her chin with a dark, clawlike hand. ‘How interesting. I assumed the Crimson Court would have more capacity than that to hold prisoners.’

An accusation?

Or merely a request for clarification?

If she had understood a damn thing in this entire conversation, she might have been able to read the queen’s voice. Now she wished for the first time that she hadn’t told Naxi to stay out of the discussion – because clearly Naxiknewthese people in the capacity of messy, bickering allies, and why hadn’t she thought to make use of that?

She glanced to her side anyway, hoping to catch the demon’s eye. But Naxi had wandered a few rows of statues away and stood making faces at a fae lady with a skull in her sculpted hands, paying no visible attention to the rest of the company.

Leaving Thysandra to figure out all by herself why these people were suddenly treating her as if they’d forgotten they were enemies in the first place.

‘Speaking frankly,’ she said, taking the gamble before the silence could grow too damning, ‘I think we all know the Mother wasn’t in the habit of taking prisoners. She never seems to have had need for that many cells.’

Helenka quirked up a coppery red eyebrow, then shrugged, as if to say,good point.

‘And I do understand correctly that you’re willing to hand over these prisoners to us?’ Tared added, hands in his pockets, but his grey eyes too sharp for the nonchalance to be at all convincing. ‘Assuming we try to give them fair trials before we chop off their heads, that is.’

Fair trials.

How bad an impression would she make if she admitted she didn’t give a damn about those trials at all?

‘That is correct,’ she said, drawing her wings tightly against her shoulders to keep them from flaring out. They didn’t need to know how much it would cost her, speaking those words. How much she needed to do it anyway. ‘The conditions posited in your letter did sound reasonable to me.’

‘That is rather convenient,’ Yndrusillitha said tartly, and although the words were approving, the tone was the opposite.

‘I beg your pardon?’ Thysandra said.

‘You seem unexpectedly willing to grant our every request without significant negotiation,’ the phoenix clarified – or at least herexpressionsuggested it ought to be a clarification, while as far as Thysandra could see, it was mostly an expansion of the number of words used. ‘Which is, one might say, a stark contrast to some of our previous interactions. It would be commendable, of course, if we could come to an agreement easily, but one cannot help but wonder what else might be driving you to—’

‘What we’d like to know,’ Helenka bluntly interrupted, ‘is how desperate you are, exactly.’

Yndrusillitha gave a small, disapproving cough, but did not dispute that summary.

Nor did any of the others around the circle, five pairs of eyes watching Thysandra with eerily similar, sceptical anticipation – sotherewas the animosity after all, then. Messy and unpolished animosity, perhaps, but animosity all the same. And only then did it dawn on her – that they did not allow her to see the chaos behind their united façade because they no longer considered her an enemy.