Chapter 7
Unsurprisingly, Fenris wasn’t actually in the library. We checked there anyway, but I figured he wouldn’t want to risk Garrett seeking him out. His scent lingered near the entrance, as if he’d been here recently, so he must have stopped by to grab some books to continue his research elsewhere.
“You’re back faster than I thought you’d be,” he said by way of greeting as we entered Iannis’s suite.
Fenris’s room was farther down the hall, but I’d smelled him right outside Iannis’s door, so we didn’t bother going any further.
He was settled into the wing-backed chair by the fire, a thick leather tome in his hand and several more stacked on the side table by his left elbow.
“How was your chat with Director Toring?”
“Unsettling,” Iannis said, sitting down on the end of the couch closest to Fenris.
He snapped his fingers, and the scent of magic tickled my nose as the eavesdropping wards he’d set into the walls were activated.
I kicked off my boots, then stretched out on the remainder of the couch and settled my calves across Iannis’s lap.
“Thorgana survived the fire, and Garrett strongly suspects she has fled here.”
Fenris sat straight up in his chair, setting the book aside. “That woman is like a blasted cockroach,” he growled, his yellow eyes narrowing to slits. “How did she survive?”
Iannis relayed to Fenris what Garrett had told us—that the fire had been orchestrated to break Thorgana out, and that one of the arsonists had heard she was headed to Solantha for some payback.
Fenris’s bearded face was drawn so tight by the time Iannis was done, I half expected his tanned skin to start cracking. “I wish there was some way I could be of more help,” he said, “but with Director Toring here, I am severely limited.”
“We’ll be fine,” I assured him. “You just need to lie low until he’s gone. I’m going to be working with him to apprehend Thorgana, and I intend to find her quickly so that we can send him on his way.”
Fenris nodded. “As soon as he is gone, I shall be on my way as well.”
Iannis stiffened, and I stared at Fenris in shock. “What do you mean? Where are you going?”
“I don’t know yet,” Fenris admitted. He scrubbed a hand over his face, and my heart began to ache—he looked so brittle, as if a well-placed blow would shatter his soul and send it scattering to the winds.
“But it is clear that I can no longer stay here. My shifter nose has much improved since you came to the Palace, Sunaya—I could smell Garrett’s ill will quite clearly during his brief interrogation attempt.
He will not be content to focus his energies exclusively on Thorgana, and I believe Thorgana may only be an excuse.
Now that he and Iannis are contenders for the Minister’s position, he will use any means at his disposal to eliminate the competition.
I may well be the perfect weapon. If not for the fact that it would confirm Toring’s suspicions, and my guilt, I would leave right now. ”
“I concede the point,” Iannis said reluctantly, looking troubled.
“If I could, I would simply tell Garrett to his face that I care nothing for the position, and that he is welcome to it. But he would not believe me, and besides, he will not be satisfied until he solves the mystery of how you slipped from his grasp as Polar ar’Tollis. ”
“That’s all well and good, but Garrett doesn’t have any proof that you and Polar are the same person,” I argued.
“We don’t even know that is what he suspects—we only know he sees a mystery in Fenris.
” Anger bubbled in my chest—I wasn’t going to accept this!
Fenris had been my only friend when I’d first come to the Palace, bridging the gap between Iannis and me with his calm, compassionate manner.
If not for him, I might never have become Iannis’s apprentice.
“We’ll just have to make sure he walks away empty handed. ”
Fenris shook his head emphatically. “Director Toring will not suffer to be made a fool of twice,” he growled, his yellow eyes gleaming as the fire in the hearth reflected off them.
“He and his assistant will be watching me very closely, and questioning the servants and staff about me. He is very intelligent and highly motivated, so there is a distinct chance he might discover the truth before Thorgana is apprehended. Even if he doesn’t, he will find another excuse to come back and keep searching.
No, I must not tempt fate. As soon as he leaves, I will depart. ”
“But what are you going to do?” Tears stung at my eyes. “You can’t go back to Nebara.”
“No,” Fenris agreed. “I would not endanger my parents by returning there, just as I will not continue to put you or Iannis in danger by staying.” His rugged features softened—he must have seen the anguish in my face.
“I may have been the one who escaped a death sentence, Sunaya, but Iannis did not just help me get away—he also used forbidden magic to turn me into a shifter. If Garrett finds out the truth, Iannis’s life will be forfeit as well. ”
“If worst comes to worst, we could all leave the country,” Iannis suggested, but I shook my head.
“No. You’ve fought too hard for your people, and have made more progress uniting the three races than any Chief Mage of Solantha has before you,” I said firmly.
“We can’t abandon them now, especially not with this earthquake on the way.
As much as I hate to say it…” A lump swelled in my throat, and I had to force it down.
“Fenris is right. The easiest thing is for him to go.”
But it’s not fair! A voice in my head howled. He’s family. He was supposed to be the best man at our wedding. To be the godfather to our future children. How could Fenris do any of that, if he was on the run?
“I will not miss any of the important events in your lives,” Fenris said, seeming to read my thoughts. He met my tearful gaze with a valiant smile. “Even if I have to do it in disguise, I will be there when you two are married, and when your children are born.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. My heart brimming with emotion, I stepped over Iannis, then knelt in front of Fenris’s chair and threw my arms around him.
“You must tell us where you’ve relocated to,” I whispered fiercely as I squeezed him tight.
“I want to be able to come and visit you, to meet your own wife and children when you have them.”
Fenris started a little at the mention of wife and children. “I don’t know about that,” he said, a wry smile in his voice as he embraced me in return. “But I will send messages as I can, so that you know I am still alive.”
“You’d better.” Pulling back, I wiped my sleeve across my teary eyes. “And I have no doubt that you’ll meet a fine woman someday and have a whole brood of children. You deserve to live a full life, Fenris, with all the joys and pitfalls that go with it.”
“Yes,” Iannis agreed, wrapping his arms around me as I returned to sit next to him. “And while we will miss you, I fear that staying here in the Palace has not truly done you any favors.”
“No,” Fenris agreed ruefully. “I have appreciated the opportunity to lie low and absorb as much magical theory as I have been able to these past few years. But living in a Palace, surrounded by mages, has not prepared me for life as a shifter. If I am to truly become Fenris, and make the most of my new existence, I must go seek my fortune in humbler surroundings. I have a good bit of gold saved up, and I will be able to settle comfortably wherever I choose, so do not worry about me.”
We discussed the particulars of Fenris’s departure for a little while—he was going to pack in secret, ready to depart at a moment’s notice should Garrett come too close to the truth.
In the meantime, Fenris would spend as little time in Garrett’s presence as possible, and if they did have to be in the same room, he would do it in wolf form.
Garrett couldn’t use mindspeak, and he wouldn’t be able to question Fenris as a wolf.
“Fenris will be fine,” Iannis said as the two of us burrowed beneath the blankets in his huge bed, long after Fenris had left for his own room.
“He may no longer have all of his magic, but he is very clever and resourceful, and his shifter senses are much more developed than they were when I first brought him to the Palace. He will be fine on his own, and there are many places in the Federation where he can live a comfortable life so long as he keeps his head down.”
“I know.” Laying my head against Iannis’s bare chest, I tried to comfort myself with the steady beating of his heart. But I couldn’t help fearing that despite all our careful planning, we were teetering on the brink of disaster.