Chapter 50: Private Meeting

My intention to storm in the court and my grandfather the moment I arrived back at the Seat was thwarted when I reached

out to try to find Syd.

And encountered Zinnia instead.

Ruler, she sent, mental voice crisp against mine. I must see you immediately.

I really had to speak to Henemordonin, to diffuse the disaster he was creating around me. But her tone was so urgent I

acquiesced.

Where? She showed me the stairway at the top of the mountain, the very one she'd led me down the night the Planeless

tried to capture me. I saw her clearly, two figures in shadows behind her.

Your quarters, she sent. In your closet.

Such a rendezvous location should have made me laugh. But the deadly seriousness of her tone tied into what I'd just

witnessed and the worry I lived with in an almost constant state these days held back any humor before it could emerge.

I'll be right there. I reached for Mabel, only to have her mind press softly on mine.