A Kiss of Fire (A Kiss of Magic #2)(33)

Thinking about what would happen in her absence depressed her. What was happening in Saren’s Capitol City right now? What had they done when she had come up missing? Were they close on her trail? Would they come after her? Would they go to war to retrieve her?

She didn’t know. And the not knowing was killing her.





Chapter Ten


Dendri Adiron walked into the capitol building yet again, as he had done for over two weeks now, and sought out the remaining triumvirs. He didn’t know what Hittite and Felone thought they would discover now that they hadn’t discovered before, but they summoned and he came. He didn’t bring Yasra this time. Yasra grew tired very easily these days as the end of her confinement neared. So he had left her behind.

He thought about that for a moment. Thought about becoming a father. Neither of them had expected a child so early in their marriage, but neither had they taken any precautions against such a thing. However, watching how she grew large and soft and beautiful, he thought it was something he wouldn’t be averse to doing again in exactly the same way.

Yasra however, might feel differently. She felt unwieldy and fat, tired easily and her feet tended to swell if she stood on them for too long. And yet, the more imminent the birth the more she was doing. She was adamant about everything being perfect for the baby’s arrival. Although it was beyond him how things could be any less perfect than they already were. Still, she had some kind of scheme in mind for what constituted perfection and she was determined to see it through…whatever the cost to her health.

He hated leaving her. She couldn’t be trusted to rest and take it easy. He had to be with her at all times to coax her into taking better care of herself. Bess, her best friend who lived with them, could not do or say anything to control her. She only listened to Dendri, and only when he absolutely put his foot down.

She had wanted to come to the capitol, complaining that he was treating her with kid gloves when he refused to let her come. But in the end there was nothing she could do. There was hardly anything he could do. This was an exercise in futility.

He walked into the main conference hall and saw Hittite and Felone waiting for him.

“Adiron! We’ve been waiting for you,” Felone said.

He seemed eager. Something had happened. Something had been discovered. They had been searching for Ariana since the day her guards had been found unconscious in that alley and it had been as though she had disappeared from the face of the planet, like a wisp of smoke on the wind. They had found nothing in all of this time to lead them to her.

Upon notice by the guards, the city had been shut down. Still, it had been four hours before the guards had come to. Plenty of time to spirit a captive out of the city. They had then sent teams of guards down every road at breakneck speeds, seeking to catch up with anyone who might be taking her by road.

Nothing. Whoever had taken her had not used roads to do it. So they had scoured the countryside looking for any hint. Any clue.

Nothing.

“We’ve found an innkeeper,” Felone said excitedly. “He says there were men staying at his inn for almost a week and they disappeared around the same time Ariana was taken. It may be nothing, but we thought perhaps you could see something.”

Dendri was an Aspano majji. It was the house of majic that could manipulate the mind. He was the most adept majji in the country. Possibly on the continent.

Dendri looked at the innkeeper who was sitting nervously with his hand in his hand. He was twisting it anxiously.

“I don’t know what I saw,” he said. “I don’t know that I can helps you none. But it seemed right funny hows they disappeared like that. After doing nothing for so many days. They would go out all day long, but they never said where they were going or who they were or nothing. They would pay up their bill in advance every day or two, as if they knew they’d be leaving in a heartbeat. No one pays like that. In advance.”

“Well,” Dendri said, “we’ll see what it is you saw.”

Dendri walked around the long table and approached the innkeeper. He hitched a hip onto the table and reached out to tip the man’s head back, looking in his eyes a moment. Then he closed his eyes and began to search in his memories.

A lot had happened to the man between then and now, so it was a lot to sort through and it took some time. Finally, he accessed the memories of those days, of those men.

“Look at their faces. One by one,” he said to the innkeeper.

He did. He remembered each face as if he were looking right at them that moment.

Dendri sucked in a breath.

He had been there. At the talks that had bartered a truce between the Kiltians and the Sarens. He had sat across the table from Raja Sin and his men and so he immediately recognized them when he saw them through the innkeeper’s mind’s eye.

“Did you know the Kiltian leader was in town at that time?” Dendri asked the triumvirs quickly.

“What? The—no! We had no idea they were here.”

“Then they had no business in the city?”

“Not that we were aware of,” said Hittite. “Are you saying those men were the Kiltian delegation?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“No,” Felone scoffed. “What would the Kiltians want with Ariana? Surely they wouldn’t be so foolish. They wouldn’t risk a war!”