Betrayed by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #5)(52)

“Yeah, I get it,” Noria said bitterly, her eyes brimming with unshed tears and anguish as she gazed toward Iannis. “The mages are too powerful for us to stand up against, and because they have all that power, they don’t have to listen to us.” She turned her bleak gaze toward me. “You win, Naya. You f*cking win.”

But as she turned and stomped off toward the carriages, I sure didn’t feel like a winner.





21





“I really wish you hadn’t accepted Lord Logar’s invitation to this banquet,” I groused as the steamcar rumbled along the dirt road to Parabas. The car had been sent to pick Iannis, Fenris, and me up from the Black Lion Inn, where we’d stayed overnight after wrapping up the destruction of the Resistance compound.

“It would have been rude to refuse,” Iannis said mildly. He sat next to me on the comfortable black leather seats, with Fenris on my other side. The driver was up front alone. Iannis had cast a subtle spell to muffle our conversation, so that we could have some privacy on the ride. “We would not have been able to complete our mission without Lord Logar’s assistance.”

“Yeah, but it’s not like he was in a position to refuse,” I pointed out, staring out the window as the countryside zipped by. “He doesn’t want the Resistance operating within his state borders any more than we do.”

“If I can refrain from complaining about this banquet, I think you can too,” Fenris said dryly. “Of the three of us, I have the most valid objections to attending.”

“You know I would have sent you back to Solantha with the others if I could have, old friend,” Iannis said apologetically. “But you were specifically included in the invitation, along with Sunaya, a surprising sign of progress in the local attitude toward shifters. It could make Lord Logar suspicious if you were to refuse, and we do not wish to seem ungracious.”

We subsided into gloomy silence after that, my mind heavy as I went over all that happened. I imagined Iannis and Fenris had plenty to occupy their thoughts as well. After the destruction of the compound, we had all retired to the Black Lion Inn to clean up and enjoy some much-needed food. Lord Logar had booked the private dining room, and we’d all sat around the table over plates heaped with steak, potatoes, and green beans, hashing out the next steps.

Iannis had given Rylan the choice to either go to the mines and carry out a five-year sentence, or serve the Mages Guild as a consultant for the same number of years. The work would be mostly unpaid, but he’d be given a small stipend for necessities, and he would be confined to the Palace unless accompanied by an appropriate guard or chaperone. Rylan didn’t like the idea of being under house arrest too much, but the fact that I lived in the Palace sweetened the deal. Besides, it was a lot better than enduring backbreaking work in the mines.

“Oh, I’m not doing this because I’m afraid of hard labor,” he’d joked after agreeing to the consultant position. “I’m mostly afraid of being forced into celibacy for the next five years.” He’d winked at Annia, who grinned back at him.

I remembered how Noria’s eyes had flashed, and the disgusted look she’d given Rylan. Clearly, she thought he was a sell-out. I wondered what she would do when the time came for her own sentencing. Would she take whatever deal Iannis figured out for her? Or would she spit in our faces, as she’d been doing the entire time?

Please, Resinah, I said, calling on her rather than Magorah for once. Help Noria see sense.

But Resinah didn’t answer, and neither did Magorah. I wondered if I should appeal to Noria’s god, the Ur-God, instead. But I doubted that would help—like Iannis, I suspected the Ur-God and Magorah were all just different names for the Creator, and that there was only one God. If He or She didn’t answer under one name, why would they answer under another?

Besides, I doubted it would make any difference—Noria would do whatever that strong, stubborn will of hers told her to do. That stubborn streak was one of the things I liked about her—she reminded me of myself at her age. But while I had gotten into my fair share of trouble, I’d still managed to come out on top in the end. I wasn’t sure Noria would be so lucky. She was headed back to Solantha now, along with Rylan, Annia, and Elnos. Annia and Elnos had agreed to accept responsibility for her. Though it pained Annia to do it, and their mother might never forgive her, I knew she would have Noria placed in a cell in the Enforcers Guild when they arrived back. And when the time came for her hearing on Monday, she would personally see to it that Noria made it there.

The alternative was that Noria would become a fugitive of the state, condemned to dodge death for the rest of her life. And Annia would be punished for allowing Noria to escape.

Parabas Palace turned out to be set close to the city center, nestled into the bend of the Millawette River that ran east-west through the state before heading north. It was constructed almost entirely of beautiful red brick, with grey slate tiles covering the roofs and turrets, and green ivy crawling up the exterior walls. Though smaller than Solantha Palace, it still cut a majestic figure against the cloudless blue sky, with the river gently flowing behind it.

The long, paved driveway leading to the front entrance was flanked by tall trees trimmed into conical shapes. The scent of magic thickened in the air as we passed protective wards laid around the estate, dormant but ready to activate at the first sign of trouble. A fountain sculpture graced the center of the paved roundabout in front of the palace, depicting Jeremidah, Faonus, and Micara, the Founding Trio who had established the Northia Federation. This one was much bigger than the similar sculpture in Dara’s Capitol building.