Tiderius was unnerved. Recent events had shaken all the members of the queen’s protectorate, for how could any of them have anticipated that Mayor Challan had been directly responsible for the assassination of General Carter? The queen, heading a trial with no less than ten magistrates, had severely chastized him after the guilty verdict had been announced. She had then stripped him of his position, wealth and property.
“You have served our royal sovereignty well in the past,” she had told him, “so I will let you keep your life, but if I ever hear of you again, I will have you put to death. Are we perfectly clear?”
He had fled the capital that same day, accompanied by two of his loyal servants and a single cart filled with necessary provisions and a number of family treasures. The last sighting of him was on the road to Londston.
Following the trial, elections had commenced in order to instate a new mayor, but Tiderius had shown no real interest. He had been obliged to listen to nobles boasting their abilities and exaggerating their merits for the best part of three days, but not even that incessant torture had been able to expel thoughts of Angora from his mind. He had seen how Vrór had fought, using deception and surprise, and he realized that he was now more worried for Angora than he had been for anyone else in his life. He had little doubt that the fight in the skies had been a hard one and the fact that they had heard no news as to the outcome was not good. Aiyla was doing all she could to locate Angora and he felt so restless, not being able to do anything himself. He wanted to get out there and search – on foot, if he had to. He would trek every mountain pass if it meant finding some trace of what had transpired between the two leikas.
When the gong sounded for dinner, he walked lethargically downstairs to the meeting room. The moment he entered, he drew Aiyla aside.
“Anything?” he asked anxiously.
“No. Nothing new.”
“This is ridiculous!” he muttered. “Why is the sight hiding her from you?”
“Tiderius, the sight is not a slave to our desires,” Aiyla replied wearily. “If we could see whatever we wished, then we would never make our own decisions, never discover things for ourselves. While, the sight shows us what is necessary to aid us toward a certain course of action, it does not always give us answers. Sometimes, even the smallest clue is too much.”
“But where have you been looking?”
“In every direction, Tiderius!” Aiyla assured him. “Even back on Teronia. I cannot find her anywhere.”
Tiderius groaned and ran his hands through his hair. He could not understand why the sight refused to reveal her. If Angora was dead, there was nothing she could do to alter the course of the future and there was no decision he or any of the others had to make. So why would they be refused the chance to retrieve her body? No, it did not make sense – Angora had to be alive. But she had been dueling Vrór, a violent and bloodthirsty beast, and if the Ayon leika had not killed her, then –
“Impossible.”
“What?” Aiyla looked at him anxiously.
He had forgotten she was there. “Gods, I think I know where she might be,” he said quietly. “You said yourself that the sight doesn’t show us our desires but what is necessary, clues to help us act and decide.”
“Yes, but – ”
“When you first saw Angora, it was during the fire in the Gifted Rose, wasn’t it? You saw her when her life was in danger! The Spirits wanted us to help her, but Rasmus got there first!”
“Well, yes,” Aiyla agreed, “but I doubt she was in any less danger battling Vrór, hundreds of yards up in the air, Tiderius. Yet, they never showed me what happened.”
“Perhaps that’s because nothing did happen!” he continued, growing more and more excited by the moment.
“I don’t understand you.”
“You have to ask the sight specific questions, yes? But it wouldn’t show you an answer to a question if the question itself wasn’t quite right, would it?”
“No. I have to be very specific. But I have asked and asked, Tiderius! Did Vrór kill her or did she kill Vrór? No answers. Nothing! I’ve run out of ideas!”
“Perhaps neither of them were killed!”
“Tiderius, that is very unlikely. Vrór is a monster.”
“Yes, but what if he captured her and took her back to Delseroy and she’s now, at this very moment, being held prisoner there?”
There was a moment of stunned silence.
“Gods, but it’s been more than two weeks!” Aiyla whispered. She moved over to the table and lowered herself into her chair, closing her eyes. “We may have very little time. The Ayons would do anything to tip the balance in their favor!”