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
