Chapter 14

Costume, music, dance—all vary hugely throughout the realms. Continually updating myself on current trends to keep up with political references was a rare bright spot in my later years of training.

Nowhere is it more important than at this ball: understanding what it means when a dress is traditional or intentionally not or nodding at; noting what music has been deemed worthy of highlight to the players of this game; engaging fluently in a political dance. I could write a dozen dissertations on the details from this one event, and others will.

Finally, finally, I'm a player myself.

Don't fuck it up, Liris. Don't you dare.

Vhannor spun Liris into a Risardi dance common at balls throughout the Sundered Realms for its lyrical gliding, so she was able to follow his lead easily.

Of course he was a graceful dancer as well—it had never even occurred to her to think he wouldn't be. A man who specialized in precise control of movement when the stakes were demons could not be anything but.

Still, Liris was grateful. Letting him sweep her around gave her a minute to sort out her thoughts and think about what she could say to him and who might be listening.

Which was too bad, because she also really wanted to revel in the sensation of moving with him as an equal.

As it was, she was excessively conscious of the points where his hands met hers, like the contact itself generated heat that sent tingles up her arms.

"How did your conversation go?" Liris finally asked, conscious of not saying too much without knowing who could be listening.

"As well as I know you expected," he rumbled, his voice lower than usual.

So, that unproductively, then. She wasn't surprised, but it was possible it could have been a trap for both of them.

Focused as she'd been on her own problems, she wouldn't have known. "I lost track of you," Liris admitted.

"Good," Vhannor said.

"But I'm your partner."

"I'm also your partner."

She practically felt his icy gaze land on her, but she kept her own on the dancers around them.

As they glided together toward the entrance-side of the floor, Vhannor gracefully adjusted to keep one of her hands to steady her while placing another on the small of her back to guide her forward, and she realized he was propelling her out of the ballroom entirely.

Liris' chest tightened. Was that it?

Vhannor asked the herald to remind him of the directions to the staircase to an upper level, and only then did Liris realize something else was going on, because Vhannor never forgot a layout pattern.

Vhannor smiled down at her with a wink and looked back at the herald, and Liris took the cue, grinning up at him and squeezing his hand. Lovers sneaking off for a tryst. Got it.

Too bad that wasn't actually what was happening.

Not that she'd try to distract him now—this work was too important—but with her first ball coming to a close as... maybe not a complete failure, but definitely falling far short of the grand political debut on the international stage she'd dreamed of, the prospect of one going that well for her was painfully bittersweet.

Vhannor did not take her to the balcony level of the ball, however, but to the halls behind it.

"Quickly here," he whispered, because of course this was a servers' corridor. Trusting his timing, she followed him through a maze of so many rooms before he paused to take a breath in a study.

And then footsteps sounded outside, and he swore, and Liris threw open the nearest door and tugged him inside.

Bathroom. A closet would have been more likely to be locked, she supposed. Still, while she decided it would be weird to sit on the toilet, with both of them standing, the room was small enough that they were wedged in fairly close together.

Liris took a couple of shallow breaths, because any deeper and he'd be able to hear how shaky they sounded.

Of course, all that did was fill her nose with the scent of him with each breath.

Vhannor quickly scrawled a spell, showed it to her—sound obfuscation bubble—and at her nod of acknowledgement, cast.

"Why didn't you use that on the way over?" she asked.

"Because if we'd been caught, someone might have wondered why we were trying not to be heard."

Vhannor turned, and Liris adjusted to let him, but then he took her face between his hands.

She stilled, heart hammering.

"Partnership is not one-sided," he said. "It goes both ways."

She knew that. She knew that.

After a lifetime of working for Serenthuar and their claims that everything they did was to help their people, which more and more seemed false, it was just... maybe going to take a little while longer for her to believe it.

"I'm sorry," Liris said.

"You're sorry?" Vhannor threw up his hands, narrowly missing slamming them into the door. "I'm the one who let Ambassador Rhuil get you alone."

What? "I came here to be an asset, but now before we managed to learn anything concrete you've had to quit the field because of me—"

"Liris," Vhannor growled, "I hope you learned enough with the time you had, because I learned enough from Belighia to be very suspicious of what all's been going on in this place, with all this money and no one watching as they prepare to lure the elite of all the Sundered Realms here—"

"—as though for a demonstration, yes," Liris finished. "That's why everyone's so expectant."

"My thought exactly. I don't care to wait for it." Vhannor's lips twitched into a small smile, and Liris' heart turned over. "And really, after an incident like that in the ballroom, it would be suspicious if we hadn't made a visible exit, wouldn't it?"

Gods, she loved him.

Liris' laugh was some combination of admiring and relieved and possibly slightly hysterical, because of course she loved a man who could prioritize her and execute master strategy at the same time. How could she not have loved him?

"This is an excuse." She shook her head, smiling. "To go searching for whatever Belighia has plotted with Jadrhun."

Vhannor nodded, but his eyes dropped to her lips.

Warmth pooled low in Liris' stomach. She dared, "Time for one?"

Vhannor closed his eyes and tilted his head all the way back until it banged into the wall. "I won't want to stop at just one."

Liris sighed. "Fair, I suppose."

He snorted.

She looked around. "Do you want me to try to move...?"

Vhannor's arms crashed around her. "No."

"Well," Liris said, wrapping her own arms around him, "all right then. Much easier to manage."

With her face practically smashed against his chest, she felt him shake with laughter.

And she felt his racing heart.

After a moment, Vhannor said, "I think we're clear, I'm afraid."

Liris reached over and pushed the door open, stepping back with what was probably an overly fond smile.

Fortunately, he seemed to be wearing one too.

"Back to work, then," she said.

With him at her side, she couldn't wait.

Vhannor caught her up as they worked room to room, him sweeping for spells while she searched the physical contents for anything noteworthy, each keying through locks or dismantling alerts as needed.

Given Liris' training, she knew the things she ought to be finding. Records, the minutiae of bureaucracy.

But there was notably nothing.

Like Tellianghu had known someone would come looking and had cleaned anything relevant out.

"Nothing from Shry, so she probably hasn't found anything yet," Vhannor said. "What did the ambassador want with you?"

"To guilt me. To trap me." Liris frowned. "Possibly to recruit me, but that makes no sense. Serenthuar already had me, if they'd wanted me."

Maybe someday that would stop stinging.

Vhannor squeezed her shoulder in a quick gesture of comfort. "You hadn't proved you could stop them, then."

Had they always known? It would almost justify their entrapment of her—except, no. She would have done anything for them, and if they didn't know that—

"I can practically hear you thinking," Vhannor growled at her as they crossed to another room. "Whether they knew you could stop them was still no justification for how they strung you along while extracting your labor for years."

Liris stood stock-still for a moment, not really seeing anything.

Then as Vhannor scrawled out his spell, Liris wrote out one of her own.

She didn't show him, and he didn't ask. But it wasn't one she needed to change, except for adjusting the modifier for distance.

The spell flared almost painfully before guttering out, and Liris followed the sensation toward the window.

"Vhann," Liris said distantly as she stared.

"Hmm?"

"I don't think we need to spend any more time here."

He crossed the room to where she stood fixated. "What do you—oh, no. They didn't."

Across the expanse of snow, where Liris' demon portal detection spell had directed her, was the Gate they had passed through. The one all the guests would have intended to leave from—except out of the platform for the cable car, multiple amorphous black figures bubbled out against the mountains.

A black flash cut across them.

Vhannor sucked in a breath, and then he was hurtling for the door. "That was Shry out there."

Dread spiking through her like ice, Liris ran.

No longer bothering with stealth, they tore down back corridors. Servers flattened themselves against walls with oaths as they passed, but Liris and Vhannor still made it to the cable car in record time.

Just in time for it to stop running. Vhannor swore, looking frantically around for a spell access. Liris stepped off onto the snow and immediately sank two feet down. That spell was down too.

And their skimmers were on the other side of the Gate.

"We can't run through this, unless you know a spell like a snowshoe," Liris said.

"I do, but have you ever been snowshoeing? Never mind: the point is it's slow."

"A spell to walk across the surface that distance—"

"—has so many variables it would take months to make, from what I understand," Minister Belighia said. "Skimmers are coveted for a reason. Nor will it be necessary."

Backlit against the warmth inside, she stepped out onto the porch flanked by two casters, and more crowded in to block the doorway.

Guards.

"There are demons swarming your Gate," Vhannor said icily, "and you're telling me intercepting them is not necessary?"

"That is what I'm saying," Belighia said, eyes gleaming. "In fact, as a representative of Tellianghu, I am telling you explicitly you do not have permission to. As your precious Coalition does not yet exist, to go against an individual realm's wishes would put Special Operations in violation of your treaties."

Vhannor took a step forward. "You turned the spell off."

"Me? I'm no caster." She was entirely too smug.

Liris put a hand on Vhannor's arm before he punched the representative in the face with it. "Are you sure," she asked one of the guards, "you wouldn't accept a free offer of assistance?"

The guards stared forward impassively.

"Assistance with what?" Belighia inquired, head tilting. "There's nothing here Tellianghu can't handle without assistance."

Which was to say, they weren't planning on doing anything. This was the demonstration, clearly, but of what?

"And how do you think your guests will take it, when they learn they won't be able to leave?" Liris asked.

"Oh I assure you," Belighia said with a smile, "we have made provision for all our guests."

"One of them is out there," Vhannor growled.

"Regrettable, but when one runs towards demons without safeguards, I can only assume it was on purpose."

"You voidfucker," Vhannor said, more visibly furious even than when she'd unleashed a firestorm on accident. "This isn't up to you anymore. I'm invoking the clear and present danger clause."

"But I've already denied there's any danger," Belighia said calmly, "and if the other realms learn you'll just disregard their autonomous protections..."

"Yes. We'll have to risk people deciding the possibility of unasked help is better than the reality where demon servants sacrifice their own people and the world stands by and does nothing," Vhannor snapped. "Give the order to reactivate the spell, or so help me—"

"You'll what?" Belighia mocked. "Threaten me? Attack me? It won't help. I can hold you here."

The casters stepped forward, eyes on Vhannor.

Belighia smiled. "Your precious partner, of course, is free to go. Do you think she'll stay for you, or leave you all alone?"

Shrywas alone. But that didn't even matter, because Liris had no way to swim up a mountain of snow—

A spell sphere slammed around Belighia and her casters.

Princess Nysia pushed through the wall of guards as if they were frozen.

"I think fucking not," she said coldly. "That protection sphere is specially designed for slimeball casters. I wish you joy of it. We're going."

The princess strode past the floating bubble encasing the casters and Belighia, who clearly shouted after them, but the sphere deadened the sound.

"I saw the cable car stop through the window and came as quickly as I could," Nysia said. "The remaining guards should be busy corralling the guests. I have a sphere prepared for transport, but it won't have enough power to carry three, and two's debatable. Liris, you'll have to stay."

"Of course you have an emergency exit only good for one," Vhannor said furiously. "Don't trust people enough to even allow yourself the possibility—"

"Shry," Liris snapped.

Vhannor sucked in a breath. "Nysia, show me the spell."

She didn't hesitate, but she did say, "We need to go now."

"You said two was debatable already, and I'm not leaving you here without your escape."

Nysia frowned as she realized what he meant.

But Vhannor had already turned away from her and fixed his burning gaze on Liris. "What's the fewest symbols in Thyrasel you can use to convey strength or power?"

Liris pulled out her pad and quickly sketched out three options.

"The second one will map right. I'll add limiters to the appropriate points first, then write directly above them."

Princess Nysia said, "Vhann, Shry is up there, we don't have time for limiters—"

Liris interrupted her this time, following Vhannor's lead in editing the spell. "With the demon portal open, we need to make sure there will be enough ambient magic left to use once we're up there."

That surprised the princess quiet.

Vhannor lifted his pen and fixed his gaze on her. "You haven't cast in the field for too long."

"Let's fix that," Nysia said, gauging the distance and direction and filling in the variable, and activated the spell around them.

The air around them wavered, like looking through flickering heat, then all at once firmed in a translucent shield.

Liris was standing on air.

Then they rocketed toward the Gate, far faster than the cable car would have taken them.

In the meantime, the demons had grown. Shry was a blur of motion between them, but they were closing in.

"Liris, watch for signs of an avalanche," Vhannor's voice broke through her anxiety. "Choose your first spells now. Shry can hold her own if we keep them from converging on her."

Wind, rocks, fire—gods, what did she have that didn't trigger avalanches?

"What are you using?" she asked. Maybe she could balance him, and together—

"What I'm fastest at and have the most of prepared. We don't have time for nuance here."

Well, in that case.

Liris flipped her pad automatically toward the ones she'd been practicing with most, albeit at a smaller scale, hoping he wouldn't regret that advice.

"Nysia—"

"I'll do what I'm best at," she snapped.

Liris didn't have time to ask what that was, because when they reached the Gate, the sphere dissipated around them and they fell the few feet to the platform.

They hit the ground rolling, and Vhannor was first to hit the back of a demon with a precisely calibrated fire spell.

It roared, shifting enough for Liris to see the positions of the other two surrounding Shry, scribble, and activate her own spell.

Lightning cracked from the tip of her pen, arcing around Shry and striking the one on the opposite side of her even as Liris sprinted to Shry's position.

That lightning spell had two variables to fill in: one for the target, and one for the bolt's shape, so she could bend it around targets she didn't want to hit.

The next spell on her pad was target-only, and Liris fired.

Shry took the opportunity to launch herself at the remaining demon, leaving Liris alone with hers.

She hadn't faced a demon alone since the first, before she'd been able to use magic on her own. This was different—not least because now people were expecting her to be able to hold her own, and despite all her training, working in the presence of a demon was different.

"Her" demon lashed toward her, and Liris fired again.

She flipped another page and barely had time to write both variables to arc the lightning through the demon's multiple extending limbs. Keeping her eyes on the demon, Liris skittered backward and slipped on some snow, feet coming out from under her and head going down fast.

She turned on instinct to catch herself on her hands and in less than an instant had just enough presence of mind to think, No, not my hands! because if she broke her hands and lost her ability to cast spells the only way she knew, she was done for.

Liris heaved her body into a twist, feeling a muscle around her ribs wrench as she went down in a roll on her side, spinning and spinning and spinning.

When she came to a stop, the demon loomed directly above her.

Lying still, eyes and hands steady, Liris sighted, wrote, and fired.

It reared back with a scream, and around its sides shadows spilled outward, hands with too many fingers elongating like taffy to stretch toward her—

And then a protection sphere slammed into it.

Gods bless Princess Nysia, Liris thought fervently.

Then Shry filled her vision.

"Good work," Shry told her, hauling her to her feet as Liris hissed in pain.

"Was it?" she asked with a wince.

Shry took Liris' face between her hands and stared at her hard. "You lived to fight another day. That's always, always the first and most important goal. You hear me?"

Her friend had clearly taken some falls, too. Through her lacy top, blood streaked down an arm.

Liris nodded jerkily, and Shry released her.

"Good. You have more work to do."

Shry turned away, and Liris followed after her, wincing and pressing her hand to her side with every step. Bad sign that she felt this much pain already with her adrenaline up.

Vhannor looked her over with a glance and Liris just nodded. It would have to wait. With the demons floating above them contained, the black demon portal radiated through the platform clearly.

"I'll deal with any demons that come out, but work fast," Shry said, pulling out another blade. Where does she keep those, Liris thought irrelevantly. "They're starting to come through faster than I can kill them, and this portal is huge."

Princess Nysia shook her head. "I don't have a big enough protection spell prepared for this—"

"Just keep a demon-sized one handy," Vhannor cut her off.

"Always," Nysia said grimly.

He looked to Liris. "Ready?"

"Always," she echoed.

He smiled tightly. "Then let's get started."

Liris turned, taking in all the diagrams around her. "Vhann, there are two Thyrasel layers—"

"Indeed," Jadrhun's silky voice came from behind her.

Liris whirled and saw him with pen poised on pad, angled toward her.

"So wouldn't it be a shame," Jadrhun said, his gaze piercing hers, "if something were to happen to Liris?"

She froze.

Where had he even come from?Stupid question: None of them had had time for any kind of spell detection. He could have been sitting in the nearest cable car or camouflaged against the snowdrift and they'd never have known, preoccupied as they were.

Liris ground her teeth, annoyed at that stupidity on their part. Understandable under the circumstances didn't help them now.

"There are more of us than you, and no priest to save you," Vhannor said.

A shadow simmered up from underfoot, Shry engaged it before it had even emerged, and Nysia followed with a protection sphere.

"So there are," Jadrhun said, "albeit somewhat occupied." His gaze stayed on Liris, but she didn't doubt he was tracking everything around them. "But tell me, Vhannor: Do you think any of you can fire faster than I can hit Liris? Because without her, there's no one to take down the portal, is there? At the rate this is going, you'd lose the entire realm before any linguists back in Embhullor could finish catching up enough to stop it, even if you could reach them."

Liris could practically feel Vhannor weighing it.

Vhannor was fast. The fastest she'd ever seen, including Jadrhun.

But Jadrhun hadn't been ready, then, and now he was already ahead. If Vhannor was off even a little—

No, Liris was going to have to save herself. Not with spellcraft—she wasn't fast enough—but with the skills she'd developed over a lifetime.

She wasn't here to be a liability. She was here to do what only she could.

"As recruitment strategies go," Liris drawled to Jadrhun, "your technique could use a little finesse."

He smiled sharply. "Do you think so? Finesse didn't appear to work, so I changed strategies. As an adaptable sort yourself, I was sure you'd appreciate that."

The temple certainly hadn't been the finesse attempt. Did he mean Ambassador Rhuil?

"I'm so flattered by your attention."

His smile faded. "You should be. More than you realize. But since you can't possibly, I do, in fact, have an offer for you."

"You weren't just planning to take me hostage, then?" Liris asked lightly.

"And have you waiting for an opportune moment behind my back at all times?" Jadrhun asked dryly. "Even if I were interested in binding you, I'm not that stupid."

He was poised with a kill spell aiming right at her, so it was odd that she believed him.

Liris could hear Shry and Nysia keeping demons off their backs, but Vhannor had gone silent. After their conversation outside the Forgotten Temple, Liris took that to mean he had no help to offer.

We're partners. He's not testing me; he's figuring out how to help.

She'd believe that and keep Jadrhun talking until one of them found a break.

"I'm listening," Liris said.

"Come with me through the Gate," Jadrhun said, "and I'll teach you everything I know. I'll teach you why I'm not your enemy. And to prove it, if you come with me in good faith, I'll release my hold on Serenthuar."

Liris thought she'd been frozen before. Now she could feel the rapid pounding of her heart, time seeming to slow as her mind raced.

Definitely behind Rhuil. The ambassador had goaded her with feelings for Serenthuar, and Liris had let him see too much.

She wanted what Jadrhun had to offer. Here was a man who had, was, openly defying the world, and she wanted to know everything. What he was doing, why, how.

A man giving her the perfect opportunity to negotiate herself to save her people, the precise moment she'd been raised for.

This might be the best chance to save Serenthuar. It might be the only way to figure out what Jadrhun was doing with all the demon portals, without always being two steps behind. She alone could seize this opportunity.

"I believe you don't want to kill me," Liris said slowly, really hoping she was judging him correctly, "but I don't believe you won't."

Jadrhun's jaw clenched. "I am trying very hard to make another option, Liris."

Her palms tingled with sweat. Don't second-guess now. Keep him talking.

"You're recruiting me because if I'm not with you, then I'm against you," Liris said. "And the fact that my death is even a consideration in your plans means that I can fight you. If you keep threatening the world with demons, I will."

She didn't just want to learn. She wanted to learn in order to make a difference helping people. Liris could buy Serenthuar's safety, but the cost might be not just hers, but the world's.

Jadrhun took his eyes off her for the first time, glaring at Vhannor. "Well done."

"I'm not responsible for her ability to thwart you," Vhannor said.

"No, you saw that all Liris needed to be useful was a mission, and you gave her one before anyone else and in so doing bound her to your cause. Commendable."

Vhannor didn't answer for a moment, and Liris knew why: Jadrhun would know him well enough to know he never wanted to control people, and had lashed out with a purpose.

"I won't stop Liris from making her own choices," Vhannor said, which, while in general Liris highly approved of, with a spell pointed at her as she made one Jadrhun didn't like was somewhat less reassuring. "I haven't held her or anyone else back."

By which he meant Jadrhun, obviously, who was demonstrably less convinced. "Is that how you rationalize it? Liris can't understand the forces she's caught up in yet, but you do. This is her last chance, Vhann—I promise I will unwork this spell, but if you want to keep her safe, leave her with me."

"I have been kept safe long enough," Liris snapped. "If you choose to kill me, that will be your choice, no matter how you rationalize it."

"And we," Princess Nysia said for the first time, her voice glacial, "don't abandon people for convenience."

Finally,Liris had bought enough time.

"That is exactly what you do," Jadrhun snarled back at her. "You've decided anything else is too hard. You're so committed to your rules because you're too cowardly to even dare to imagine what you could do, and you snuff out anyone who can. But you can't stop me."

Nysia spelled, and instead of a demon protection sphere it was a small, condensed version that shot into Jadrhun like a cannon.

His hand barely twitched, but it was enough, sending a beam of magic at Liris—

But she slipped again. A spell turned the platform liquid underneath her feet, and Liris dropped below the spell that would have hit her.

Vhannor caught her.

And with her hands free to spell, Liris stared clear-eyed at Jadrhun with a lightning spell ready.

"Do it," Nysia said as Jadrhun effortlessly dispersed the same sphere she'd captured Belighia in.

"Whatever you're caught up in," Liris said, "we won't leave you alone. You can make a different choice."

Jadrhun's lip was bleeding from Nysia's first hit, but he smiled coldly at her.

"I don't want to," he said. "But there's nothing for me in this realm after all, it seems."

Then Jadrhun fell backward through the Gate and was gone.

Princess Nysia whirled on Liris. " Why didn't you take the shot."

Liris leveraged herself off Vhannor. "You think I should have murdered him? I'm pretty sure Special Operations frowns on that, especially since we have no proof he's killed anyone. We can guess he was involved with the mercenaries in Periannolu, but that's circumstantial."

Nysia glared. "Are you quoting protocol at me? Special Operations makes provisions for self-defense, and he was going to kill you."

Liris glanced at the snow behind her, where Jadrhun's beam would have landed, and couldn't see anything. "I don't think he was."

"You're kidding." Nysia's words dripped with scorn. "You believe him, because he said so? I didn't take you for that na?ve—"

"I may be inexperienced, but I'm far better at reading people and situations than you."

"Really. And what makes you think that?"

Commenting on Nysia's misstep at the ball would only piss her off. So Liris said, "Because I was locked away my entire life unless I could perform to the standards set by my keepers. I am very good at reading shifts in power and adapting, because if I weren't, I would be dead."

That stopped the princess.

"I am not just baggage," Liris told her. "I have skills. You're wasting me if you ignore them."

"No one is ‘wasting' anyone," Vhannor growled.

Nysia glared from him to Liris. "We still could have taken him in."

"If Jadrhun had shot at me again, I was ready to fire," Liris said.

But he hadn't.

Liris knew she was missing a critical piece, but she felt like she was right on the edge of grasping the whole pattern.

"Much as I love just stabbing demons," Shry called, "do you all want to maybe do anything about this demon portal?"

Princess Nysia turned away, flipped a page, and shot out two more spheres in rapid succession, fired like they were bullets but which trapped the demons on impact.

Gods, the princess was so good with protection spheres and all their iterations. Liris really wanted to ask her questions as an expert but decided now was not the time.

Still, as they worked together, Shry and Nysia handling the demons while Liris and Vhannor unraveled the portal spell itself, Liris thought she'd done it. She'd become part of supporting something greater than herself, had used her skills—assessing, analyzing, pattern-matching—to resolve a critical situation.

She hadn't failed when it mattered.

Liris' ability to delay Jadrhun—and distract him from that fact, and learn from what he revealed—had given Nysia time to both catch up with the demons coming out of the portal and ready a spell for Jadrhun, while Vhannor had prepared to keep Liris from getting hit. She wouldn't forget.

Jadrhun might have gotten away with a smile, but he'd been routed, bleeding, and they had all survived. They'd gotten him away so they could take down the spell.

And now they did. Liris did, focusing on working magic while a team of people supported her. She reveled in it, because maybe once Embhullor's linguist team caught up with her knowledge of Thyrasel she wouldn't count on Nysia to keep demons off her back, but for now? She'd proven herself useful.

When Liris finished dispelling, the cable car was running again and Belighia and even more casters than before disembarked on the platform.

The minister scanned around, visage darkening. The once pristine platform was gouged and scorched, parts of the mountains behind them smoking. The very air around them no longer smelled crisp and fresh, and the snow looked dull and gray. Even in a world of snow, Tellianghu's untouchable image and expensive casters couldn't hide the evidence of a battle over a demon portal.

"Where's Jadrhun?" Minister Belighia demanded without preamble, not bothering to disguise her anger.

In fact, the anger was a front: Liris could practically feel the edge of desperation in it.

Thank goodness, because she was so shaky her fingers fumbled flipping for a nonlethal spell to use in case the casters attacked them.

"Ah, Jadrhun left you with a mess and unfulfilled promises?" Vhannor asked. "How shocking."

Belighia's eyes narrowed. "You have no idea what our agreement was or what you've done."

"No, you've made sure of that," Vhannor said. "But when Jadrhun left, his last words were that there was nothing left for him in this realm, so I'll let you wonder about that."

"And I," Princess Nysia said in a chilly voice, "will let you wonder how it will look to all the other realms that Tellianghu used its profound, unregulated wealth to invite demons on them. I certainly won't keep quiet, and neither will all those movers and shakers you lured here today to watch your demonstration. What do you think that will mean for all your upstanding trade contracts, your rich customers willing to support you? Think on that before you speak another word about the Coalition of Tethered Realms."

Nysia might not excel at political subtlety, but she did know how to hammer home a point.

Most realms weren't secure and couldn't afford to risk their relationships with Special Operations. With Tellianghu's reputation in tatters and Nysia promising to make sure everyone knew why, upstanding businesses would abandon Tellianghu rather than risk being associated with them.

Now that whatever better deal Belighia thought she'd worked out with Jadrhun appeared to have vanished, Tellianghu's best hope was the Coalition they'd scorned. And if other powerful realms were angry enough, the Coalition might insist on concessions for Tellianghu to join... and there were a lot of ways Nysia could play that to their advantage.

Tellianghu, and Belighia in particular, had quickly gone from a smug position to a very precarious one.

Belighia was backed into a corner, and she knew it. She drew himself up and said coldly, "Your ‘clear and present danger' is past, and as the ranking representative for Tellianghu, all of you get the void out of my realm. None of you, nor Special Operations, is welcome back."

Liris had never been thrown out of a realm before.

Princess Nysia bared her teeth at her in a threatening grin, but Liris took her cue from Vhannor and Shry and just turned and left without a word, Shry bringing up the rear in case of an attack that didn't come.

On the other side of the Gate, as Vhannor wearily set up spells to hide them—no point in pretending they weren't here for purposes at odds with Tellianghu now—Shry did a quick inventory of injuries, and Nysia set up a spell to accelerate their travel, Liris stared back toward the fa?ade of a summery Gate that had, in a way, closed behind them.

"I can't help but think," she said when Vhannor came up to her, "that a profoundly powerful demon portal trapping the guests was unlikely to have demonstrated a desirable deal to them."

His gaze was grim; he knew what she was getting at. "We missed something."

"We missed something bigger than a demon portal."