“Good morning, Lord Iannis,” Lord Logar said as we approached. For a change, he wasn’t the stereotypical tall, long-haired mage. He kept his silver hair short, wore a beard of the same shade, and had a stocky, five-foot-six frame. The emerald robes he wore seemed to highlight the flecks of green in his hazel eyes. His twelve fellow mages, ten males and two females, all stood a few inches taller than him. They wore a variety of robes with the Osero Mages Guild emblem stitched to the breast, a standing grizzly bear, stitched onto their breasts.

“Good morning, Lord Logar.” Iannis inclined his head courteously, and the rest of us bowed. “I am pleased to see you, and your reinforcements.” He glanced over at the other mages, as well as the caravan of steam cars and carriages they had brought with them, with the human drivers keeping well out of the way. Guess Iannis wasn’t the only one who’d been upgrading his fleet.

“Indeed. It looks like we’ll need them.” Logar swept his gaze over us. Fenris, who stood on my left, stiffened almost imperceptibly. He was uncomfortable around other chief mages, since there was always the risk that one of his former colleagues might discover his true identity. It was unlikely they would be able to tell that Fenris had once been Polar ar’Tollis, Chief Mage of Nebara, by just looking at him, but I would have been nervous if I’d been in his position.

“You have managed to accomplish quite a lot with such a small crew,” Logar finally said, his eyes stopping to linger on me. “I suppose that is in no small part due to your bride-to-be.” His hazel eyes warmed fractionally. “Congratulations on your engagement, by the way.”

“Sunaya has been very helpful,” Iannis acknowledged. “But we could not have accomplished this without the rest of our group.”

“Of course not.” Lord Logar turned his attention toward the compound. His eyes narrowed as he peered at the buildings through the wire fence. “So you have all the prisoners stored in these garages?”

“Yes. They will need to be rounded up before we demolish the compound.”

“Pity we can’t burn them all too, at the same time,” the Chief Mage said with disdain. “They deserve nothing less.”

“Do you consider yourself above the law, then?” Noria sneered. “That you feel it’s okay to kill off all these people without a fair trial?”

“And who is this young upstart?” Lord Logar asked, turning his gaze toward Noria. She stood between Rylan and Elnos, her wrists still magically restrained. “Is this the one you all came to rescue?”

Noria opened her mouth to answer, and Elnos kicked at her ankle. The two of them exchanged a heated glare, and Noria edged away from him, her freckled face pale with fury.