“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.