The thought reminded Fifer that Florence still hadn’t replied to her latest send spell telling them not to come. Was Florence still thinking about how to answer that? Or had something happened to them? Fifer thought about how much time had passed since Florence had told them they were on their way. They must be taking the volcano network in order to get here by morning.

A panicky thought struck Fifer. What if Fifer’s send spell had gone out when Florence was in the volcano system? Would the spell ever find her? That seemed like the one place Artimé’s spells wouldn’t be able to penetrate on their own. But wouldn’t it find her once she exited? Or would it just be confused and give up?

All the unanswered questions that flew around Fifer’s mind were making her weary. She checked on Dev again and found him resting as comfortably as possible. Fifer would give Florence until morning to reply, and if she didn’t, she’d have to use her last send component. Because the last thing Fifer wanted was to be responsible for the death of another Artiméan. And if there was any chance that Florence hadn’t received the instructions not to come here, and the whole team of them came barreling in to save their head mage and were attacked, Fifer would never be able to forgive herself.

She dozed for a few hours. When the sun streamed in and Dev stirred and sat up, Fifer startled awake. She applied one more dose of salve to Dev’s burns and moved to put away the healing kit in her robe pocket. When she slid it inside, it caught on something in its way. Fifer frowned and pulled the kit out, then reached inside to find out what was there. Her fingers found a small box wrapped in paper. She’d never seen it before. “What’s this?” she murmured.

A Trial Period

The Revinir had seemed cautiously pleased with Thisbe’s response, and the two had parted ways for the night, agreeing tentatively to meet again in the morning for breakfast. Thisbe sent her servant to the sitting room to sleep and spent a wakeful night wrestling with how to play the next act. She knew the plan had been for Fifer to send for Florence on the morning after Thisbe left. So they probably weren’t here yet. Should Thisbe buy time to make sure the people of Artimé could be in the area? Or jump right into the agreement, which would surely set off another round of problems that she would pretend not to expect? All she knew was that she’d been enjoying playing this part.