Veradis gave her a strained nod as they moved out of the circled furylamps of the landing area. Other fliers were streaming in. Amara saw Lord and Lady Placida descending, an unlikely-looking couple: He was stout, plain, and blocky, a man who looked more like a blacksmith or woodworker than a High Lord of Alera. She was tall, regal, a fiercely beautiful woman with long red hair barely constrained by a long braid and an aura of fiery intensity. Both wore Legion armor and carried swords. She carried a slender dueling blade, while Lord Placida bore a great monster of a sword on a belt over one shoulder, a weapon suitable for felling gargants and medium-sized trees with a single stroke.

“Countess Calderon,” Lady Placida said. She hurried off the landing area as other fliers descended, nodding to Amara and to Veradis. “Veradis, hello, child. Countess, do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Lady Aria, Lady Isana has been taken,” Veradis said. “Men came to her quarters at the inn. They circumvented the furies watching it and took her and Sir Araris.”

“What?” Lady Placida asked, her face growing darker.

“In the middle of all of this?” Lord Placida said, waving a hand around at the Legions. He looked up at his wife, and said, “She doesn’t have significant strategic value. Could it be personal?”

“You’re assuming it was the enemy who took her,” Lady Placida said, glancing up at the banners overflying the command tent, foremost among them Lord Aquitaine’s. “As the focus of Octavian’s support here at Riva, she has a great deal of political value.” Her hand strayed to her sword, and she snarled, “I’m going to—”

Placida frowned, staring at nothing, and put his hand over hers before she could draw the blade. “No,” he said. “Temper, my love. Think. Attis is cold-blooded, not stupid. Raucus would take his head off.” He paused, and allowed, “Or you might.”

“Thank you,” Lady Placida said, stiffly.

“Or I suppose I might,” he mused, taking his hand from hers and drumming his fingers on the baldric of the greatsword. He narrowed his eyes in thought. “Which... could be what the enemy had in mind. Especially now that we know Octavian is on his way.”

“Sow division among us? Could these creatures understand us that well?” Lady Placida asked. Some of the anger seemed to ease out of her.

“Invidia could,” Placida pointed out.

“I should have called her out years ago,” Lady Placida said, scowling.

Lord Placida harrumphed, uncomfortably. “It wouldn’t have been very lady-like of either of you.”

“There’s no way to know what’s happened yet,” Amara said, cutting across them. “And no, Lady Placida, I don’t know what’s going on. I was hoping you would.”