The academy peacekeepers took them all into custody until a high peacekeeper could reach the academy. They split them into separate rooms, and Weysh was the one who had to keep Yenni calm when the academy officers tried to pull her away.

“They only want to question us, lovely. You’re not in trouble.”

Still, the room they put her in was horrible and stifling, and not simply because it had no windows and just one uncomfortable chair. The Creshens had done something to the room to dampen ach’e. The air felt heavy and soupy, and when she tried to pull ach’e it tingled painfully under her skin, like little knives. It would be difficult indeed to use runes or incantations.

She waited for endless minutes until at last the door opened and a green-skinned woman—a dragon—stepped into the room. She held a book and ink pen.

“Mam’selle Kayirba?” she said, tucking a lock of her chin-length green hair behind her ear. “I am High Peacekeeper Huisa. I’ll need to ask you a few questions. The quicker and more truthfully you answer them, the sooner you will go free. Now, are you, in fact, a royal of the Yirba tribe of the Moonrise Isles?”

Yenni sighed. So much for keeping that secret.

“I am,” Yenni confirmed. “I suppose Weh-sheh told you?”

“Your Given? No, in fact it was Emmanuel Devon who made that claim.”

“What? But how could he—”

Because she had foolishly told him only the Masters knew how to draw the warning rune. Such a rare rune would normally only be bestowed on someone quite high ranking within a tribe, after all.

Yenni sat, seething and embarrassed, as the high peacekeeper explained that Devon had not wanted to kill her but to test the accuracy of her rune and report back to his mentor, Gilles Desroches, who had also loaned Devon the rune puppet, having pilfered it from the Watatzi.

Yenni in turn revealed everything about her trip to Cresh—from who she was to why she’d come. The clock bell tolled twice while she was stuck in that oppressive room, answering question after question, until finally the high peacekeeper called in her subordinates to escort Yenni out.

They led her to the high-ceilinged foyer of the security building, where Weysh was waiting.

“Right then, you two are free to go,” said the first peacekeeper.

Yenni went over to Weysh, and he put an arm around her in a gentle hug. She rested her head on his chest and sighed heavily against him.

“What is it, lovely?” he asked, stroking her back. “You’re shaking.”

“I feel so foolish,” she said, and explained to Weysh the plot hatched by Professor Devon and his mentor to test her rune.