The war had never reached Valovia, so we’d never had to acclimate to the two-day schedule. And I’d never been on any planet that had such a short solar day. It was going to completely wreck my body clock.

I glanced around the table. Everyone was concentrating on their meal, but Kee was eating with the sort of focused intensity she usually reserved for solving difficult puzzles. She was beating herself up for not finding the information on the kidnapping sooner, as if that would even have been possible with Torran refusing to help.

After dinner, we headed for Torran’s private office. He intercepted us in the hallway and directed us to another room in the family wing. It looked like it had originally been a bedroom, but all of the furniture had been replaced. Now half a dozen desks with large workstation displays crowded together on one side of the room and a collection of chairs took up the other half in front of a huge wall display.

Kee sucked in a breath and looked around with wide eyes. Torran had better lock the door when we were done or Kee would spend all of her time in here.

“Please have a seat,” Torran said, indicating the chairs. Nilo stood at the front of the room, next to the display, but the rest of the Valovian team was already seated. Eli plopped down between Havil and Chira while Kee bounced over to sit next to Varro. Lexi sat in the back, as far from Nilo as she could get without leaving the room. Anja looked torn, but she sat next to Chira with a smile when the other woman waved her over.

I leaned against the back wall, too wound to sit. Torran joined me. “How was your dinner?” he asked.

“Peachy,” I muttered. In truth, dinner hadn’t done much to blunt my annoyance at him for keeping his nephew a secret, and I was in a fighting mood, so my best bet was avoidance.

Unfortunately, Torran hadn’t gotten the memo.

He frowned at me. “Is something wrong?”

“It’s been a long day,” I said with a sigh. “Let’s hear what you’ve found so far.”

Torran stared at me for a moment longer before turning his attention to Nilo. The other Valoff stepped forward and the screen behind him turned on. Nilo had lost some of his easygoing charm. His face was set in lines of grim determination.

“Approximately seventeen standard days ago, an unknown team broke in, tranquilized Cien, and escaped with him. We tracked them to the edge of the city, where they abandoned their transport. Flight data does not show any ships leaving the area, so we believe they took a smaller craft that remained hidden in the trees.”

“We saw a team of four on the video,” I said. “Were there more?”