“It was not a human,” said Marius. “We can only assume it’s another of the non-human group, presumably one who managed to rescue Derek, though how he’d known where to find Derek—that we can’t know at this point.” He motioned for patience. “About two hours after that call went on the air,” he said, “Garekyn himself called on a throwaway cell phone from somewhere in England and he too left a message, obviously, for the others who share this strange language. But before he signed off he also left a detailed message for us, that he meant us no harm, and had never meant us harm, but wanted only to make contact with us for reasons having to do with the identity and history of Amel. He said it was not his intention to kill anyone, indeed that he had only been defending himself when Killer was taken down, and that wounding Eleni he did only in order to escape Trinity Gate.”

“Does that sound reasonable?” I turned to Armand.

He seemed unprepared for this, and glanced at Marius as if for permission to speak. Marius nodded.

“Yes,” said Armand. “I do believe Killer took the wrong tack with this powerful creature. But there’s more.” He gestured to Marius.

“This Garekyn sounded entirely reasonable, and even persuasive,” said Marius. “Less than an hour after that, another call came on the line. This time it was Dr. Karen Rhinehart who identified herself as Kapetria and she too left a long message in the strange language, before telling us that she and her kindred, as she called them, meant no harm to us whatsoever, and were deeply distressed to discover that we had now chosen to make enemies of her and Welf and Derek and Garekyn, who would never have sought to harm us.”

“Eventually, I want to hear these messages, but for now go on.”

“About an hour after sunset,” said Marius. “While you were still kept safe away from the sun’s rays, there was yet another call and this time it was from Derek himself. Of course he issued a long and obviously emotional message in the ancient tongue, before telling us in no uncertain terms of the wickedness of Roland and Rhoshamandes, and that he feared they would try to destroy him before he could ever reach his kin. Now if you want to hear the messages, I’ll play them for you, but frankly, I don’t think we have the time. We have to decide now whether to keep the broadcast phone lines open and what answer, if any, we are to make to these creatures about our interest in them.”

“I say leave it open,” said Teskhamen again. “It is imperative we make contact through the line ourselves with these creatures.”

“Yes, absolutely,” said Gregory, “especially if Rhoshamandes is hunting for them and plans to use them as hostages.”