“He has made the Thicket,” Mars answered Cassius. “And as he will be engaged in his duties, I will not be able to contact him for fear of such communication being noted which might mean he’s discovered. But he will be in regular contact with me if he discovers anything.”

“Chu?” Silence asked after Elena’s query.

“I shall tell you later, piccolina,” Mars murmured.

“For the rest of you,” I butted in, “I need to request you cut your forays short and head to Notting Thicket with all due haste. From what I’m hearing, True will need allies, the more, the faster, the better.”

“We’re already on our way,” Ha-Lah said, and when she continued, the smile on her face came through in her words. “And we bring dragons.”

“Dragons?” Silence breathed.

“Men,” Aramus boomed. “Frey Drakkar has heard word about the Beast and has come to our aid. We sail with him right now toward Notting Thicket. And he says the Dax of Korwahk and the king of Hawkvale are in route.”

“You’re joking,” Cassius said.

“This is a boon,” Mars added.

“Have you noticed it is we who have the link and it is the males who are doing most of the talking?” Elena asked tetchily.

“It is the way,” Ha-Lah murmured.

“It is so lovely to see you, Ha-Lah,” Silence said. “You have been missed.”

“That is kind, Silence,” Ha-Lah replied. “You have been missed too. Are you well?”

“Very!” Silence chirped, which made me, as well as Elena and Ha-Lah, smile.

“Farah?” Ha-Lah asked, her smile less bright when it came to me, and her voice was heavier.

“True and his men have been taking care of me,” I told her quietly.

“For this, I am glad,” she said softly.

“I am glad for this too,” Mars put in, not softly.

“You seem happy,” Elena noted to Ha-Lah.

Ha-Lah smiled a certain kind of smile.

Aramus could be heard grunting.

Enough said on that.

I started grinning again.

“There are things to do, are we done chatting?” Cassius asked.

“No one asked you to be in this conversation, Cass,” Elena pointed out.

“Wodell is raising an army to thwart an alliance and wage war on one of my allies. Their king’s counsellor is possibly colluding with the Go’Doan who were behind an attack on a palace you and I as well as all our friends had to take up swords to rout. And considering all of this, we have to make the decisions about whether or not to take our daughters into an uncertain situation, and my vote would be hell no. This means I’ll have to argue with you about that and then tell the girls they aren’t coming and deal with their tantrums. We don’t have time to chat,” Cassius returned.

“You finished that by assuming you’d get your way about the girls,” Elena retorted.