“I don’t understand it. What can anyone gain by this? Tormenting me for something I didn’t do? Suggesting that I am responsible and implying that I should be held accountable because of it? It’s madness!”

Stoon nodded. “It feels to me as if tormenting you is the whole point. Who would want to do that?”

Drust shook his head. “The line goes out the door and down the hall since I became Prime Minister. It’s the nature of the job. But no one has threatened me like this before. No one has deliberately made themselves my enemy. Not even Edinja did that. Nor Arodian.”

Stoon walked over to the table with the wine and sat down in one of the high-backed chairs. “Well, you should be pleased that with Edinja dead and gone, you only have one troublemaker left to dispose of. What shall we do about Arodian?”

Drust shook his head. “I have to think about it. Is there news about what’s happening at Paranor?”

“It’s the reason I’m here. The Walker Boh departed earlier today with what looks to be nearly a full complement of Druids and Troll guards. Our spies tell us the Ard Rhys herself is aboard. The airship flies west, but the destination is unknown.”

“West? Surely not to the Elves again?” Drust thought about it. “I’m guessing the King’s granddaughter remains. Her leg was broken in the attack at Arborlon. But maybe the rest have left.”

He paused, looking pointedly at Stoon. “This might be the opportunity we seek. If we act quickly, we might be able to rid ourselves of both the Druids and Paranor. But how …?”

He looked away a moment, and then back again. “We need to get inside Paranor. It would be better if we didn’t have to force our way in. Is it possible to arrange for someone inside to open the gates for us?”

Stoon, tall and lean, bent forward like a vulture eyeing prey. “Anything is possible, Prime Minister. Anything.”

18

APHENGLOW ELESSEDIL’S INSTINCTS ABOUT WHAT MIGHT have happened to delay Bombax’s return to Paranor were not misguided. Far from it. His efforts to find help for the Druids in their quest for the missing Elfstones had not gone well. Rather, they had gone spectacularly awry.

He had flown south to the Borderland City of Varfleet, thinking to seek out someone with magic the likes of which the Druids did not possess. After all, if the Shade of Allanon felt the members of the order lacked sufficient talent to accomplish what was needed, it stood to reason they needed to find someone who possessed magic of a different sort. So that was what Bombax, never short of confidence and determination, meant to do.