Page 119 of The Sundered Realms

She was joking, partly, but couldn’t help wondering—

What if Jadrhun did?

Vhannor didn’t smile as she’d expected him to, though, because the spell detection sphere around her flared.

A moment later, his spell detection sphere flared, too.

On the opposite side.

Liris muttered even as she whipped her spell pad out to gather their critical supplies as they’d practiced, “Please tell me spoken spells aren’t a thing, and I didn’t just summon a circle surrounding us.”

“They are, but you didn’t. Void take it!” Another detection sphere flared all around him. “We are surrounded, though.”

“Plan?”

“Wait,” Vhannor said grimly, even as he cast a protective sphere around them.

Liris almost breathed easier at that as she finished with the supplies, but then she caught movement out of the corner of her eye; swung around. “Camouflaged person approaching—uh, make that people. Why are we waiting?”

“Because if I’m right, I know who these people are, and diplomacy will be more effective than fighting,” Vhannor said.

Liris flipped to her fire-radiating-outward spell anyway. People were closing in on them now from all sides, at least a dozen casters among them.

“Vhann, these don’t look like Theiraosian government uniforms.”

“I know.”

She didn’t think he’d wait for mercenaries, not when others they’d met had collaborated with Jadrhun. “Are these The People’s Will?” Liris asked quietly.

Not quietly enough. “Yes,” a woman with a riot of curls answered, stepping forward as twelve sets of caster pairs held position around them, pens poised.

Theiraosian rebels. Under other circumstances Liris would have been impressed by her air of competence.

Today she thought, It’s not a trap if I’m choosing to be here, and tried to make herself believe it.

“Chaeheen,” Vhannor greeted her.

“Vhannor.”

Oh good, they were on first-name terms. Liris liked this less and less. If Chaeheen knew Vhannor that well, she’d been looking for him on purpose, and she knew what he could do.

“It’s been a while,” Vhannor said. “I’d love to catch up, but at present my partner and I are in a bit of a hurry.”

“Yes, I noticed that,” Chaeheen said, eyes flicking to Liris and over her cloak. “In theory I could let you continue on, but if you’re calling her partner, I don’t believe you’ll leave her behind.”

“You’re taking orders from Jadrhun?” Vhannor growled. “You realize he’s working with demons?”

“He can work with whomever he pleases if he can back up his promises.”

“Why in the world would you of all people believe he can?”

“Because I’m not stupid, and I demanded he pay in advance,” Chaeheen said bluntly. “Jadrhun showed us a Gate in familiar territory I had no idea existed. If he knows how to use ley magic to find Gates, I can imagine what else he can do.” Her voice softened. “I know you’re trying to help. But Theiraos needs this. Everywhere needs this. I won’t let you stop him.”

“Wait.”

Chaeheen’s eyebrows raised at the order before she realized Vhannor had put a hand on Liris’ arm.

“For what, exactly?” Liris asked.

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