Page 177 of The Iron Flower

She grins, a wicked gleam lights her eyes. “We’re going to poison them all.”

* * *

Commander Vin sweeps into the kitchen, disguised in a heavy cloak. She throws back her hood, scanning the room intently. “Is the kitchen secure?” she asks Fernyllia.

Fernyllia nods grimly from where she sits at the table beside me, Tierney on my other side.

“All the doors and windows are locked,” Fernyllia says. “And I have a watch out.”

Commander Vin gives a curt nod and sits down at the table between Jules and Lucretia Quillen, just across from me. Yvan stands behind them, leaning back against the kitchen counter, Iris and Bleddyn by his side.

I struggle not to look at him, to not be so overwhelmingly aware of his presence. I can sense Yvan’s fire loosened from its constraints, questing toward me, but I staunchly hold my own fire back and push down the fierce ache in my chest.

“Tell me this plan of yours,” Commander Vin says to Tierney and me.

We exchange a swift look, and Commander Vin motions impatiently with her hand. “Speak,” she orders sharply. “We’ve little time. We’re only days away from the full moon, and possibly all-out war.”

“We’ve crafted a poison,” Tierney tells her, the words dark on her tongue.

Commander Vin draws back a fraction. “For a diversion?”

“To poison them all,” I say, forcing an even tone. “The entire Gardnerian force. And most of the University.”

The commander is quiet for a long moment, her eyes flashing condemnation. “You’d kill everyone in Verpax, would you?” She levels her gaze at Fernyllia. “Thisis the plan you’d have me hear?”

“Hear them out,” Fernyllia says patiently, her flour-dusted hands clasped and resting on the wooden table before her.

Tierney leans over, fishes a large jar out of her travel sack, and sets it firmly on the table in front of us. The powder inside glows a vibrant, Ironflower blue.

“Not to kill,” Tierney states adamantly. “To temporarily render unconscious. For an entire night—and fairly incapacitated throughout the next day. With a full recovery.”

I motion toward the glowing blue jar. “There’s enough here to poison all the food in all the kitchens in the entire University city. And the soldiers draw almost all of their food from these kitchens. It will give you six solid hours to get the Lupines out of here.”

“That’s quite enough time to get through the Caledonian pass in the Spine,” Fernyllia puts in, a calculating glint in her eyes.

Tierney sits back, her tenacious gaze steady on the commander.

Kam Vin shakes her head dismissively. “The Gardnerians have spells to detect poison, just as we do. All the food is tested. Always.”

“We’ve forced elemental magic into Ironflower essence and combined it with the poison,” Tierney explains. “So, now it can suppress magic. There isn’t a singlespellthatcandetect it, wand-or rune-based.”

Jules picks up the jar thoughtfully. He looks to me, his lips curling into an impressed smile. “It seems you’ve found your calligraphy, Elloren Gardner.”

I let out a resigned sigh and nod. “I have.”

“It’s as we’ve said.” His tone is amused, but his eyes are serious. “If one can’t be powerful, it pays to be clever.”

Commander Vin is staring at the jar, nodding, and I can see the wheels of her mind turning. She looks to Tierney and me. “You’ve stipulations?”

I take a deep bolstering breath. “You need to take my brothers to Noi lands along with all the Lupines.”

“A Level Five Mage and a tracker,” she says, cutting me off impatiently. “Fine. We can make good use of them.”

“You need to bring every last kitchen worker who wishes to leave, as well,” Tierney says, her tone brooking no argument. “And their families, too—including Fern, Iris, Bleddyn and her mother, plus Olilly and her sister.”

Bleddyn’s mouth falls open, and Iris’s face takes on a look of stunned confusion.

“You ask too much,” Commander Vin says coldly.

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