Page 199 of The Shadow Wand

Because Ung Li rarely hesitates with anything.

“She’s likely dead,” Ung Li says.

Trystan pulls in a hard breath and doubles over slightly as his invisible water magic comes untethered, his hands flying up to clutch at his abdomen as if he’s sustained an actual physical blow.

Vothe almost takes a step toward him in troubled concern but sternly forces himself to keep back. A tempest kicks up inside Vothe as his heart twists for Trystan, even as he’s cursing himself for giving in to this ferocious sympathy.

Get hold of yourself, Zhilon’ile, Vothe internally rages.Be clear on who your enemies have to be.

“Your sister was caught in the cross fire when our Western forces attacked the Mage Council.” Commander Li conveys all this in a flat military tone, but Vothendrile can read her unease as she’s faced with Trystan’s obvious devastation.

Trystan lifts his green eyes to meet hers. “But you don’t know for a fact that she’s dead?” he asks, almost a plea, his voice fractured as palpable anguish storms through him. The note of aching hope in the question is difficult for Vothe to witness.

Ung Li’s dark eyes narrow. “There’s a slim chance that she’s still alive.”

Vothe is stopped short as he reads the false note in Ung Li’s words with his Wyvern senses.

Smelling the lie.

No, Vothe thinks, rattled.There’s more than a slim chance that she’s alive, isn’t there?

Vothendrile’s own powers whip up inside him, water and wind suddenly churning, the immensity of what this could mean for the Eastern Realm rapidly cycloning together.

A more powerful Black Witch...

Alive.

“You will see postings going up throughout the Wyvernguard and the city with your sister’s likeness on them,” Ung Li states, her guarded energy increasing as she buries her ferocity deep.

“Postings?” Trystan asks, and Vothe can sense the jolt of his confusion.

“If your sister has survived,” Ung Li says, her tone and expression downplaying the possibility, “and if she makes her way to the Eastern Realm, then we need to make it clear that she’s to be brought to the Vu Trin immediately.” There’s a pause, a split second too long. “For her protection.” There’s the trace of a comforting smile on her lips, but her dark eyes are hard as stone.

Vothe can sense all the water magic in Trystan freezing.

Vothe glances at him sideways with no small amount of alarm, realizing that Trystan is reading everything in this suspended moment as clearly as he is.

The postings aren’t for Elloren Gardner’s protection. Because if Trystan’s sister is more powerful than their grandmother...

...that means that Elloren Gardner is the most powerful weapon the Realms have ever seen.

And the Vu Trin will almost certainly want to find her and kill her.

Immediately.

Her gaze raptor-sharp, Ung Li studies Trystan. “If your sister makes it to Noi lands,” she says, her tone carefully neutral, “it is likely that she will seek out you or your brother, Rafe. If this happens, you need to bring her to us without delay. Do you understand, Mage Gardner?”

A whoosh of Trystan’s invisible water power breaks over the room, and it sets Vothe’s heart beating harder. And then all of Trystan’s magic is suddenly yanked back inside him, his vast water and fire magic instantly buried to the point that Vothe’s Zhilon’ile powers can’t detect even a trace of it.

Trystan gives Ung Li a stiff, formal salute, striking his fist firmly to his chest. “Yes, Commander,” he affirms, grim-faced. “If my sister has survived and she seeks me out, I’ll bring her right to you.”

Liar, Vothe senses, his roiling conflict heating up, lightning crackling through his internal Zhilon’ile power as he vows to double down on how closely he guards this Mage, regardless of how sincere Trystan’s Vu Trin alliance has been up to this point.

Because it’s clear that he’s even more powerfully aligned with his family.

With his sister.

And that alliance has just put him at odds with the entire Eastern Realm.

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