Page 121 of The Tribes of Magic
“There’s another problem with kidnapping Apprentices,” Kato told him. “Think about how suspicious the General got of Savannah after you kidnapped her. If all of her friends were kidnapped by the Rebels too, the General would be sure Savannah is involved with the Rebellion. And then he’d lock her up. Do you want that to happen to her?”
Conner’s chest deflated, and all the humor went out of his eyes. “You know I don’t. Ok, fine, do you have a better suggestion?”
“I’m not sure.”
“What if she slips them a truth potion? Then we can question them without scaring them.”
“You want me to drug my friends?” I shook my head. “No, absolutely not. I can’t do that.”
“One of your friends might be betraying you,” Conner pointed out. “You are well within your rights to figure out who it is.”
“And what about all my true friends I’d be hurting in the process?”
“Drinking a truth potion doesn’t hurt. And the effects are temporary. After an hour or so, it will pass right out of their systems.”
“The truth does hurt, Conner. What happens after the questioning? I’ll have to admit to them that I didn’t trust them enough, so I slipped them magical herbs to test their loyalty!”
“You make things much harder on yourself than necessary.”
“The right path is often the hard one.”
“Remind me never to let you plan any battle strategies.”
I grinned at Conner. “You reallyshouldinclude me in your battlefield discussions. Your enemies will never know what hit them.”
“I’m sure they wouldn’t,” he laughed. “People often underestimate you.”
“Rhett certainly did,” Kato said.
“A big, hulking Apprentice being knocked on his butt by our little firecracker girl?” Conner snickered. “I wish I could have been there to see that.”
“Yes,” Kato agreed.
“It was pretty epic. Though I could have done without his revenge.” I rubbed my head.
“Full-throttle Metamorphs are easy to handle if you know how,” Conner told me. “They’re like dogs. Or wolves. There’s a lot of posturing and sorting out the alpha. This Rhett Wilson fellow sounds like an alpha wannabe. Just knock him down to show him who’s boss, and he’ll not bother you anymore.”
“I can’t believe you’re suggesting that I walk up to him out of the blue and punch him.”
Conner gave me a long, dramatic eye roll. “Of course I’m not suggestingthat. You need to make the knock-down look like you were only defending yourself.”
“How?”
Conner considered my question. “He’s not a nice person. Provoke him. When he attacks you, which he totally will,thenyou knock him down. No one could blame you for that.”
“That could work,” Kato agreed.
Those comments scored them both a horrified look.
“I am not going to solve my problems with violence.”
Conner glanced at Kato. “Uh, she does realize she’s training to be a Knight, right?”
“Knights are chivalrous, heroic, and merciful,” I said.
“It’s easy to be chivalrous, heroic, and merciful when you carry around a big, fat sword,” Conner purred.
“I don’t carry around a sword.”
