Chapter 9: The Gate at Dawn

I told Haldane at midnight, in his bed, with my cold feet against his shins.

He listened without a word to the whole plan.

When I finished, he said, "You are using yourself as bait."

"I'm using a car as bait. I'm just sitting in it."

"Tavia."

"They tried a stair, a fever and a trial. They'll try something else if I look like I'm leaving."

His arm tightened around me.

"If anything happens to you," he said into my hair, "I will burn the Seal Room down with the Elders inside it."

"Then nothing will happen."

"That is not a plan."

"It's a hope with a vet tech attached. Go to sleep."

He did not sleep, and neither did I.

At dawn I stood at the east gate in my own jeans and my own boots, with Mort's black bag at my feet.

The gate was a wide arch of black timber set into the rock.

A new grey sedan idled on the gravel, polished.

A groom in a leather vest held the door.

On the wall above me, in the shadow of the gatehouse, Osmond crouched with a crossbow across his knees.

I could not see Haldane.

He had said he would be close, and that I would not see him until I needed to.

The sky went pink.

Footsteps crunched on the gravel behind me.

"Miss Linde."

I turned.

Sunniva came down the path in a long white cloak, her platinum hair loose, her gloved hands folded around a steel thermos.

She looked like a Christmas card.

"I came to see you off," she said. "No hard feelings, I hope."

"None at all."

"I was so unkind at dinner. I'm ashamed."

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