'It's too late for this,' said Glennet. 'We must invade, and we must do it now before we find Mab standing at the gates of the Great Seelie Keep while we're still sitting here arguing.'
'I was against this invasion from the beginning,' said Mauritane. 'I was against it when we only suspected that Mab still had the Einswrath, and now I'm tempted to be certain of it.
'The only good war, Baron Glennet,' he continued, 'is the one that's never fought. Everess told me so himself, when he was going about justifying the creation of his Shadows to me. The nature of war has changed. And now you want to go running off into the same old war?'
'It is not me you must convince,' said Glennet. 'Corpus has decided.'
'Then make them change their minds,' said Mauritane. 'If we move now, we'll be going to our deaths. Even without the Einswrath, Mab's Army outnumbers us. And with the Annwni legions, we'll be totally overpowered. My soldiers are the best there are, but they're still only Fae.'
'I'm sorry,' said Glennet. 'It's too late. The decision has been made.'
Paet started to raise an objection, but Everess cut him off. 'You heard the man, Chief Paet. Your job is to provide intelligence. You've done that. Now go back to work and let General Mauritane do his job.'
'All right,' said Paet. 'What is it you've been dying to tell me?'
They were in the mission room at Blackstone House. Sela had laid out several documents in front of Paet, while Ironfoot and Silverdun watched.
'I'm curious to know myself,' said Silverdun. He'd asked Sela to tell him what was on her mind, but she seemed to be actively pained in his presence since his return. After their night in the Unseelie lands together and her declaration of love, coupled with his recent demise, he didn't suppose he could blame her. Ironfoot, for his part, could barely be torn away from his studies on the Einswrath. Both Sela and Silverdun sensed that he was on to something and didn't want to bother him.
'When we returned from our last mission,' Sela began, 'you asked me to go through everything I could find to determine who it was that had given away our plans; first in Annwn, and then in the Unseelie. I've come up with something, but I'm not sure how definitive it is.'
'Let's have it,' said Paet. He was clearly having a hard time concentrating, but Silverdun knew that Paet was not a man who'd ignore important information despite his other worries.
'I began concentrating on dispatches from Annwn, around the time that Silverdun and Ironfoot first went there, and didn't come up with much. But then I decided to check on anything at all that even mentioned Annwn. And I found something peculiar.'
She pushed one of the documents in front of Paet. 'This is a report from one of your informants in Mag Mell, a barmaid at a tavern on Isle Siolain. She reported in passing a meeting between Baron Glennet and the Annwni ambassador, the same day you arrived.'
'Hm,' said Paet. 'That's not strikingly unusual.'
'Not in itself, no,' said Sela. 'But at this point, I must admit that I was desperate to find out anything at all. So I went back and checked the itinerary Glennet filed with the Foreign Office.'
'And?' said Paet.
'And there was no scheduled meeting,' she said. 'Glennet was supposedly there for a meeting with a mining concern.'
'That's what he told us,' said Silverdun. 'Remember, Ironfoot? We saw him at the locks.'
'That's right,' said Ironfoot. 'There was no mention of a meeting with the Annwni ambassador.'
'Indeed,' said Silverdun. 'And the fact that he didn't mention the meeting is strange, since-'
'Since he was well aware that you two were on your way to Annwn,' said Paet. 'Glennet receives briefings on every mission on foreign soil. He always knows where we're going, and when. It seems more than a little suspicious.'
'The queen's tits,' said Silverdun. 'Could it have been him all this time?'
'Ah,' said Sela. 'But there's more. I started going through Glennet's records at the Hall of Records.'
'How in hell did you get access to a baron's records?' asked Paet. 'I've never been able to get that kind of access.'
Sela smiled. 'You don't have the powers of persuasion that I have, I suppose,' she said. 'Either the magical kind or ... the more mundane kind.'
Silverdun felt a sudden blossom of affection for her. She looked up at him and gave him an odd look. Had she felt him?
She seemed to lose her train of thought for a moment, but quickly regained it.
