This question Hanns answered quickly, as though he’d already decided something. “I don’t know, but I don’t find it hard to believe. This planet has the power to raise mountains, or to cause volcanoes to erupt. Is it so hard to imagine the gates tap that vast power?”
Alena wasn’t sure what to think, but she felt her anger rising.
Secrets dominated the empire.
How could Hanns know so much and not share it? How much better could she have helped the Etari if she knew half of what Hanns did? “That would have been nice to know.”
He grunted at that. “Knowledge is the most dangerous of weapons, and it can wound its wielder with surprising ease. These are secrets for a reason.”
Alena didn’t miss the hint of threat in the statement. But she refused to bow to his pressure. This was about the Etari, not about his own precious secrets.
“You and the Lolani queen are pulling too much power. It’s preventing this gate from working the way it should. Can you draw less?”
A long silence settled over the table. They had come to the crux of the matter.
“No.”
His answer had a ring of finality to it, little different than if he had given an official command.
But Alena wouldn’t let it go. “It’s causing the Etari gatestones to fail. And if they fail, the Etari won’t be able to protect themselves. This gate is their lifeblood.”
Hanns’ tone was surprisingly harsh. “And why should I care about the Etari? My concern is the empire.” He swept his hand over the kitchen they were in. “Would you rather I worry about protecting your parents, or sacrificing the empire’s safety for the Etari? Because you can’t have both!”
His verbal assault rocked her back, leaving her speechless. Her mouth opened and closed, but nothing came from it.
Hanns stood up. His anger, brief as it was, had vanished. “I’m sorry, Alena. I have nothing but respect for the Etari. But I have my own people to protect, and they must take priority.”
With that he was gone, leaving her with nothing but the certain knowledge that the Etari gate would continue to fade until it died, bringing her second family with it.
21
Brandt ran to the window, poking his head around the corner to see what he could. Down the block one of the houses had started on fire, the flames crawling up from level to level, hungry for more fuel. He watched as a family scrambled across a rope bridge to safety before one end caught fire, burned, and fell.
Below, the shadows appeared alive.
For all the destruction, the town was surprisingly quiet. Brandt only heard the fading sound of the bell and an occasional clash of steel. But he heard no screams.
He glanced across the window to Ana, looking down on the same scene. “Should we fight?”
“We won’t know who is who.”
Brandt grimaced. She was right, but they needed to do something. The attack couldn’t be anything but an assassination attempt on Regar.
“We need to get to the prince,” he decided.
Ana agreed.
Their first obstacle was their host family. The family might not see them as an immediate threat, but they weren’t about to let foreign warriors loose in the village during an attack. Brandt pleaded with the father, not wanting to fight their way past the family that had been so kind. The lack of shared language made it difficult. “Prince,” Brandt tried.
The father stared at him blankly.
“Regar,” Ana said.
The father understood that. He glanced between the two former wolfblades, then nodded. He gestured for them to follow.
Brandt hesitated. Another person complicated matters if they had to fight. But he supposed a guide couldn’t hurt. In the night, confused with small clashes, it would be easy to get turned around.
They ran down the stairs to the front door. After studying the street, the father grabbed a bow and led them out. He began down the street, then turned left and then right in short order.
The group hit trouble after turning the second corner. Three figures, silhouetted by the light of a torch, were prying a door open. As Brandt watched, one threw the lit torch into the house.
Fire had been a poor choice on their part.
The three invaders turned at the sound of their approach, weapons already drawn. Brandt pulled the flame from the fire and funneled more heat into it from the surrounding air. The flame erupted into a fireball, lighting the invaders’ clothes on fire. They swiped at their burning garments, as though that would somehow put them out.
Brandt charged as their host fired his bow, killing one of the invaders. Brandt made one pass through the other two, felling them both.
For a heartbeat their host stared at Brandt, then found his senses and continued on. But he stopped at the next corner. Brandt came close and glanced around the corner.
He didn’t notice anything until their host pointed. Three stories above them, two archers watched the street below. They wore the same dark clothing as the previous invaders.
Their host readied himself for a difficult shot, but Brandt grabbed his shoulder and stopped him. Brandt flashed a series of gestures toward Ana. She signed that she understood, then used her lightness to scamper up the side of the building they currently hid behind.
In a few moments she was behind the watchers. Caught by surprise, they stood no chance against her. She signaled from the roof and indicated she would stay high.
Brandt gestured for their host to continue. If not for the man’s sharp eye, Brandt would have been caught. He knew enough to look up high, but he hadn’t seen the archers. He’d forgotten how much he hated fighting against Falari tactics.
They made it another block before the sounds of a fight above them brought them to another halt. Brandt looked up, searching for Ana. He couldn’t find her and assumed the worst. Using what gestures he could, he told their host he was going up to the roofs, and
