Cade stared off in the distance, his gaze unfixed. Was he sorry she wanted to leave?
“Will you help me?” Karigan asked the professor. “Help me free Lhean?”
The professor’s bushy eyebrows shadowed his eyes. “What you ask is difficult—it could bring down the opposition. As much as I long to see an Eletian for myself, stealing Silk’s prize would provoke retaliation on a grand scale. I need to consider it, think about the consequences and how they might be avoided. I must consider if his rescue is even achievable. I’m afraid it may already be too late.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, depending how soon Silk sends the Eletian to the Capital, once he is there, he is beyond our reach.”
“Then we must help him now.”
“No.” The forcefulness of the professor’s voice stilled Karigan. “You must promise me you will not go off on your own. This requires thought and planning.”
“But—”
“You requested my assistance,” the professor said sharply. “I have not granted it, but I may. I definitely will not help if you don’t allow me to consider the problem in my own time. That is my final word on the matter.” Then he softened his voice. “I realize you fear for your friend and are homesick, my dear, but please realize that there is much more at stake here. I need at least a couple of days to mull it over, to gather information.”
Karigan knew that pushing him would not help, but to wait would be agonizing. Rescuing Lhean on her own would be difficult—she knew so little of this world—and if she made the attempt without the professor’s leave, he would see it as a betrayal of his trust, and she could lose his protection. He would never allow her to endanger the opposition. She dropped into one of the chairs with a heavy sigh.
“How was your meeting with the board this evening?” Cade asked the professor.
“Not nearly as interesting as Silk’s party, apparently.” The professor chuckled and something of his jovial self returned. “The board members were brutal in their questioning, but I have secured our funding for another year.”
As the two men discussed the affairs of the university, Karigan sank deeper into her chair and rested her head on her hand, wondering how they could go on and on about the inane politics among their fellow scholars at the university when much more important issues were at hand. She thought again about Lhean and decided the consequences of aiding him, even on her own, did not matter. She simply could not allow him to be hauled away for whatever torment awaited him in the Capital. She had to try. He was part of the answer to her way home, she was sure of it. And, he’d been her comrade through all the horrors of Blackveil. They’d been through much together. She was sure he’d aid her if their positions were reversed—not something she could say of all Eletians. It wasn’t just a matter of honor but of friendship.
“Lights, eh?” the professor said.
Karigan shook herself back to the present. Had she missed something important?
“Yes, making their way up the road,” Cade replied.
“I wonder what he’s up to. Perhaps we should take a look.”
“Can’t imagine we’ll see much.”
The professor shrugged. “Can’t hurt.”
The two men rose and Karigan looked uncertainly at them. “What are you doing?”
“Going up on the roof,” the professor said. “Cade saw some activity in the Old City when he came over tonight.”
“Oh.” Karigan rose, too.
“Wait for us here, my dear. I would feel better with fewer of us up top this night. And I should like to speak privately with Cade.”
Karigan watched after the two men with a frown. Were they going to discuss Lhean? What didn’t the professor want her to hear? Perturbed, she tapped the armrest of her chair. Well, let them go, she decided and stood looking around the expanse of the mill room. It was odd being there alone, empty. She wasn’t going to idly wait for them, she decided. There was another way she could occupy her time. She strode for one of the stairwells, grabbing a taper as she went.
The lights streaming up the road coalesced on the summit of the Old City at Silk’s worksite. In the still of night, the distant sounds of tools and voices carried all the way to the roof of the mill. After watching for some time, the professor signaled that he and Cade should descend back into the mill.
When they had done so, and it was once again safe to ignite a taper and speak, the professor said, “It appears our act of sabotage slowed Silk down even less than I thought. Now he is going at his work at night. I wonder why.”
Cade offered no answers, so the professor went on. “Whatever the reason, it can’t be good, which means we should probably call a gathering of our brethren. As much as I should like to lay eyes on that Eletian and aid him, I cannot help but think Silk’s activities in the Old City are more important to us.”
“I’m not so sure,” Cade replied.
“Why not?” the professor asked, surprised.
“It is an Eletian. An Eletian here and now when they have been, to our knowledge, extinct for a very long time? The singularity of such an event . . . I don’t know, it just seems he is worth putting forth our resources to rescue.”
“Bringing the empire’s forces down upon us,” the professor countered, shaking his head. “I’d rather we prevented Silk from finding that dragonfly device, or that we found it first. To me, that is where we should focus our time and energy, though my niece—I mean, our Green Rider—would not like it.”