ELRETH

When everyone had travelled back to the royal cave, and they had the elders packed into the Great Room, and the disformed standing behind them, the messengers lining the walls, Elreth gave a quick prayer that her family would be able to join them soon, but she didn’t waste a moment.

Rika wasn’t the only one panicking.

Hannah and Marryk were traitors, and Elreth declared them so, to little protest. A few of the disformed wanted to stand in defense of Marryk, but he’d stunk of the voices.

How in the hell had they managed that? How had they hidden it?

Elreth turned to Aaryn and the disformed. “You said we could scent them!”

“We could. We have! And we did after they died. But clearly they had some kind of… something was different with those two. The connection to the voices had been masked. Whatever managed it, it stopped when they died.”

Elreth growled and raked a hand through her hair. “So we don’t even have that defense to fall back on. We can’t be certain—anyone could have given over to them!”

Aaryn nodded tightly. “But there are other ways to identify any among us that are… acting out. Give me a day or two. I’ll discuss with the disformed as a whole. We’ll find out what she had learned, who they were close to. It sounded like she hadn’t had any contact with the human world while she’d been here, but—”

“We can’t be certain of that!” Elreth snapped, and the elders around them nodded. “There’s been days when we just left them to their own devices. And what about that time when Gar hid them away? What if they didn’t stay where he put them? How can we even know?”

“We can’t,” Aaryn said firmly. “We can only learn what is known to those who were close, and then do the best we can.”

Elreth was about to argue, when Lhern piped up. “He’s right, Elreth. This is war. This is what happens. Every time. We learn things about our enemy, we have to face dangers we didn’t know existed. But we cannot control what has come to us, and what hasn’t. The Creator has given us this boon—we know now that the same group of humans know of both portals. We know we have to protect both. And we know the threat will come from both. We know we have to protect against anyone who has had contact with the humans—there might be corruption there, even if we can’t smell it. But we also know that we are walking into warm whether we’ve identified all the spies, or not.”

“We know my brother is mated to one of them!” Elreth growled.

“She’s also unlikely to be one of their agents,” Huncer said quietly. “She unveiled Hannah. If Rika was attempting to undermine us on behalf of the humans, she would have let Hannah remain in her place.”

Elreth grimaced. “Would she, though? Who knows, maybe there are factions within their group? Maybe they’re—”

“Speculation won’t help. Aaryn was right. We need to identify what we do know, what we can confirm, and work based on that information. The rest we put in the Creator’s hands.”

They spent an hour discussing the disformed, who had been across to the human world, and who would need to be kept apart and interviewed to ensure that their stories matched.

A heated debate was sparked about the Rite of Veneration, and whether it should still occur. But Elreth was adamant.

“We know that the disformed—most of them—are loyal. We cannot hamstring those for the sake of a few… And besides, I need them. And I need them as powerful and free as they can be.”

The elders were split on the point, and Elreth feared the hours left in the day would be eaten just on that one issue. But then, two hours after they’d gathered at the cave, her parents walked in.

Elreth wasn’t sure she’d ever been happier to see them. “Is Gar coming?” she asked hurriedly, looking over their shoulders.

“Later,” her mother said. “He’ll come when his mate is settled. But he’ll do what’s needed, El. You know that.”

“We have only hours until we need to walk the Rite of Veneration!”

The elders began to raise their voices, questioning the wisdom again, but Elreth turned on them. “Quiet!” she growled, putting every ounce of her Alpha authority behind the command and standing there, waiting, quivering with it, until they all submitted. “There is no more time,” she said quietly. “We cannot run in fear of our enemy, we have to face this as quickly and with as much strength as we are capable of.

“I cannot afford to alienate the disformed that have remained loyal and strong even when they were put aside and ignored. I will not allow it! They will receive their due, and all of us will walk into this war stronger for it. And then I will go to the human world myself. As Lhern has pointed out, we can only work on the basis of what we know—so I will learn what we have so far. And I will bring Gahrye, the wind-reader, back with me. Along with any of the disformed that haven’t already returned.

“The time for slinking in the shadows is past.”

“But what will you do?” Huncer asked, exasperated. “What is sending you—our Queen and dominant—into the enemy’s camp going to achieve other than the danger that we lose you just as this war crashes over us?”

“I will learn what we know—no chance of it being miscommunicated or disguised by the whispers and filters of passing information. And I will determine which course of action will most likely bring us to success.”

“What success? There’s too many of them. You heard Hannah—we can’t fight them!”

Elreth nodded. “No, you’re right—and she was right. This isn’t a war of combat. If we try to fight that way, we will lose. This is a war of heart and mind. This is a war of character. This is a war of learning who has the strength to make the decisions that are required to save our people, to walk in faith, not in force.”

“But… what are you going to do?” Lhern asked.

Elreth took a deep breath. “I see no other choice. I’m going to find a way to close the portals. Forever. If the humans cannot cross, they cannot take us from our home, and they cannot beat us here. That’s the only option left.”

Her declaration was met with stunned silence.