"You're right," Lendill nodded to them as the elevator doors closed on us.
* * *
"We can hop a ship or you can get us out of here," Lendill pulled me against him outside the hotel.
"I'll do it, where do you want to go?"
"I'd like to go home. To Wyyld."
"You live on Wyyld?"
"I have rooms at the palace. Ildevar saw to it when he gave a wing to Norian long ago. Norian is on Le-Ath Veronis, so there's little chance of meeting up with him. Besides, my father's lands aren't far from Ildevar's palace grounds. They're hidden, though. Most people navigate around them without realizing they're doing it."
"You're joking?"
"Not. Can you get us to Wyyld?"
"I can get you to Wyyld." And I did.
"This nice," Farzi looked around him at the vaulted ceilings, marble floors, rich tapestries, rugs and fine sculpture that lined the hall we walked through.
"Deonus Wyyld's assistant knows we're here," Lendill smiled down at me. I'd never met Ildevar Wyyld, the Founding Member of the Reth Alliance. Or his assistant. "Hello, I'm Willem Drifft, Ildevar Wyyld's private assistant," Willem introduced himself as we walked into his office. Willem was Wyyldan and a full elf—a lesser prince in one of the noble houses—Lendill sent mindspeech explaining that to me.
Just in case you thought he might be humanoid. I think my father allowed him to take this job just to keep an eye on me, Lendill added.
"Should I bow or kneel?" I asked, suddenly worried.
"No," Willem laughed. It was a good laugh, with no contempt mixed in it for those of lesser importance. "If Ildevar were here, he would make a proclamation that Reah Nilvas Schaff should never bow to anyone."
"But why?" I wasn't sure what was going on. Lendill had a warm and comforting arm about me, refusing to say anything.
"Anyone who brings worlds back to life by repairing the core—something that only a god or Larentii might do otherwise, should never bow or kneel. I don't care how important the other person thinks they are." Willem was grinning widely. He was handsome in his own right, with dark-brown, wavy hair trimmed to his shoulders and deep blue eyes brimming with good humor. I couldn't help but smile back at him.
"I was going to Cloudsong before Lendill found me." I hung my head. I'd allowed his words to distract me for a time.
"Come, I'll walk with you to Lendill's suite. I've prepared rooms for our lion snakes as well." Willem included Farzi and Nenzi in his smile.
"I brought clothing for you, when Lendill informed me that you were coming with him," Willem led me to a closet inside Lendill's suite. Lendill kissed the top of my head as I found an entire side of his closet was now filled with clothing in my size.
"But, I can't," I said, wanting to cry. Nobody did things like this for me.
"Shh," Lendill said softly, his lips next to my ear.
"Reah, Ildevar signed off on all your awards. This is the least we can do for you. Come. Look." Willem led us toward a spacious sitting room, and then into a study. Behind the desk were all sorts of gold certificates with Lendill's name on them. On an adjacent wall were others.
"All these are yours, I put them up this morning," Willem informed me, pointing to the adjacent wall. "This one is for single-handedly bringing down the drakus seed trade. This is for handing some of the most wanted criminals in the Alliance to ASD officials. This is for the arrest of six assassins. Need I go on? There isn't one important enough for saving entire planets. Ildevar is working on that problem now."
"You don't need to—tell him to stop," I sighed. "This is nice, but I'm glad to be out of the ASD."
"I know. I grieve for your loss," Willem said. Somehow, he knew about the baby.
"As do I." I was wiping tears away and very close to sobbing my heart out.
"Was it that bad? Truly?" Ildevar Wyyld appeared next to his assistant. "Were your years in the ASD so horrible?" His voice was gentle, and he expected some sort of answer. I gave him the truth as I saw it, as painful as it was.
"Every one of them," I sobbed and skipped away from the Founding Member of the Reth Alliance.
* * *
"We tend to push the ones with special talents and abilities." Norian admitted over dinner. Farzi and Nenzi, left behind by Reah when she'd left so abruptly, were sitting with Lendill on one side of the table while Norian Keef sat on the other. Ildevar Wyyld sat at the head; Willem sat at the opposite end.
"Do we not provide any sort of treatment for those agents in need of it?" Willem asked. "For emotional problems? Don't you test them before accepting them into the ASD?"
"Not in Reah's case," Lendill shot a glance at Norian.
"When she, ah, fell into our laps after her stint on Mandil, there wasn't time to do it before sending her out on the drakus seed thing. And then, when that turned out as well as it did, we, ah, didn't." Norian busied himself with his plate of food. "Corners are cut in the interests of the Alliance," he added. "Sometimes."
"Child, perhaps you should rethink your policy improvisation from now on," Ildevar said quietly. "Do we know where she might be? I had no intention of upsetting her so badly."
"Deonus, she lost her child. What can you expect?" Willem offered Ildevar a glance across the table.
"When did this happen? Did someone forget to tell me?" Ildevar was shocked.
"I, uh," Norian mumbled.
"You didn't tell him?" Even Lendill sounded upset.
"You treat her bad," Nenzi stood, pointing a finger at Norian. "She ask you to wait for the baby to come. You force her. I want to leave." Nenzi stalked away from the table.
"I'll get him—we probably should take him to Gavril," Lendill stood and slapped his napkin on his seat. Farzi rose right behind Lendill and followed.
"Child, what have you done?" Ildevar stared at Norian.
"Reah lost Torevik's High Demon daughter," Willem stated. "I see and hear things, Deonus. I was waiting for Norian to report this to you."
"I can't take it back. I wish I could." Norian rose from his seat.
"Norian, don't let this mistake take you down," Willem said, rising as well. "Ildevar is correct—review your practices. Don't let this happen again. Be strong, Norian. Everybody needs you to be strong."
"Why didn't you hand that pep talk to Reah, Willem? Why?" Norian folded away.