“What is going on here?” Emeton demanded. “Those are the ones I warned you about,” Kritalla said. He still had a hold of Ann’s arm. “Warned? Are you working with them?” One of the men demanded. Morina was there with a sword, though she also glowed brightly with magic. “Deharis, what is the meaning of this?” The man’s eyes grew wide and he paled. “Lisha Morina, we were just trying to stop them. I swear.” He looked like so many had looked when Drepal first returned. Emeton wondered what she had done to earn a reputation like that. One of the dragon council stepped between them. “She knows that. I don’t know what the mercenary thinks he heard, but he’s wrong. We mean no one harm. I trusted you before. Now you trust me.” Morina frowned. “You will address the ambassador properly.” The man glanced at Kritalla in surprise. “My mistake. Forgive me.” “Why don’t we let the healers work while we go talk in another room,” Emeton suggested. “Ann, will you join us? They’ll help your father.” “We ask that all the leaders join us,” Deharis said. “Oh, that’s a good idea,” Remtani protested. “Get them all together and you kill them all at once.” “With your sister in the room? As if any of us had a chance. The other white dragons can join us for added protection. We mean no harm. We only want to talk.” “He’s not lying,” Ann said. Remtani shook his head. “He may not be, but it’s too dangerous. I’ll go instead of Mom. None of the elders, two dwarf chieftains and five of them. The rest stay here along with Ter who can act as a guard. Ann comes with us. “Pt’this and Nim should join us too,” One of the council insisted. Ann and the other three council members frowned at him but none protested. Vor glanced at Shunati. “Go, I’ll help Thailyn.” Shunati nodded and each became the other as they released their glamours. The real Vor joined his wife while Shunati joined the other healers helping Thailyn. Several looked to Vor for an explanation as they left the room. Kritalla and Morina followed as guards. “Deyama was already poisoned once. It would be easy for someone to hurt her in this crowd. Shunati can protect her better.” “That was not our doing,” Deharis insisted. “You were heard to say the child would be the death of her,” Emeton challenged. “That was taken out of context. We were discussing potential dangers to her and all the rulers. Had Kritalla listened a little longer, he would have heard that.” “I was blocked,” Kritalla claimed. “You shouldn’t have heard us at all,” one of the elves claimed. “When a group from all the races meets in secret, there’s reason to worry, especially when some are part of the governments.” “Ril, what is going on?” one of the other council members demanded. “What I warned you about,” the member who was part of the group insisted. “There are people looking to attack Ertonia. They’ve been at war for thousands of years and want to start up again. They’ve destroyed whole planets.” “Are you talking about the Tamerians?” Emeton guessed. Ril looked surprised. “Yes.” “Who?” Deyama asked. Morina and Kritalla quickly filled them in. “The staff of the monarch of Erilu is part of that protection. It controls the spell,” Deharis added. “I thought it just controlled the ground quakes,” Vor protested. “It does, but they weren’t as bad as what legends claim. But if the spell was destroyed, the backlash would likely destroy the whole area.” “That explains why Cramda was so afraid of me releasing the spell,” Deyama reasoned. Deharis looked horrified. “You what?” “Cramda took over the valley and had our children hostage with the help of trolls. I threatened to destroy the staff and the valley if the trolls hurt the children. Cramda kept the trolls on a very short leash after that.” “And that’s why we don’t hide things this big,” Kritalla added. “Oh, I would have still made the threat if I’d known. I probably would have demanded they leave the valley entirely,” Deyama assured him. “Vor, your queen is insane,” Kritalla claimed. “My queen loves her people,” Vor countered. He put an arm around her. “So why do you think there’s a problem with the Tamerians?” Remtani asked. “Ever since the battle of Trito, there have been sightings of them,” an elf said. His coloring wasn’t one for the clans of Erilu. Emeton assumed he was from Noria. “They attack the herds of Ventara to steal horns, and occasionally a unicorn. They come to Noria and steal our children. Some of the dragons who were looking for the Baj-tisk were taken by them. The last few decades it’s been getting worse.” “When I went through shia tal ma and damaged the well,” Vor admitted. “That might do it,” Deharis agreed. “We’ve been trying to get the rulers to listen for years. Ril and I have been working on this for a thousand years. We almost had one human king convinced. He sent out an expedition to find them. But he died before they returned and he’d never told anyone what the expedition was truly about.” “He claimed he wanted to ally with them,” Nim claimed. “I’ve never been the judge of character that some are, but I have a feeling he wasn’t lying.” “Neither happened and no one since has listened.” “Is this why you’ve been spying on me?” Pt’this guessed. “No. That’s something else,” Ril admitted. The other council members frowned at him. “He wasn’t supposed to be doing that,” one said. Ann’s posture changed as she looked between them and even Nim. “We assumed you were spying on them because of this, that you wanted them out of Baj-tisk because of the war against Nor’than and their relation to Mishtali. But none of that’s true. He doesn’t know it yet, but John’s there to protect them.” “Protect us from what?” Pt’this demanded. “The Tamerians?” “It couldn’t be,” Nim reasoned. “Most didn’t think they were a threat.” “Ambassador, it has nothing to do with this situation and it would be better if it wasn’t discussed here,” Ril insisted. Emeton realized he could be addressing either Pt’this or Ann. He wondered what she had learned. He also wondered if Drepal was awake and how dangerous that was for her. “Every ruler has spies,” one of the dwarf chieftains claimed. “And they would be stupid to not spy on their own employees. Let’s get back to the current problem. What do we do about these Tamerians?” “Send someone there and see if they truly plan to an attack or if some rogues are working on their own,” Remtani said. “Ann has transported off-world before. I’m assuming she can do it again.” “Or make a gate. The spell doesn’t block magic. It blocks their technological means of transportation,” Morina said. “So if any had survived the battle, they could have gotten charms to bring others here?” a dwarf asked. “Theoretically, yes, but there are only three people in existence strong enough to make a charm like that and two only recently learned of Tameria and the third has been hiding from them all her life.” “So she claims,” one of the elves said. “And she’s not lying.” That was definitely Drepal. “Ask your friends from here about my ability to detect lies.” “You can’t lie to her,” an Erulian elf claimed. “And if you try, she’ll not only see the lie but can determine the truth from the lie.” Drepal was staring intently at him. He sighed. “Yeah, I was there. I was the one to call in the assassin.” “What’s he talking about?” Emeton asked. Had he been in Lerjao? “Back when Drepal was still with Lyra, she killed an assassin who was going after a supposed couple. He preferred men and the elf woman was a nurse he’d hired to watch his niece that lived with him. I made the claim otherwise and an assassin was called in. The assassin was suspicious of the claim and called in others. He was only supposed to kill the man and child and then we would relocate the woman to Noria. Things got out of hand and someone went after all three and killed both the man and woman before Drepal killed him. The man was a Tamerian. We were sure of that. “And Rejenn’s parents were Tamerian too. That’s why no one could find any record of him or who they were,” a human admitted. “Rejenn wasn’t killed because he was so small. He wouldn’t remember Tameria. We regret the suffering he went through here because of it.” Emeton wondered if he should call in Andy to help Ann stay in control. Remtani put a hand on her shoulder. “Why didn’t you just come to us?” He asked. “We tried. Erilu’s last queen wouldn’t listen. Arlin was too paranoid. The council believed the lies that they were just a group of immortals and had been wiped out. The dwarves were more concerned with the trolls. Most of the human kings wouldn’t listen. King Terpesh was starting to believe before he got sick. We couldn’t get to Emeton because of his previous chief steward. He would block us from seeing the king.” “You were the one who killed him,” Ann guessed. “One of us did. He wasn’t supposed to. He’s been dealt with.” “But by the time he was out of the picture, Morina was in the palace and we feared she’d deny it. As a dragon brother, he’d be more likely to listen to a relative. We hadn’t realized she hidden that from him.” “If you’d have come to me with proof, I would have listened, regardless of who denied it,” Emeton insisted. “And if you had proof, I wouldn’t have denied it,” Morina added. “It’s surprising you’ve been as open as you have,” Deharis claimed. “The assassin that looked like an elf was Tamerian,” she admitted. “I ran the sharflat test on him.” “That’s why they turned yellow,” Ann guessed. Morina nodded. “And I told the senate. They made the same claim I did. The flowers were in too poor of health to be accurate. They firmly believed the shields were intact. Since I contacted them about the damage Raylee and Yilina found, they’re willing to consider there might be a problem and are looking into someone to send to verify it. Don’t count on their help any time soon.” Emeton nodded. He’d figured as much. “As Remtani said, we’ll send someone to Tameria. We’ll get to the bottom of this.” “Your majesty, we have something you might want. There was a weapon found with Rejenn’s parents. We kept it as proof but have never used it.” Emeton nodded. “We’ll consider it.” There was a knock on the door and Shunati entered. “Sorry to interrupt, but Ann and Mishtali had better come. Thailyn’s heart took too much damage. He's not going to make it."