Alliance: The Triad Series: Book One by Cari Z

Author:Cari Z [Z, Cari]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

“You should have called for backup immediately!” Petur snapped, stalking halfway across their room before turning on his heel and striding back. He moved like a predator, like one of the great prairie cats that stalked the tall grasses of Deyvid’s homeland.

“We have to work out some sort of proximity alarm,” Sy said from where he sat at the dining table, his brow furrowed and his hands clenched in his lap as he stared blankly into the middle distance. It was a posture that Deyvid now knew meant the prince was lost to problem-solving. “Something that will send up an alert no matter who is disturbing it, something that reacts to dissipation as much as perturbation …”

Well, you’ve finally got them in the same room together, he congratulated himself. Of course, it was only because they were united in telling Deyvid everything he’d done wrong, but that seemed like the best he could hope for right now. He’d returned to the palace from his pursuit tired, wet, cranky, and smelling none too sweet. After a quick rinse and a change of clothes, he’d gone to check on Sy, who was fine. The prince’s exclamation at Deyvid’s story had brought Vandry running, though, and from there it was just a matter of time before Petur arrived, still shaking off his feathers.

Needless to say, Deyvid’s revelation of another High Harrier had left both men disconcerted. “I can’t protect you against them,” Sy had said, his lips pursing, hands clenching. “I don’t know how to protect you against them yet.”

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Deyvid had tried, but Petur had interjected then.

“On the contrary, when you’re insistent upon running off in the middle of the day after an assassin who vanishes into a sewer pipe, I think worry is a very appropriate response!” he’d said.

“You would have done the same!”

“That’s not the point!”

There was being glad that the two men were in the same room together, and then there was getting frustrated that they constantly managed to talk past each other. If Deyvid thought his brush with death—and it was hardly a brush, more like a sidelong glance at best—would bring the two to some sort of understanding, he was sorely mistaken. Instead, they seemed intent on one-upping each other over the matter of his protection, to the point where it was becoming ridiculous.

“I can improve the spells along the walls,” Sy said. “I’m sure I can do it. Something that will respond even to a High Harrier—”

“They’re deadly brutes because spells don’t work on them,” Petur pointed out. “What makes you think you’ll be able to improve our spells when generations of our own mages haven’t been able to get them to respond to people who are immune to magic?”

“I think we’ve established that Riyale’s mages aren’t the best when it comes to spellwork, haven’t we?” Sy retorted, his tone just as sharp. “Whereas I—”

“You’re a puppy eager to try new tricks to please his master, when what we need to do is increase the personal protection in the palace,” Petur said.

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