"Because…" Xander's brows knotted as he stared at the maps again, information flowing even faster into his head than the waters to Taetanos's Gate. Was she right? Was he reading too far into things? Was this like all the other theories he'd spun, undone by a few of her carefully chosen words? "There were three people there, four if you count Lyana, all with magic. There are seven god stones. Maybe he needs three more people, one for each stone. Maybe they need to bring them all down at once. Maybe it wasn't the right time. Maybe…I don't know. Maybe…"
Cassi leaned forward, her forearms flattening the ridges of the scrolls as she stretched across the table, holding his gaze with unwavering ferocity. "Do you really think seven people could take down the gods? Even with magic? And do you really think Lyana would ever submit to their cause?"
She was right, of course. Lyana would never betray them like that. Xander knew her heart. Though she yearned for adventure, in the end she'd chosen duty. She'd placed his people and his kingdom above her love, above her desires, above her dreams. The fire god would never beat Aethios in the war for her affections. Her heart was too noble, too strong, and too stubborn to allow it.
Xander slumped back against his seat. He'd been so positive he was finally onto something, so sure he was on the right track, but did a few correlating dates actually lead to his conclusions? If he removed his heart and his yearning for answers from the equation, what did he have, really? Nothing, except a gut instinct and the awareness that his intuition had been wrong only a few times in his life.
"It's a good idea, Xander, really," Cassi continued, a bit of levity back in her tone, though it sounded forced to his ear. "We should look into it more. But we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves either. We need to base our arguments on facts, and we don't have enough of those to draw any sort of conclusion."
"I know," he murmured, still staring at the maps.
In his mind, the parchment had turned to a white blanket of fog stretching as far as the eye could see. There was a whole world beneath the mist, a world his people knew nothing about. Before that day in the sacred nest, he would have said it was nothing but barren rock and fire, perhaps an ocean of flames, inhospitable to life. Now, he wasn't so sure. If that man lived in the Sea of Mist, and the two other mages with him, there could be more. What if the silvery carpet weren't hiding an angry god, like they all believed—what if it were hiding that god's vengeful army instead?
"One option we haven't yet considered…" Xander said slowly. Cassi licked her lips and swallowed, giving him her full attention. "…is that the answers we seek aren't in these pages or our endless debates. They're waiting beneath the mist, and we have wings, don't we? Maybe we simply need to do some infiltrating of our own."
"Who would go? You? The crown prince with the weight of an entire kingdom on his shoulders?"
"No, of course not." Xander frowned. "I would send someone, a team—"
"No raven will risk Vesevios's wrath, especially not now, when they doubt you, your family, and your very reign."
"One raven would."
The words hung between them as though suspended in the air, thickening it until it became difficult to breathe.
"Rafe," Cassi finally whispered.
Xander nodded.
"But he's gone."
And where had he gone? That was another question that plagued Xander. His arrival in the House of Wisdom with Cassi instead of Lyana was something of a scandal, one he was sure the owl king had wasted no time in spreading to the rest of the isles in a fruitless effort to regain some of his lost respect. The rumors must have gotten out by now, yet Xander had been here for weeks, and there was still no word from his brother. If Rafe truly loved Lyana, he would know that nothing would have kept her from going on this journey with him, from exploring someplace new. He would know something was wrong. So…where was he?
Unanswerable questions were usually Xander's favorite kind, but this one hung in the back of his mind like an executioner's blade poised to strike. His head was on the chopping block, his thoughts the ones threaded with futile denial.
"There is one other option," Cassi spoke into the silence. "Me."
A sharp pang of fear suddenly shot through his chest. "You?"
"Yes, me," she said with a bit of self-righteous indignation. "You don't think I'm strong enough? You don't think I'm smart enough? You don't think I have more drive than anyone to find out what happened to my best friend?"
"Of course I do. It's just—just—"
I don't want you to go.
The thought came swift and sudden, like a palm slapping his cheek, leaving him reeling. He'd grown used to her presence by his side, the warm rumble of her voice, the subtle way she clicked her tongue when she scanned the shelves for a new book, the graceful movement of her fingers as they gently flipped the pages, the slight purse to her lips when she was lost within the words. He'd spent his entire life aware of the peace to be found in a library, yet here in Rynthos he'd discovered an even better sort of silence, the kind that existed between two souls perfectly in tune with one another, a rare sort of comfort that didn’t need words.
"Just what?" Cassi pressed.
Xander opened his mouth to speak, but he didn’t know what to say. They were friends—just friends. That was all they could ever be.
The words upon the maps and scrolls scattered across the table swam. He tried desperately to force the unfamiliar feeling down his right arm the way he'd done with so many other uncomfortable thoughts. But this time it wasn't anger or frustration or hate he was trying to ferret away. It was something bigger, the sort of force that could move mountains, an emotion even his invisible fist was unable to contain.
If Cassi saw his arm trembling, she didn’t say. "Let me do this, Xander. I'm the perfect person. I have no house, no family, no place. No one will miss me while I'm gone. No one will even notice my absence."
"I might."
She sucked in a breath, the force of her eyes like a torch pressed against his cheek, burning with a fire he was too afraid to face. "Xan—"
The door behind them burst open, sending a piercing light into the darkness of the lantern-lit room. They both flinched and turned toward the intruder, an owl with the same black-and-white speckled wings as Cassi.
"Prince Lysander," the man announced, "a messenger has arrived from the House of Whispers with an urgent matter to discuss. I was told to fetch you immediately."
"Yes, of course." Xander stood, his heart still in his throat despite the rush of relief washing over him. He'd take any emergency if it meant getting out of this room and away from those knowing silver eyes he still couldn't meet. "Excuse me, Cassi."
Without another word, he followed the man from the room and into the glowing amber dome of Rynthos, a city ablaze with activity. Tracking the hours underground was nearly impossible, though Xander assumed it was dinnertime based on the stirrings of so many wings in flight and the rumbling of his own stomach. They flew straight for the castle, not bothering to go through the front entrance, but instead soaring through the window to his guest quarters. The man departed with a quick bow, leaving Xander alone before his door.