Steelhands - Jaida Jones [216]
“Not at all,” Luvander replied cheerfully.
“I’d feel better with Adamo in charge,” Laure spoke up, adding her weight to the scales. “Not that I’m sure whether or not we’re planning on becoming soldiers or anything that’d need a Chief Sergeant, but it seems to me he knows a lot about the dragons. And we’re gonna need someone like that.”
“I would like to propose a compromise,” Antoinette said, with a glance toward the Esarina. “That Adamo and I share equal responsibility in this matter. Not that this is a comment on your abilities to work alone, Adamo, and I hope you aren’t offended. But as far as I know, you are no magician. The dragonsouls themselves require someone of Talent to fully understand them—and as I plan on handling the situation with Margrave Germaine personally, what we do next will benefit, I believe, from someone with my expertise. It will also help,” she added pointedly, “to have someone with whom you are able to share the blame.”
“Bleak outlook,” Laure murmured, shaking her head.
“Joint Chief Sergeants, huh?” Adamo said, looking uncomfortable but dead certain at the same time. “Well, I can’t say it’d harm my ego any. Not to mention, if something goes wrong, two heads are a lot better than one.”
“What do you plan on telling the rest of the Basquiat?” the Esarina asked. It seemed that instead of allowing her husband’s condition to distract her, she was using her worry as motivation to think—and behave—like a ruler in his stead. I wondered what I would do if Laure was injured so gravely; I would never be able to go on with such grace or dignity. “I hardly think you can trust every Margrave to keep his or her mouth shut—you know how Volstov loves gossip—and you couldn’t use the same trick with them as you plan to use on us, surely.”
“It’d take a dangerous woman to do all that,” Ghislain said appreciatively.
“No,” Antoinette said, shaking her head. “There are too many strong minds within the Basquiat—some of them quite stubborn, while others have trained to withstand mental attacks. I would not be able to carry out such a feat, even if I wished to—which, I assure you, I do not.”
The Esarina’s voice was wry. “I assume you have some other plan?” she asked, wringing her hands.
“What I propose is this,” Antoinette continued, as though she’d been expecting that lead-in. “No one has seen these dragons save for us and the Margrave Germaine. Thus, we will tell the Basquiat in strictest confidence that the Esar, with Germaine’s assistance, was planning on rebuilding the Dragon Corps. That was why he had the students, that was why he made the arrests—and Margrave Ginette is our proof that he was asking other magicians to help him. But none of our fellow arrested magicians ever saw the dragons for themselves; thus, they have no way of knowing how far the plan progressed. As such, no one outside this room ever needs to know that particular detail. And no one will, for that matter.”
Since it was a solution that didn’t involve any further minds being wiped clean—which was a sentiment about which I ultimately found myself unexpectedly calm; certainly, there were aspects of the night I might have been more comfortable forgetting—no one seemed to have any objections.
“Ah,” Balfour said suddenly. He looked somewhat startled by the sound of his own voice, but he didn’t let that stop him. “We’ll have to come up with something to tell the envoy from Arlemagne as well. Both Troius and I were dealing with them … before.”
“You’ll never keep it under wraps,” Troius added, reminding us all he was still in the room. “These glorious creations were made to be seen by everyone. They are Volstov’s pride and joy.”
“No one outside the Basquiat hears even a whisper of the word ‘dragon,’ ” Antoinette warned after hushing him. “I imagine that I’ve been very clear on this point already, but if the Ke-Han were to receive word that there were now four new dragons in Volstov, then it will matter very little that none of us knew about them in time to halt proceedings. We’ll tell the Arlemagnians—not