Taliesin Ascendant (The Children and the Blood) by Skye Malone, Megan Joel Peterson Page B

part needs to begin as soon as possible.”
    She hesitated, remembering Darius’ request. Stay here. Find the spell. Let others do the fighting. With effort, she kept from scowling. In the midst of talking with Elias, she’d managed to forget.
    Cornelius’ face darkened when she didn’t answer, and her irritation rose again. “So you’ve already got people out finding the cripples then?” she asked. “Because that was part of the agreement too.”
    “Those were your orders, highness.”
    The irritation strengthened at the tone. The title. All of it. Moving past him, she stalked out the door.
    Fresh clothes and a hot shower later, she reluctantly headed for the conference room. On the factory floor, most people were already asleep, while overhead, the lights were dimmed to a fraction of their normal brilliance.
    Cornelius looked up as the door shut behind her. A scattering of papers lay on the table before him, which he gathered swiftly and returned to a folder. Rising, he walked past her to the door.
    “Where are we going?” she asked. “I thought you wanted to meet here?”
    “Only to meet. Not to stay.”
    She stared after him as he left the room. Brow furrowing suspiciously, she followed. Striding ahead of her, Cornelius turned at the hall and continued farther into the building, barely pausing to see if she was coming. Winding through the corridors, he emerged onto the walkway overlooking the cots of the wounded.
    Biting her lip, she glanced to the sleeping wizards, not wanting to wake them with the questions bubbling up inside. Hurrying after Cornelius to the end of the walkway, she slipped through the door after him and then sped up, trying to catch him as he climbed the stairs.
    “What’s going on, Cornelius?” she asked as they left the stairwell. The hallway was empty and each of the office doors lining the corridor was shut. Exit signs lit either end, casting a red glow along the length of the dusty linoleum floor. “Is this about the deal Darius made?”
    He stopped, but didn’t turn around. A humorless look crossed her face.
    “I’ll take that as a yes,” she said dryly. At his silence, she continued. “So what? No one can even try to see if Carter wasn’t crazy? Is that it?”
    Cornelius looked back at her. She raised an eyebrow.
    “Of course not,” he said.
    He started down the hallway again.
    “Then what?” she called.
    Turning the corner, he kept going.
    “Cornelius!”
    Scowling, she jogged after him. By a door like any other, he paused, pulling a ring of keys from his pocket.
    “ What ?” she asked again.
    With a key in the lock, he paused. “No good will come of this, highness,” he said quietly. At her expression, he cut in before she could speak. “Darius is kind to you. Listening because you are queen and because he does not want to alienate you moments after you walked in the door. But he doesn’t believe. None of them believe. You ask me if it’s so hard to simply show that Josiah wasn’t insane? I wonder that you think I wouldn’t have tried that before.”
    He moved to unlock the door and she reached over, putting a hand to the bolt. “What do you mean?” she asked.
    Cornelius closed his eyes. “He was my cousin, highness. And nearly a brother, for all that. Of course I tried to prove he wasn’t insane, even after the council dismissed him with barely a word.”
    “What’d you do?”
    “I went into the city with him, despite the war, despite the fact people were being killed in the streets. I spent hours searching with him, following every person he said glowed, even testing them by tossing a bit of magic their way. I did everything I could, short of attacking them outright.” He shook his head. “And nothing happened. They saw Josiah. Gave him strange looks for staring at them so hard. And then they moved on. They never even noticed I was there.”
    “They were pretending,” she said.
    “Josiah swore they were,” he agreed. “Each time one of them