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“We’ll be in meetings with the other families for most of the day for the next several days, at least,” Matthias said. “So it’ll have to be at night.”

“And when will you sleep?” Ystelyan asked mildly.

“I can do without sleep for a few days,” Matthias said. “Especially since night here is invigorating.”

“I…” Ystelyan hesitated. “I think you should consider your health more, Matthias-idan. You won’t help Taloa if you push yourself too far.”

“We can keep the night meetings short,” Adrian said. “My mirian will understand. What bothers me is who is going to be on call to go and rescue any more kids who explode like that poor girl.”

Matthias opened his mouth, then closed it and frowned. “We do need a good team on call,” he agreed.

“We’ve got a good team, Matt,” Sonia said mildly. “The kids won’t be much use in either meeting. Let them handle it.”

“Ooh! That works,” Sarah said. “Put Lydia in charge.”

“Uh!” Lydia said. “Me?”

“Yes,” Sarah said. “Trust me. You’ll be good at it.”

Lydia looked at her dubiously but Matthias interrupted before she could protest.

“I wanted to send the kids to look for the rest of the dragon knights. If Ystelyan will let us keep the pendant for now. I suspect they’re in danger.”

“They can do that as well,” Sonia said. “If Lyd organises them right.”

“Well that takes care of that ,” Adrian said. “So the meeting? I take it you sent someone to my mirian when he sent Soy here?”

“Of course,” Ystelyan said. “It’s so much quicker than throwing imps around. When you have someone there you can talk to without worrying about the range. I sent Illyria-alra. She’s been meaning to go and visit him anyway.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Adrian said. “They’re still on good terms. He’ll be happy to see her.”

“Who?” Lydia asked.

“She’s one of my strongest alra,” Ystelyan said. “But she’s also Indaturan’s youngest daughter. Fortunately he’s level headed about outwalkers – even when they are kin – so they still speak.”

“Okay, so tell Illy that we’ll need to limit the meetings to a couple of hours in the late evening,” Adrian said. “That should be manageable and give enough time to discuss everything over a few days.” He looked around at the others. “Right?”

“Yes, that should work,” Matthias said. “How soon can we start?”

“Tomorrow evening, I imagine,” Ystelyan said. “Just let me talk to Illyria.” He closed his eyes and was silent for several minutes before nodding. “She’s spoken to her father and he’s quite happy with the timing and eager to get on with it so he’ll arrive tomorrow.”

“Excellent!” Matthias said. “So now we just need to decide what to do about Kayleigh and Garrett.”

“Nothing in haste,” Ystelyan said. “As you said, you don’t want to alert Xantaria.”

“You’re right,” Sonia said. “We should sleep on it. We’re all tired and people make mistakes when they are tired. We can’t afford to make a mistake.” She inclined her head to Ystelyan. “For which reason we had best take our leave of you now, Ystelyan-mirian.”

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