“You’ll regret this.”“I regret it now, but they took hostages,” Ennia said, still backing away. The other Aventerans scattered, some ran out of the room. “We had no choice.”Celadon showed her fangs. “They’ll kill you all.”“Fools!” Delin shouted, furious. “You could have spoken to us, warned us, we could have helped you—”It’ll be dakti first, not rulers, Moon thought, looking frantically around. The rulers would know a queen was here and wouldn’t want to fight her until she had been worn down by the dakti. And they couldn’t count on Ivory and the others escaping the net that held the flying boat in time to help. He couldn’t scent anything, but then the room had been chosen for the draft of air blowing into the city, preventing them from detecting the Fell taint. Livan was the only Aventeran who hadn’t fled; he remained near Ennia, and he had lifted his hands and spoke in a soft voice.Moon realized abruptly what that meant and flung himself forward.
