“I still don’t get it,” Peter said. “They made him chancellor. Couldn’t he have just gotten them to change the law?”

  “I don’t know,” Andrew said. “I always thought keeping the royal family as Half Elves was just a tradition. But if it’s law, then it makes sense why a lot of people with ties to the Royal family would be upset about being cut off this way.”

  “But why start a war with everyone else over that?” Peter asked.

  Andrew looked thoughtful, but didn’t answer. Anna decided to cut in. “We can try figuring that out later,” she said. She looked back at the house. They’d only come back around to the front to avoid destroying any of the nobleman’s gardens when Jarnvaror took off. “We need to figure out what we’re doing next.”

  After another moment of silence, Andrew nodded. “Right. Right. We can put the rest of this together later. Now…” He frowned. “I’m not sure.”

  “Well, we need to go somewhere,” Anna said. “I’m not sure we can trust the Merigolds to keep quiet about us for long.”

  “When we’re in the air, I’ll have Jarn check to see if they sent a runner to the city.” Peter said.

  “Good idea,” Andrew said. “I think we still need more information before going back to Hogarth. Maybe we could learn more about what’s going on in Prohr?”

  “That could be fun,” Peter said.

  “Actually,” Anna began. Then she paused as two thoughts struggled to come out first, and all she managed is. “There’s something here.”

  Andrew frowned at her. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

  Anna took a breath and forced herself to get the words out slowly without thinking about the house behind them. “While we’re so close to Woadrok, we should check on Sol,” Anna said.

  “Check on him?” Peter asked.

  “I don’t know how much we can help him,” Andrew said. “And for all we know, he’s working with Daniel now, too.”

  “Exactly,” Anna said. “We don’t know that. We told him about Daniel right before we had to flee. Maybe what we just learned will convince him. And he could fill in information we’re missing.”

  “Like what happened to Jeremy and Hannah!” Peter exclaimed. He turned to his brother. “Yeah, we should go to the palace.”

  “No, we definitely shouldn’t,” Andrew said, giving his brother an exasperated look. “But for Sol… I don’t think it’s going to be as easy to send him a message as it was Sheil’s parents.”

  “I know the palace better,” Anna said. “I should be able to send it from farther away.” Andrew raised his eyebrows and Anna averted her gaze. “If I could get up to the castle wall, I should be able to do it anyway.”

  Andrew shook his head. “Too dangerous.” He insisted. He turned to look in the direction of the city. “Now is probably time to use some coin.”

  “What?” Anna asked.

  “We could hire a normal currier in the city,” Andrew said. “Only one of us would need to get in unnoticed to hand the letter off. They’re… reasonably trustworthy, I’ve heard.”

  “Maybe Anna could deliver the message to them in her magic way,” Peter suggested. “Doubt they’d bat an eye at some mage magically asking for the letter to be delivered to the archmage.”

  “Or it could be more suspicious,” Andrew pointed out. He frowned and looked at Jarnvaror. “In either case, where would we meet with him? Getting close to the city without being spotted would be almost impossible.”

  “I have an idea about that, too,” Anna said, perking up as it came time for her second thought. “It occurred to me that, while we were waiting for Sol, we might take a look at the ruins underneath Woadrok to see how the Wisps respond there.”

  Andrew’s frown deepened. “Right. Of course.” He looked at the house again, then shook his head. “We need to get going now,” he said. “Can Jarn fly in the canyons?” he asked Peter.

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  Anna and Peter both blinked. “So we’re going?” Anna asked.

  Andrew nodded. “I think Sol is probably the best person for us to talk to now, too,” he said. He turned to his brother. “Assuming we can get to the city without being spotted.”

  “Right. Hey, Jarn, think you could fly between the plateaus? Because we want to get close to the city without them noticing us.”

  Peter continued describing their plan to the dragon as they mounted up, and even after they took off. Anna could barely make his words out over the wind, and she wasn’t focusing as much on the talking anyway. She tried to think of what would be best to put into the letter in the first place, or what they’d do if the canyons were too narrow for the dragon.

  Jarnvaror flew in circles for a few minutes while Peter shouted up to him and listened to him rumble back. Anna watched the city off in the distance. As she started thinking she had the words for the letter ready in her mind, the dragon dived in the direction of the city.

  “Peter? We don’t want to be spotted, remember?” Andrew shouted at his brother over Anna’s shoulder.

  Before Peter could reply, the sky above them seemed to vanish, swallowed up by walls of rock as the dragon flew between the plateaus. He didn’t sink very deep into them. Down at the very base might be too narrow. But to her surprise, Anna found that most of the canyons were wide enough that the dragon didn’t even need to worry about catching his wings on the walls of the cliffs.

  Anna formed her wind barrier so the three riders would be able to hear one another. “Did it just take a while to convince him to try?” Anna asked.

  Peter shook his head. “No, he didn’t understand the plan,” Peter said. “Like, anyone in the city looking down will still spot us.”

  “Only if they think to look down,” Andrew said.

  “Well, there are still people in the canyons, though,” Peter said.

  “What?” Andrew sputtered.

  Peter nodded. “Jarn says he remembered seeing them all the time when he flew over the city.”

  “What are they doing?” Andrew asked.

  “Water and Dye!” Anna burst. The other two looked at her, and she gave them a sheepish grin. “Sorry. I haven’t thought about it much. But the river canyons’ best exports are plants that mostly just grow at the river banks. And the city gets all its water from the rivers too.”

  “So we’ll still be spotted getting into the city,” Andrew said.

  “No, we can land around a bend,” Peter said. “We’ll just have to go on foot from there.” He glanced at Anna. “What’s the plant that grows down here? You said dyes? Is it merigold?” he added, looking back to the platuea where the family lived.

  Anna grinned. “No. It’s a plant called woadrok. It makes a dark blue dye.”

  “The capitol is named after a plant?” Peter asked. Anna nodded.

  Jarnvaror deposited his riders around the bend that took them between the three platueas that made up the city. He picked a place that had far more of a bank than most of the rest of the river. There was a path here, which Anna guessed was used to harvest the plant by workers. Peter had Jarnvaror promise to wait for them around here and out of sight.

  The entrance to the canyon portion of the city was impressive. A high wall of stone stretched between the cliffs, even extending over the river. But it only seemed to be manned by one guard. He was a young man, and he saw them as soon as they came around the corner.

  “It’s more suspicious if we stop now,” Andrew said quietly.

  “What if he recognizes us?” Anna asked.

  “I can whack him on the head, too,” Peter suggested.

  “Bad idea if he has companions we can’t see,” Andrew said. “Then again, that might be all we’re left with if he recognizes us.”

  The Wisps helped keep Anna calm as they walked closer to the gate. She crossed her arms, trying to hide the light from her bracelet as they helped. She hoped she would just come across as cold. Once they were close enough, the Wisps reached out to share the guard’s emotions with her. He was far more bored than anything else, though he was also interested in them as travelers. But it wasn’t the sort of intense interest he’d have if he’d known who they were.

  “Name and business,” the guard said.

  “My name is Arden,” Andrew said right away. Clearly, he’d been thinking what lie to tell the guard. “This is my younger brother and sister. We’re coming to visit family. They live up by the castle.”

  The guard nodded. His eyes narrowed a moment at Anna’s red hair. But through the Wisps, Anna could feel him dismissing his concern. As long as she didn’t speak, he probably would just think she resembled one parent while her ‘brothers’ resembled the other. “Well. Smart of you to come this way. Most people take the high roads because they think it’s safer with less bandits and the like. But at least there’s water down here. And there aren’t really that many bandits.” The guard turned to look over his shoulder and pointed to one of the cliffs. “Quickest way up top is a trail of double backs that a’way. The other one takes longer but is a little less steep. Either way, don’t cause any trouble and no trouble will find you.”

  “Thank you,” Andrew said. He paused, and Anna thought she caught the moment an idea occurred to him as he looked back at the guard. “I’ve just realized, we hadn’t sent word ahead that we were coming. Is there a curriers’ office down here we could use to send something ahead so we don’t surprise them?”

  The guard nodded, then pointed to a little shack behind the gate. “Course there is. Right there, in case we’ve gotta send messages up quick. But they deliver for travelers plenty. You’ll have to pay them for the paper and ink, of course.”

  “Of course,” Andrew agreed. “We’ll take advantage of that then. Thank you again.”

  “My pleasure. Enjoy your stay with family.”

  As they walked away, Andrew grinned back at Anna and Peter. “Well that’s one issue down. How long do you think to write the letter?” he asked.

  Anna thought for a moment. “I’ll keep it short,” she said.

  “Just where to find us?” Peter said.

  “Mostly,” Anna agreed. “We’ll meet him in the ruins under the city.”