The former golden boy of the Conclave and the Seat of Twelve. Now the most famous jailbird on the island. He’d been caught with his fingers in the treason pie, and his signature on the documents funding the traitors’ and terrorists’ fun and games. Then there was also the small matter of the attempted assassination of a goblin prince. Carnades had been stripped of his title and position in the Conclave and on the Seat of Twelve. The elven government had frozen all of his assets. I’d been directly responsible for Carnades getting caught doing all of the above; as a result, he hated me with a passion bordering on obsession. He was also the one man who could get us to Regor in time to stop Sarad Nukpana’s rampage of world domination—and back again after we got the job done.

Oh yeah, I had warm and fuzzy feelings about that arrangement.

“I don’t like it,” Piaras said.

I didn’t have to ask what it was. I wasn’t the only one Carnades Silvanus had been gunning for since we’d arrived on Mid.

“Carandes is the best mirror mage there is,” I told him. “Plus, he’s the man with the mirror in Regor. If we had another choice, we’d take it, but we don’t.”

Piaras scowled. “You have to trust him.”

“Trust has nothing to do with it. This is about necessity, pure and simple.”

“Necessity might be pure, but Carnades sure isn’t.”

Truer words had never been spoken. “That’s why we’ll be keeping magic-sapping manacles on him as much as possible.”

“He’s not wearing them now.”

“Yeah, gives me the creeps, too.” I kept my voice level, which was a nifty contrast to my galloping heart rate. That was the first thing I’d noticed when we’d walked through the door. Normally, a sight like that wouldn’t freeze me in my tracks like a mouse in a room with a sadistic cat, but being without magic was not my normal. If Carnades found out and managed to get me alone, all that would be left after the spell he’d sling at me would be a greasy spot on the floor. Piaras didn’t know, and I wasn’t about to tell him. If he knew, he’d worry. A lot. Staying on the island in the face of a goblin invasion was enough; Piaras needed to focus on saving his own hide, not worrying about mine any more than he already was.