Page 57 of Gryphon’s Fire

With a full body shake, Grandmother turned from her garden. Only slightly shorter than me, we were nearly eye to eye. “You were not silent, Keir. You tried to tell everyone. I am ashamed to say that I only listened with half an ear. That is my burden to bear. It is a weight I will carry with me to the grave.”

“That is not my desire.” And truly, it wasn’t. While the validation was nice, I had no desire to cause someone I cared for such pain.

“Desire or not, it is what it is, and it is not the only burden weighing these old shoulders down. Perhaps living so long is not such a blessing after all. I’ve heard others claim how unfortunate humans are, citing their short lives as one such calamity. I would beg to differ. I believe their short lives may be more gift than punishment. Their mistakes may be many, but they do not need to suffer long with their misdeeds.”

“Some would claim that is exactly what has allowed humanity to continue their self-destructive ways.”

Grandmother shrugged. “A philosophical conundrum left to wiser minds than mine.”

“I doubt there is such an individual,” I argued, and Grandmother gave a weakly indulgent smile.

“Pretty words, Keir. More than pretty,” she said before Grandmother’s eyes slipped closed and she inhaled deeply. “The road you’re traveling will not be easy.”

I stiffened at the subject change. “I know.”

“Jaakobah is without honor. Lulabelle told me of your plans. He will not fight fair. You must time your declaration well. It will do you no favors to give Jaakobah time to plan. Catch him off guard.”

“That would be best, but he will argue the need for witnesses. Jaakobah will challenge my claim.” I’d considered the best options and knew Grandmother was correct, but Jaakobah would be within his rights to demand time to gather witnesses to the battle.

“Then you plan it when witnesses are already abundant.”

I swallowed hard. “The bonding ceremony.” It wasn’t that I hadn’t considered it. “I had not wanted to wait that long.” Knowing Jaakobah, he would want the affair to be grand, befitting what he imagined his self-worth to be.

Grandmother’s smirk made me question that original thought. “Don’t you know? Jaakobah has already announced the time and venue.”

“What?” I’d been keeping my voice low but raised it now. “Lulabelle said he’d already sent out announcements that I’d agreed to bond with him before I truly agreed. She didn’t say anything about a date, time, and place.”

“That’s because she didn’t know. The announcement came while you were in the air, traveling.”

Running my hand over my face, my fingers tangled in my hair, tugging. “His arrogance is unbelievable.”

“Unbelievable and fortunate,” Grandmother corrected. “You have three days.”

My mouth opened, closing on a tangle of words. Three days. This whole mess would be at an end before the week was out. While that was unexpectedly welcome, that didn’t give us a lot of time to figure out where Phina was and come up with a plan to keep her safe.

Despite my lack of understanding, for whatever reasons, Jaakobah had several sycophants that were completely loyal to him. No doubt he had his most trusted individuals watching over Phina. As soon as I challenged him… “We need to secure Phina before the challenge.”

“Agreed.” Grandmother’s lips thinned and the grooves in her skin deepened around her eyes. “Jaakobah won’t hesitate to harm her just to spite all of us. We’ll need to have eyes on her before the challenge is laid down.”

“Do you know where she is?” Lulabelle hadn’t known and Eldon assumed she’d been moved.

Grandmother’s eyes slid closed again before she shook her head. “No.” She sounded frustrated. “I am uncertain who I can trust and who I can’t. If I start asking too many questions and they get back to the wrong individuals, then we’ve tipped our hand. We need…” Grandmother shook her head. “I’m not certain what or who we need.”

Goddess. Jima was never going to let me live this down. Clearing my throat, I answered, “I might have someone.”

Grandmother’s eyes hopefully stared up at me.

“Who?”

“A stowaway.”

“A stowaway? Keir, what are you talking about?”

I reached for her shoulders, tightening my fingers around them. “I’ll introduce you later, but just to be safe, if you happen to see a ferret running around, don’t hurt him.”

“A ferret? Keir, what on earth are you up to?”

“I’m not sure yet, but if there’s anyone out there that can sneak in and get us the information we need, it’s Jima.” I pulled Grandmother in for another hug before releasing her. Grandmother was far too stubborn to allow her growing tears the freedom to fall. “Is there anywhere in the house that’s safe to speak within?”