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"Yes," Jared said coldly "Mine"

"Oh" After an aard silence, Thera huffed and pushed her hair back "Well, I doubt anyone’s going to have the balls to ask questions about what happened"

Blaed growled

"Except you two," Thera added, regarding Blaed with respectful wariness "Which was the point"

Blaed’sin

Jared’s eyes narrowed Where was the fury that had made Thera and Lia tear into each other? Their te there like friends who had had a minor spat instead of

"You did this deliberately," Jared said slowly "You scared the shit out of all of us deliberately"

"Of course," Lia replied, looking surprised "Thera and I realized we had to shift everyone’s attention away from the explosion so that no one would ask about it until we had tiure out what happened"

"Youlied to us"

"We didn’tlie ," Lia said indignantly "We werepretending to have a fight in order to create a distraction"

His mind understood the distinction between "lie" and "pretend," but his ehtdid provide a reason for the explosion," Thera said

"And we used Craft to h so that everyone in the group would know," Lia added

Jared forced his teeth apart before he cracked some of them A few seconds That’s all it had taken for one of the like,We have to do so questions"You planned this in the tiet to your feet, but you couldn’t take a few more seconds to send a communication thread to Blaed andboth wo out insults and tearing into each other without a thought about hoe’d feel You used Craft so that everyone could hear--"

The air in the wagon chilled He saw the shift in their eyes They’d been willing to placate hiet yourself, Warlord," Lia said coldly "A Queen doesn’t have to explain herself to any ht, but hadn’t he earned a little consideration?

Lia’s expression softened "If we’d told both of you it was an act, you wouldn’t have responded the same way Not emotionally And the other Wouldn’t say anything

"Besides," Thera added with deadly calh youknehat had happened back there In fact, you know better than the rest of us What exactly was Garth trying to destroy, Jared?"

Jared shuddered as it caht they’d been about a witch fight shifting the focus of the males’ attention "Buttons," he said hoarsely "Three brass buttons He was s them with a stone"

Thera nodded "Metal holds a spell fairly well"

"What’s the point of having exploding buttons?" Blaed asked

"A weapon," Lia said

Thera shook her head "The explosion happened because Jared tried to probe the around Jared’s inner barriers"

Lia paled, and Jared felt a swift, light brush against his inner barriers--a feht

"The buttons must have had another use," Thera said "The explosion and the tangled ere there to prevent anyone who didn’t have the key fro used for I e had one of theh Jared "Could they be used to track us?"

Thera shrugged "Sure A drawing spell, a su spell Either of those can be fine-tuned so that anyone asn’t looking for a specific signal wouldn’t notice it"

Lia nodded thoughtfully "And using a button is very clever Even if someone noticed it, ould think twice about a brass button lying beside the road? You’d just think it fell off soht pick it up--"

"No" Jared realized he’d been rubbing his hand against his thigh "They feel sli it"

"Garth did," Lia pointed out

Jared took a deep breath, then let it out slowly "Garth had one the day we left the clearing The day we reached the creek Randolf had been trying to get it away from him Garth had his hand closed, behind his back I don’t know if Randolf knehat Garth was holding or simply wanted to be difficult because he hates Garth"

"What happened to the button?" Thera asked, watching hiave it to me Then Randolf took it out of my hand and threw it into the bushes He said Garth was tainted He said ed as he seean to wonder about one of us being a pet even before--" He stopped, re in tiness she felt