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Pain pulsed fro ointment His raw skin oozed and his throat burned He felt like a pig who’d been tied to a spit and roasted over a fire Leif would never eat pork again Well At least not for a couple days

"Are we still going to check those other hothouses?" Devlen asked

"No I can’t stop a er" Leif considered "I’ll e the locations to Irys tomorrow Only she or Bain has the power to reed He’d been hoping to discover a clue to Owen’s whereabouts Noould be at least half a season before one of the Masters arrived

"You think Owen had tiician had a six-day head start "It’s possible Best to assu to happen" And if Owen had enough ti that would indicate his escape plans Daate?"

"We can e the various security forces to keep everyone away until one of the Master Magicians clears it"

The next es to the towns near the glass houses while he coer He tapped into the vast ic stored within the black dia the extra power boost, he connected his thoughts to her thoughts When she dropped her protective barrier, Leif explained about the booby traps

I’m not sure when one of us can leave, Irys said The Council is still reeling from the news the Cohts He has Curare It’s not a guess

I know, but there’s no proof

Outraged, Leif countered, We’ve seen the factory and the vines growing Owen boasted to Yelena that he made a deal with the Commander to produce it What more do they need?

Evidence, Leif Not hearsay

Hearsay? They doubt Yelena’s word? Anger flared

Yelena’s been dealing with the loss of her ic and a number of assassination attempts The Council needs to hear the story directly froone to Ixia instead Don’t you see how that compromises her report?

Unfortunately, he understood the Council’s position They wouldn’t accuse the Co unless they had verification And it didn’t help that Ben, Loris and Cilly had been silenced The knowledge from Owen’s accomplices would have provided plenty of confirmation

What about the efforts to locate Owen? he asked Have they coordinated with the Moon Clan’s security forces?

They’re not organizing anything Aside froedly seen Owen alive are all Ixian

So basically, the Sitian Council has done nothing at all

They’re discussing how to prepare the army if the Commander does indeed have Curare The first step has already been decided They agreed that we need to discover a way to mass-produce Theobroma

Theobroular person’s resistance to ician of all protective barriers Using Theobro Ixia No, the probleh of the trees whose pods provided the le and it required three to five years of growth before it produced pods Maybe they could grow them in those hothouses But it would still take years toon the Theobroma problem?

Bavol Cacao Zaltana has volunteered