between Easter Holiday and summer holiday; and Michaelmas Half, covering roughly all of autumn.
The prince had brought Iolanthe to Eton at the beginning of Summer Half. They had become separated during the summer holiday, but had managed to reunite at school at the start of Michaelmas Half. That was when they had been informed that Kashkari’s steamer had run into rough seas en route and had been delayed. Titus and Iolanthe had accepted the news at face value, neither suspecting that Kashkari might not be the nonmage Indian boy he very much seemed to be.
“I remember,” she said. He didn’t come back until that fateful house party on the coast of the North Sea. “You told Titus later that you were late because you and your brother were busy informing as many mages as possible that Madame Pierredure was long dead and any news of her emerging from retirement to lead a new resistance movement was Atlantis using her to round up those with rebellion on their minds.”
“And while we were doing that,” said Kashkari, “Amara was thinking on a more strategic level. We were no match for Atlantis either in the size of our force or the sophistication of our matériel. The plan had been to exchange training and know-how with other rebel bases, but with Atlantis’s traps having reeled in so many rebels, she decided to investigate an offer of assistance she’d had from a mysterious source that claimed to be able to tap into the assets of a major mage realm.
“It was a huge risk, but Amara has never been afraid of risks. A meeting was arranged with a liaison in Casablanca. She then asked the liaison to prove that he truly had access to all the equipment and ammunition that he claimed. She was taken on a trip that lasted nearly twelve hours, and she was certain a large portion of it involved a sea voyage on a ship launched from a dry dock—even blindfolded and with her ears plugged, she could still smell the ocean and feel the rolling of the waves. When she was allowed to see again, she found herself in a huge cavern stockpiled with an eye-popping assortment of war machines.
“Amara is a cynic, so she asked how could she be certain that she wasn’t looking at Atlantis’s own stockpile. At which point she was blindfolded again. But this time, she was only led around on foot for about thirty minutes. When the blindfold was taken off, she stood on the side of a heavily wooded slope. And through the trees she glimpsed the Right Hand of Titus in the distance.”
The Right Hand of Titus was a set of five mage-made peninsulas jutting out into the Atlantic from the coast of Delamer, the Domain’s capital city. The Citadel, the Master of the Domain’s official residence, sat upon the ring finger of the Right Hand of Titus.
“She was shown the facilities under the Serpentine Hills?” asked Titus, a speculative look in his eyes.
“Yes—she took a long, hard look at her surroundings to make sure she hadn’t been tricked. Then she asked how could she be sure that she was actually dealing with someone with the power to deploy the war machines, and not just a lowly guard who had the password to the storage facilities.
“That was when she was informed of a diplomatic reception at the Citadel. She was told to walk in behind a cluster of late-arriving guests—and that she would have a five-minute window before she was discovered. Actually her instruction was to turn around and leave as soon as she got inside, to avoid discovery. But the matter of the new great elemental mage had been weighing heavily on her mind—it was an unknown that could change everything—and she resolved to speak to the prince directly about it.”
That was how Titus had first met Amara, at that reception. She had asked him for his elemental mage and had escaped quite elegantly when the palace guards realized there was an intruder among the guests.
Kashkari sighed. “She is braver than any of us, but at times she can be quite impulsive. She regretted her action immediately, but it was too late. She had angered her contact, who saw her willfulness as a breach of faith. That potential alliance went no further.
“She returned to the base hours before I left for Eton. We discussed everything she’d seen—and her ultimate failure. That was when I decided to take the matter into my own hands.