Jon sat back in his chair. "They can't be separated. They'd hate it." He frowned slightly, but with his next words a half-smile appeared on his drawn face. "They're really in love. They'll have to go together."
Thayet was nervous about asking her question, but how else would she learn the answer? "Can't we keep them here? We could give them personal guards-"
"No," Alanna snapped, harsher than was necessary because she was panicking. "We could smother them in the King's Own, and still she would not live."
"I don't understand." Thayet hated admitting to ignorance, but the two knights shared knowledge that she was innocent of.
"He's far too powerful to be defeated by mere soldiers, not even Tortall's finest. This way, we can save them, they can be happy, and we can, hopefully, find them afterwards."
"But if he's that powerful, surely he'll be able to find them," Thayet argued. "After all, you say you'll be able to find them again, who's to say he won't? We'd never know what had happened."
"We're hoping it won't come to that." Jon sighed, looking much older than the 40-something years he actually was. "You want them to survive, don't you?"
"But he's only after Daine-"
"To get at Numair."
"So why can't we tell Numair?"
"Because then he'd break up with her, and most likely pack her off to some untrackable convent in Galla. You know how protective he is." Alanna smiled wryly as she spoke; her friend loved Daine with a passion, but if he got a hint she might be in danger, he'd try to save her, even if it brought his own world crashing down around his ears.
"Even if she died, wouldn't her parents-"
"No. She's living on borrowed time as it is. Mithros doesn't like it."
Thayet turned away at her husband's sharp words. Jon saw she was hurt, but there was nothing he could do to stop the pain. It would be worse if they died he reassured himself. But the thought of never seeing the happy young couple again left a nasty trace in his mind. He wished it didn't have to be this way. If only circumstances hadn't made it so.
"Call Daine," he ordered. "Tell her it's urgent."
