The Paragon

Chapter Sixteen

The intelligence room wasn't a place where I'd spent much time so far. I'd seen it once or twice, when Eli had been working in there for the day, trading information that we'd gathered on the Imperials. It was a dark room, with several computer monitors and large blinking consoles that I didn't know the function of, not to mention several desks and cabinets filled with actual physical papers.

Right now, there weren't all that many people here—a few Redcloaks I didn't know the names or specialties of, Eli, and I. "How do you even have this information?" I demanded of one of the Redcloaks, a woman I'd just been introduced to named Emma. "I thought the whole thing about this fortress was silent communications?"

"That's not entirely accurate," Emma replied. She seemed remarkably calm, even in response to mine and Eli's prominent distress. "We don't broadcast any messages out, as a general rule, but we do keep an invisible observation on any public channels, or any of the private Imperial ones we've managed to infiltrate."

"What exactly was the message?" Eli asked, clearly trying very hard to remain calm. "Tell us again."

"The Imperials were communicating ship-to-ship. Only one ship was in range, so we only got half of the exchange, but we did hear them talk about the uncovering of a secret group smuggling wizards out of the Empire."

"Did they say specifically it was the Owls?" I demanded.

"No, Paragon, but—"

"Who else could they have meant, Immy?" Eli exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. "How many other secret groups smuggling wizards out of the Empire do you know of?"

"The key word is secret, Eli," I pointed out, snapping at him out of frustration and anger. "I just want to be sure before we start completely freaking out."

"I am way past completely freaking out," Eli said, shaking his head as he kept pacing up and down the aisle between computers. "Raya could be dead for all we know. Maybe we shouldn't have..." Eli let that thought trail off and shook his head again, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Is there any way for you to get more information?" I asked Emma, keeping my voice as steady as possible. As a result, the words came out sounding angry and tense, and I could see just the tiniest twitch in her face that proved she didn't want to disappoint me.

"Unfortunately, short of sending someone out, we can't just pluck the information from thin air," Emma said. "Our fortress is isolated, which is bad for communications—we can only reach out so far without being detectable, as I'm sure you know."

I did know that, remembering the incident of what happened when we had extended our communications too far on our trip here, and the resulting escape from an Imperial ship. That didn't make me any more happy to hear the news. "So you can tell me nothing more?" I said, trying still to keep calm, but my anger bubbling up. Emma shook her head and I tried to resist the urge to snap it off her neck. "Why even bother telling us, then? You don't even know if it's our group, or the one in our city, or what?"

"Immy, stop," Eli said, reaching out and grabbing my arm to gain my attention. "Wouldn't you rather know something than nothing?" He looked as upset as I felt, but at least he wasn't screaming at the messenger.

Inhaling deeply, I tried to cool off. "We have to go," I said to my brother. "We've got to get to Foster. Now. Yesterday. As soon as possible." Eli nodded, his eyes somewhat unfocused, as though he were far past thinking of any other possibility.

"That is definitely not going to happen." Both of us turned to the doorway to see Maric and Octavia standing there. Maric was the one who had spoken and it took even more effort to not immediately throw a punch at him.