Caelan frowned, and it wasn’t hard to understand why. “Do you trust her with something like that?”
Eno lifted a hand and wobbled it back and forth. “So long as it would get her closer to Kamal Giri, yes.”
Caelan huffed, his gaze returning to the gate, while Eno watched the king. He buried his own feelings of hurt and betrayal when it came to Vale. He’d liked her, genuinely enjoyed the conversations they’d had together over the past couple of weeks. She’d reminded him of why he’d joined the royal guard all those years ago, to do some good and protect the people of Erya.
But to have double-crossed them in the name of protecting those people cut too deep.
And it wasn’t just the betrayal. The act had shed some light on his own gray morals. Would he do the same thing if it came to protecting Caelan? Or even Rayne? He wanted to believe the answer was no, but the queasy, sick feeling in the pit of his stomach argued otherwise.
If he did betray someone who trusted him, would Caelan or Rayne understand his reasonings? Would they approve? Likely not. He’d lose them, lose their faith in him, but it was a risk he was willing to take in the name of keeping them both safe.
“Bribe the guards,” Caelan offered up, pulling Eno’s thoughts from such a dark path.
Eno hummed in thought. “That would take some time. You’d need to find the right one to approach.”
“True.”
They fell silent as the server returned with a tray laden with their pastries as well as a pot of coffee and a pair of delicately painted porcelain cups. He quickly laid everything out on the table, bowed, and hurried away again.
“A big enough distraction could allow us to slip through in the middle of the caravan,” Caelan suggested.
Eno paused as he added sugar to his coffee and glanced back at the gate, frowning. He mentally calculated the number of guards on the ground and those up in perches on the wall. “It would have to be a damn big distraction.”
Caelan snorted. “Would you like me to call on Kaes? I think I could whip up a storm large enough to blow the guards away. Maybe send a lightning bolt through the doors.”
Eno grinned at him and stirred his coffee. “Aren’t you worried about blowing everyone off the side of this mountain?”
Caelan shrugged. “My aim is getting better. I think I could keep our little group from being blown away.”
“Forgive me if I don’t feel overly reassured.” Eno took a sip of his coffee. It was dark and bitter, but with a deep fullness to it that seemed to warm him down to his soul. Everything was different in Temit—the food, drinks, clothes—but he found he enjoyed it all. These people really did know how to enjoy life. It was just sad to him that it seemed to be a rush to the end. He’d want to linger in all of this as long as he could.
“In the same vein of god-sized distractions,” Eno started again with a new thought. “We could go with an explosion. Not necessarily to take out the gate, but big enough to cause damage and chaos, allowing us to slip through.”
“And you think getting our hands on dynamite or a rocket launcher is going to be that easy?”
Eno could only grin. “You know, I have done some wonderful work with a truck filled with gasoline. We’d just need to get our hands on a sniper rifle for Drayce.”
Caelan chuckled. “Yeah, I heard about your work at Green Gate. I wish I could have been there to see it.” He paused, tearing at the flaky pastry in front of him. “It’s a thought, and it has worked before. We can at least put it in the ‘maybe’ category.”
“Seems a bit saner than allowing the God of Storms to run amuck on the mountain.”
A comfortable silence settled over the table as they sipped their coffee, ate their food, and watched the caravan slowly move through the open gate. Guards walked alongside them, assault rifles in their hands, always ready to take out anyone who tried to sneak through the gate. It was a very organized detail and would not be easy to penetrate covertly if their other options fell through.
“I keep thinking that if Rayne were here, he’d take one look at the gate and come up with the most obvious solution that we’re not thinking of,” Caelan muttered.
“Most likely because his brain would have worked through hundreds of solutions already while we’ve only come up with three.”
Caelan shifted in his seat, turning to face Eno rather than staring at the gate. A strange expression was on his face and Eno could only lift his eyebrows in question, waiting for whatever was dancing through his king’s mind.