The Silvered Read Online Free PDF Page A

younger officers she didn’t recognize. To a man, their expressions whether talking or listening were so completely neutral, she shivered. She could almost hear Ryder instructing them to hide their reactions from the surrounding civilians.
    Tucked behind her own mask of polite interest, she noted that while facial expressions might be under control, some Pack members were visibly agitated, shifting their weight and pulling at their clothing. Jaspyr, usually among the most levelheaded of Ryder’s cousins, worried the three pewter buttons on his jacket in and out of their holes, his fingers in constant motion. What news had they heard that…?
    “Lady Hagen?”
    Danika turned toward the soft touch on her arm to find Annalyse had shifted her attention from Lady Berin—now arguing the lack of vigor in recent hunts with the equally elderly Lady Evanjylan. When Annalyse inclined her head toward the front of the café, Danika followed the younger woman’s line of sight and suddenly understood Jaspyr’s problem.
    The mass of people passing back and forth in the lobby outside the café was almost entirely made up of mothers and mages of a marriageable age. A quick glance around the café confirmed the unmated Pack members were most affected by the scents rising from the crowd.
    A word to one of the officers of the Opera House and Danika could have the crowd dispersed, but that hardly seemed fair as she, herself, had caught Ryder’s attention as part of a similar promenade. Here and now, however, the Pack needed to remain focused on the security of Aydori. Reaching out with power, she combed through the air currents and redirected them so that they flowed from the café to the lobby.
    After a moment, she glanced back at the men surrounding herhusband in time to see Jaspyr move his hand away from the front of his jacket, the buttons now securely fastened. When she shifted her gaze to Ryder, he caught and held it long enough to nod his thanks before returning to his conversation with General Narvine. The general nodded in agreement when Ryder stopped speaking and, although Danika couldn’t see the general’s face, must have said something in turn as the lieutenant beside him snapped to attention, pivoted on one heel, and all but ran from the café.
    That didn’t look good.
    Behind her, Annalyse drew in a sharp breath, and Danika remembered the younger woman’s husband was with the Hunt Pack and the Hunt Pack had met the Imperial army some hours before.
    The Pack healed so quickly they were very hard to kill. Silver poisoned them, but they’d been careful to keep that knowledge from their enemies.
    Still, only three months married and hours without news…
    Reassurance would be meaningless as Danika knew no more than Annalyse did, so it would have to be distraction. Tugging on the cuff of her lace mitten as she turned, she waggled the fingers of her right hand and said softly, “Forced by circumstance to a public display of mage-craft, how very vulgar.”
    Annalyse’s green-flecked eyes widened, then she smiled. A polite smile, a society smile, but it lifted a little of her distress. “As the Alpha Female, Lady Hagen, you set the fashion. At least, that’s what Geoffrey told me when I joined the Pack.”
    “So I cannot, therefore, be vulgar?” Danika lifted her cup and grinned over the rim. “That could come in handy.”
    This smile reached Annalyse’s eyes, crinkling them at the corners. “My much more vulgar solution would have involved washing the scent from the air.”
    Sixth level Water at least, Danika realized, setting her cup down, and she clearly had a more delicate touch than most Water-mages managed. “You could actually make it rain inside the building?”
    “If there’s moisture enough. With so many people and the ceilings so high…” She waved off her ability to perform an impressive bit of mage-craft, her gaze sliding past Danika’s shoulder, back to the men around the Pack Leader. “Do you think