The Dreaming Hunt by Cindy Dees

in the formal sitting room.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” she asked him.
    The jann looked as confused as she felt. “I have no idea. Selea kicked me out of Leland’s study, emerged with a fistful of messages he told Hyland’s men to deliver, gave orders that he was not to be disturbed, and retreated into the office. He’s still in there.”
    Will and Aurelius arrived looking alarmed, and the solinari had the courage to ignore Selea’s edict not to be disturbed and knocked on Hyland’s study door. Selea emerged looking so grim that Raina’s blood ran cold. The nulvari rarely showed any emotion at all, let alone this open distress.
    Selea looked around. “We’re all here, then. Hyland’s man had trouble finding Sha’Li. She is submerged somewhere, and he was only able to ask a lizardman on shore that word be passed to her to join us here. My news is too urgent to wait for her, though.”
    Raina braced herself as he continued, “I have received reports within the hour that all four of the Lochland landsgraves were attacked last night by assassins.”
    She gasped in consternation.
    Selea continued grimly, “Delphi was killed but lifed, and her killer was chased off. Beltane was attacked and is missing and presumed dead. Talyn has disappeared without a trace.”
    He paused for a moment, gathering himself to share the last news, the most important news, about the one they all knew and loved so well, Leland. The length of that painful pause told her enough. Horror flowed over her and through her, choking her until she could not draw breath.
    The words fell out of Selea’s mouth singly like pebbles falling into water. “Hyland is believed dead. His manor house was burned to the ground. His body was recovered, and his spirit has neither been sensed nearby nor attempted resurrection.”
    A silence so deep and profound that no breath was possible fell over them all. It lasted for one final, desperate moment of denial, and then the moment broke, and the grief crashed in on all of them.
    Each breath felt like a hot knife stabbing Raina’s side as a silent scream started in her skull and would not stop. Into that backdrop, a single thought formed. He cannot be gone .
    But her heart told her without question that Leland had passed beyond the Veil, and this time he would not be coming back. The last time he had died, only the news that his son had been kidnapped had pulled him back from the Black Gates of the Void and the welcoming arms of his long-dead wife beyond.
    But this time …
    No. He was gone.
    Selea moved out of the sitting room, leading the group to Leland’s private study. The spacious workroom was as warm and welcoming as ever. How could its master be dead? Should not the very walls be weeping?
    A commotion of sound and movement heralded the arrival of a visitor.
    â€œSha’Li!” Raina cried in surprised pleasure. She hadn’t seen her lizardman friend in a long time. The black-scaled girl who’d accompanied them on their quest to find the Sleeping King wrapped Raina in a hug that nigh crushed her ribs. Stars, Sha’Li was strong. But then she’d been warrior trained from birth.
    â€œA little air,” Raina wheezed.
    â€œSorry,” the lizardman girl muttered. Whether she referred to the over-strong embrace or the loss of their mentor, Raina could not tell. She nodded in return, her throat too tight for words.
    Eben turned from beside the fireplace, his caramel-toned skin more mottled with elemental markings than usual, his face wet with tears. Raina moved silently to the big jann. They held on to each other in shared grief for a long time. They’d both lost a father this day.
    But poor Eben had lost his sister to slavers barely two months ago, and then his best friend and surrogate brother, Kendrick Hyland, had been kidnapped soon after. Now this. Her heart broke for him. It was more than one person