“The Inquisitor stared at him. “Your Highness, where is Iolanthe Seabourne?”

Right here in this room.

He was on guard, very, very much on guard. Yet he still felt his lips part and form the shape necessary to pronounce the first syllable of the truth. “I thought we had already established that I have neither interest in nor knowledge of your elemental mage.”

“Why are you protecting her, Your Highness?”

Because she is mine. You will have her over my dead body.”