The eastern relay point was a converted storage tent at the far edge of the camp — chosen, Kael had explained when he established it three weeks ago, not for strategic position but for what it lacked: foot traffic, proximity to the main paths, the casual, ambient attention of a community learning to occupy shared space. The intelligence apparatus of the Nightshade Court operated best in the places where nothing interesting was supposed to be happening.
Elara was already inside when they arrived.
She had been at the council table, behind Kael, not moving — and she was here before them, which was the particular vampiric efficiency that Arvella had stopped finding disconcerting and started filing under useful. Four centuries of service to a vampire court produced a specific relationship to
