The argument started at breakfast and was still going at midmorning.
"No," Zekar said. He said it the way he said most things he had decided, without raising his voice, which was somehow worse than shouting. "Absolutely not."
"You haven't heard my reasons yet."
"I don't need to."
Emery set down her cup. "Then you're not listening."
"I'm listening. I heard the word rescue and I heard you say your name in the same breath and I'm telling you no."
"The girl is seven years old." Emery kept her voice level. "She has been held in a garrison for months. She doesn't know us. She doesn't know your scouts or your fire-bearers. She knows Velanthri. She knows silver hair and she knows singing and she knows the people her mother came from." She looked at him steadily. "I can reach her in the first moment. Your men can't."
"Your magic isn't ready for a military operation."
