The rest of the meeting passed surprisingly uneventfully—and wasn't very long. Some meaningless words were exchanged, but soon the Speaker declared he needed to seclude himself to make a decision.
In other words, he needed to contact his ejder—the actual emperor. In the meantime, the delegation was free to return to the embassy.
Cael hoped to use this opportunity to spy on the Speaker, but there were too many ejderha people around to try, even if he had time. And at the moment, his chief priority was checking on Mimi.
She and Ginevra were in Ginevra's guest bedroom when Cael returned. They sat on the bed next to each other. Ginevra's face was dark with anger, and her hand was lying over Mimi's shoulders while Mimi cried, loudly and messily.