Ardhana's council met at dawn in a mood too grim for the usual formalities, and for once nobody argued when the king dispensed with them entirely and simply laid out the plan.
"We march for the mound within the hour," he said, standing over a map weighted at its corners with river stones. "A company of thirty, Wibawa commanding the column, myself at its head. We go for Empu Wirasena, and we go now, before whatever silenced our two informants decides a captive scholar is worth silencing as well."
"And them," one of the older councilors said, glancing pointedly at Rama and Sekar, standing at the map's edge with their daughter close between them. "The traveler's family goes too, I assume, given how central they have proven themselves to be in matters none of the rest of us fully understand."
