“Why else would a High Councilor hide coded papers with a traitorous symbol?” Renwell snapped.
I stepped backward. “But by all accounts, he seems like a good man?—”
“As did the People’s Councilors before they started a rebellion against your father. Everyone has something to hide, Kiera. You can’t do my job without accepting that basic truth.”
My cheeks burned with anger and humiliation. As if I needed reminding. I wouldneverforget those days and how they changed our lives. The public executions at the foot of the Temple still crept into my nightmares from time to time.
“Were you seen?”
My gaze darted back to his. “Of course not.”
He studied me for an agonizing moment.Gods, please believe me.It was rare that I could lie to Renwell and get away with it, even after many, many lessons. The few times I thought Isucceeded, I couldn’t be sure if that was just what he wanted me to think.
Like now.
“So be it,” he said quietly. “I’ll handle Garyth while you handle something else for me.”
I frowned. “Handle what?”
He hesitated, and that one flicker of indecision sent a thrill of foreboding through me. Renwell never second-guessed himself. He planned for everything and was never caught off guard.
“What happened?” I demanded.
His jaw clenched. “My Wolves caught a man prowling through the Den.”
My lips parted in shock.
Renwell was not only the High Enforcer, responsible for the safety and execution of justice for our kingdom of Rellmira, but also the captain of the night guards—nicknamed the Shadow-Wolves. I’d only caught glimpses of the infamous guards from afar. Their barracks—the Den—was in the Docks Quarter at the foot of the cliffs by the sea.
No one but Shadow-Wolves and Renwell himself entered that place of their own volition. I didn’t know what other business he conducted from there. But he promised I’d find out one day.
I sputtered. “How . . . how did he?—”
“Hewas wearing a Shadow-Wolf uniform and mask. He even carried a sunstone knife.” Renwell gripped the hilt of his own.
Sunstone was our most precious commodity, mined out of the cliffs north of Aquinon. It could be forged into unbreakable knives that never needed sharpening. Black and glittery, the stones were pieces of the night sky, if the legend was true.
But if this man had stolen a uniform and a knife, the only way he could’ve was from a Wolf. A dead Wolf. Which made him a thief and a killer.
No one else was allowed to carry a sunstone knife—a rule I flouted on occasion. But I would never use it to do something as foolish as to sneak into the Den.
“What was he doing there?” I asked. “Was he alone?”
“He was alone, and he refused to tell me.”
My eyebrows flew up. “Refused?”
“Under extreme duress.”
My stomach twisted. That was a part of his job I hated thinking about. But Renwell had always seemed content to let me train for espionage while he handled the dirtier bits of the business.
Unless—
“What do you wantmeto do?”
“I want you to find out what he was doing in my gods-damned Den and if he’s working with others. You’ll have to go undercover, which shouldn’t be too difficult for you, considering.”
I scowled. Considering I’d lied about who I was many times over the years that I used to sneak out to taverns or to meet lovers. And Renwell knew about each time. Those lies were one of the reasons he agreed to take me on as his apprentice.
