“No, and it is Queen Lumeria’s fervent wish that we never be. Alliances are tenuous between Meru and Carsovia, but as long as Lumeria lives, they exist. It was part of the motivation behind the Treaty of Five Kingdoms—we’re stronger together. Carsovia is a beast none of us want to wake.” Deneya rolled up the map.
“Do the Pillars share these sentiments?” Ducot asked.
Deneya’s face tightened into a pained expression. All she could do was sigh. “Let’s hope the Pillars are not working with the empire and, at best, are getting these flash beads from a rogue operator.”
“A rogue operator like Adela?” Lorn folded his arms and leaned against the table. “My whisperers tell me that she’s peddled flash beads in the past five years. She could have an inside man at the mines.”
“We could make a targeted strike against her,” Rebec offered eagerly. “Give me several good bladed shadows and we will take theStormfrostonce and for all.”
“If Adela could be taken down by several good bladed shadows then she wouldn’t still be alive.” Deneya stole Eira’s thought right from her mind. “Foremost, Eira, can you give the scroll case and pouch a listen? See if you hear anything.”
“Sure.” Eira focused on the scroll case first.
There were only a few whispered words for her to hear. She relayed each of them, but knew they wouldn’t be useful. The discussion was brief and transactional. There wasn’t any kind of hint as to whom the Pillar had been speaking to and they gleaned nothing from it that they didn’t already know.
She focused on the pouch next. Distant cries hovered on an unseen breeze, fading in and out. A whip cracked, sharp and brutal.Fill it up, a gruff voice said.Back to work. The mutterings of a woman, her mind clearly half gone.
Her magic scraped for every sound, but there were no more to be found. Those lost screams echoed in her mind long after her magic retreated. Eira relayed what she heard with as level a voice as possible.
“I think you heard the flash mines of Carsovia.” Lorn stared at the floor as he spoke. An invisible weight pulled on his shoulders.
“As if we needed any more evidence of how they treat the people sent there.” Rebec grimaced at the pouch, as though the horrible sounds Eira heard were the bag’s fault.
“The Empire of Carsovia sends their prisoners to work in the mines,” Deneya said for Eira’s benefit. “They claim it’s only the worst offenders that toil. But we have reason to suspect far more than that end up in those torturous mazes of rock and fire.”
Eira swallowed thickly. “I see.”
“In any case, we have a lead.” Deneya straightened away from the scroll case, picked up the box Taavin had given Eira, and handed it to Lorn. “Per your request. Once you and your whispering shadows have figured out where their next recruitment meeting is happening, I want to know. Judging by this, I think we have an idea of when it will be. Rebec, I’m going to ask you to figure out a route in and out of the location and have bladed shadows monitoring every hour.”
“Should I just kill whoever shows up?” Rebec asked a little too gleefully. Eira couldn’t help but wonder how someone could treat murder so casually. She was destroyed all afternoon for merely considering it.
“Not everything is fixed with a dagger between the ribs.” Lorn rolled his eyes.
“But so, so many things are.”
“Don’t kill them, for now. I want to keep this clean. I don’t want the Pillars to know we’re on to them—perhaps we’ll be able to find out who’s supplying the flash beads to see how deep a potential alliance runs. But if it does come to a fight, I want people who can make it out alive.”
“Fine, we’ll keep the stabbing to a minimum.” Rebec let out a slow, pained sigh.
Eira didn’t bother asking for information on the meeting. She knew they wouldn’t proffer it anyway. Instead, she asked, “What did they blow up today?”
A heavy silence settled over the room. Lorn focused on his feet. Rebec cast a sad gaze toward Deneya and then looked away. Ducot remained his silent self, hovering just over Eira’s shoulder.
“A city barracks,” Deneya said, finally. She stared down at the map of Risen. It was then that Eira noticed a red X inside a square near the Archives. “Likely just a test run of the flash beads…making sure they’re the real deal, before the Pillars use them for whatever true wickedness they have planned.”
“I’m sorry,” Eira said softly. By day, Deneya was one of the Queen’s Guard. She could only assume that Deneya knew a few people who had been killed.
Deneya lifted her eyes to meet Eira’s. Somehow, with a gaze alone, Eira felt small. “I know why you ran after that man today.”
Eira glanced askance. She didn’t even ask how Deneya knew. It was likely obvious to everyone. Well, everyone but Mister Levit.
“But, youmust understandthat you’re not the only person here who’s lost something.” Deneya’s words weren’t harsh or berating. They weren’t even disappointed. Yet, somehow, Eira felt all the worse hearing them. “Every shadow has lost and given up more to be here. You will be called to sacrifice even more if you stay.”
“I can do that,” Eira said hastily.
“Can you?” Deneya fired back. Eira’s retort stuck in her throat as she stared into the woman’s intense eyes. “Marcus might be only the beginning. Can you follow our orders without question even if everything crumbles around you? Are you ready to lose even more for the sake of your justice?”
She swallowed once, twice, three times. Why was one word so hard to say? “Yes,” Eira finally managed.
