But she had found the record mentioning shipments from the “distant west.” Therehad tobe something here. Something she wasn’t seeing.
Eira read again and that’s when she noticed there were two separate entries for flour. One had an origin of Ofok. The other had the origin listed as Hokoh. Closing her eyes, Eira tried to envision the maps of Meru that Levit had given her. She hadspent so many hours holed up in her room in the Tower studying them, mentally calling them up was like second nature.
Hokoh was toward the center of the lower crescent of Meru. It was a logical place for flour to come from as it was all lowlands and had a climate and landscape similar to the East back in Solaris. Not to mention, it wasn’t far from the coast. It’d be possible for them to move flour through the crescent bay past the port of Risen, and up the river to the tournament. Perhaps some of the ships she’d seen from her windows in the champion’s house in the city had been doing just that.
But Ofok was farther to the west. A port town. It was at the end of a skinny man-made maze of rivers that broke apart from the great river that stretched out from Risen, and was no doubt the main port for the west of the continent.
While it was possible that they were using enough flour that sourcing it from two locations could be necessary, the competitors weren’t eatingthatmuchbread… Moreover, she would’ve thought that it’d be more logical to come from Dant or Toris near the Twilight Forest, where the land was less marshy and more solid.
Eira closed the ledger and rested her hand on it lightly. Her magic filled the air and whispers filled her ears.
How is the collection going?Ulvarth said from another time and place. She’d recognize his voice anywhere now.
Well, Your Grace.
Excellent, I expect everything to be ready in time?
Our supplier is moving with speed.
Tell me when we have enough for me to put my power on display. The people of Risen will know her might.
That was all Eira needed to hear. She crossed for the door, unlocked it slowly, strained her ears, and held her breath. There hadn’t been any sounds since entering the warehouse and the clay on the back of her hand hadn’t changed.
She opened the door slowly and hesitated. Still nothing. Eira ventured into the warehouse proper.
The supplies were shipped in wooden crates and barrels, most of them sealed. But all of them were tagged with different colors based on what was in them and corresponding to the ledger. Flour was red and it didn’t take Eira long to locate where all the shipments had been stored. There were two different markers, but they weren’t specific, so she had no idea which came from Ofok and none were open.
Closing her eyes once more, she focused her power on the crates, listening. One was silent. The other carried the echo of a scream and the crack of a whip.
Using ice as a wedge, she pried open the crate with the echo. Someone would get blamed for opening it as Eira couldn’t risk the noise of hammering the top back on. But she hoped that flour was innocuous enough that the regular attendants would assume it was a momentary lapse in memory and communication. That one of them opened it.
But the Pillars would know. The best case would be for someone who wasn’t a Pillar to find the evidence of her tampering first and handle the situation. Though, part of her wanted Ulvarth to see the open crate. She wanted him to know she was uncovering his plans and she would stop him.
There were sacks of flour stuffed into the crate so tightly that nothing could be slipped between. She hoisted one sack, straining to look underneath—nothing. She repeated it with another for good measure. That left her with no option.
With a flick of her wrist, she summoned a fresh dagger of ice and cut in before she could hesitate. She pried open the bag and saw…
Flour.
Was Alyss right after all? Were the Pillars moving things in another way? Eira bit her lip. No, she had heard a distinct echo.One she’d heard only once before and she’d never forget. There wassomethinghere.
It was then she noticed a strange lump of flour in one of the bags. It was perfectly spherical. Eira reached for it and her fingers closed around something solid. This wasn’t flour… She dusted it off and recognized it instantly.
A flash bead.
This was the highly explosive substance that she had found on the Pillar after she’d met with Taavin in the Archives during her first job as a shadow. Deneya and the other Specters had said flash beads were mined and refined in Carsovia—the only source. They had suspected then that the Pillars might be working with Carsovia by way of Adela. But that was later ruled out. Was someone else helping them? Or had Adela decided to throw her lot in with Ulvarth, after all?
Eira held up the bead, as if it would tell her its secrets. But this particular one was silent.
At that moment, the clay on the back of her hand changed into a line.
Voices were at the front door.
26
“Alate-night shipment?” a grumbling man said from outside the front doors.
“Don’t they know we have to sleep sometime?”
