“Three attacks then,” she said. Her voice was a little tighter than it would be normally, but for the most part it was steady. “All around the same time, I’m assuming.”
Her gaze sought Fallon’s for confirmation.
He watched her carefully, looking for signs that she was going to snap. She gave him a faint smile, just a bare twist of her lips to show him she was alright and she wasn’t going to crumble.
He gave her an approving nod, his hands clasped behind his back. “That’s my belief as well.”
“Not quite,” Zeph said. “The attack on the bridge would have come after.”
“That wasn’t the first attack,” Shea said.
Braden stirred. “We were set upon long before that.” He held up his hand, the beast call resting on his palm. “This is what we took from him. I believe it’s the beast call we’ve been looking for.”
Shea’s father leaned forward, his face sharp with interest even through the grief and tiredness that had settled on him like a weighty cloak. “You’re right.”
“Are you sure?” Shea asked.
Patrick’s face drew tight. “Relatively. The design is slightly different than the ones we have in our possession, but the theory looks the same.”
Gawain moved closer, studying the horn. “If you have this so-called beast call, how was he able to summon the beasts to attack you on the bridge?”
“Or use another beast to escape?” Braden said in a soft voice.
Shea folded her arms across her stomach as she was forced to consider several scenarios, each no better than the next. Either Griffin had an accomplice out in the mist, or he had another unknown way to control beasts.
Her gaze shifted to Reece. As far as she knew, there were no records of humans being able to force beasts to their will, but as Reece had already let slip once, there were records that she’d previously not had access to.
“Is there anything in the hidden archives about humans being able to control beasts without the call?” she asked her father.
He shook his head. “I haven’t read everything. I don’t think anyone has. It’s possible there’s something we missed, but it would take time to find. Why do you ask?”
“Griffin came back changed. He barely looked human,” Shea said, articulating something that had been bothering her since she first saw him. “It was like he’d been molded into something else.”
Her father’s face grew troubled.
“What does he want?” Zeph asked.
Shea shook her head. “I don’t know.”
His motives seemed unclear. Why attack them at the Forest of the Giants, drawing Fallon’s notice and almost guaranteeing her warlord would have no choice but to retaliate? Did he think Fallon would assume it was the pathfinders’ fault? That was a pretty big assumption and left a lot to chance.
Granted, Griffin hadn’t always been the greatest tactician—he was too much a creature of habit, prone to laziness and taking the easiest course—but he wasn’t dumb.
“We know he’s working with some of the pathfinders here,” Fallon said. “That much is obvious considering the joint attacks on myself and the guildmaster, as well as the three who trapped Shea in the tunnels beneath the Keep last week. He probably recruited a few at some point and they’ve recruited others.”
“The three you caught don’t know much,” Zeph said. “My men and I broke them, but it seems the only person they ever worked with gave them the orders right before leaving the Keep.”
“Who did they point the finger at?” Shea asked.
“Man by the name of Haversham,” Zeph responded.
Shea and her father shared a look.
“Who told you Haversham had left the Keep?” her father asked.
“The two pathfinders in charge of your armory. The woman’s name was Michelle, the man was named Sweiz,” Zeph replied, his eyes sharp.
“Those are two of the ones who attacked the guildmaster,” her father said, already heading for the door, Shea right behind him.
