Fadey laughed with bitterness. “Right you are, Lyra. The god-queen had the talent for the crafts through her high-born blood. There would not be a soul with her strength, her power, for centuries. Old sagas and poems from scholars translated prophecies and vows of the gods, and most believed the god-queen’s power would be reborn in another.” Fadey leaned onto his palms over the table. “You are the first female melder in centuries, Lyra Bien. What do you think everyone was to believe?”
Breath caught in my chest. No. This was madness. “I am not the god-queen.”
“Of course you’re not,” Fadey sneered. “It is not a reincarnated soul, it is her strength the kingdoms desired. I thought it all shit before, then I saw you meld. What a find you are. One touch and you connected to a soul bone deep enough you fell into the melder’s trance. That is when more bones are sensed and found.It took me five winters of melding before the trance overtook me, and it was never as strong as yours.”
Fadey rubbed at his own eyes. Blue tears spilled onto his cheeks, and beneath a thin sheen of color was a bolt of silver that distorted the black center.
I lifted my chin. “Why stage your death if you wanted me here anyway?”
Fadey ignored the question and asked his own. “What do you know about blood craft, Melder Bien?”
I cast a quick glance at the queen. “It heals, summons, wards.”
“That is some, yes.” Fadey paced along the edge of the table. “Most consider blood craft to be the weakest, but did you know it can create a blood tether between two people?”
My pulse quickened. I said nothing.
“Blood crafters often tethered each other during marital vows to show devotion.” Fadey tugged a wooden talisman in the shape of two coiled serpents from beneath his tunic. “It isn’t to be taken lightly, for a blood tether allows one to step inside the thoughts and mind of another, even borrow strength through the bond for a time.”
I went still. “What are you saying?”
“Once you were found, it truly was not so difficult to get some of your blood.” Fadey shared a wicked sort of grin with the queen. “You should not have been so reckless with that blade against your own throat in Skalfirth.”
He draped the talisman in front of my face. Crimson stained the grains of the wood.
“With this,” he went on, “the queen provided a way for me to follow you into your trance.” His teeth flashed. “I know you are completely drawn to the souls of the fallen, and there, my, what secrets you keep.”
Queen Ingir rose from her seat. “How long have you been bonded to Dravenmoor? To their assassin? You tried to slaughter my son!”
Her palm struck my face before I had time to dodge. I staggered in the chair, clutching my face. “No. I never sent any of the attacks.”
“When I finally saw into your thoughts, I saw the soul bond between you,” Fadey snapped.
“Soul…soul bond?” Did he mean the gilded rope between Skul Drek and me? “If you saw everything, you would know I did not understand what was happening, nor did he.”
Fadey rubbed his chin, as though considering my words. “I couldn’t see everything, more pieces of your time there. But it was enough to sense the bones. You have done something that no melder was able to do before. You’ve found a way to walk among the fallen, to sense their resting places like I never could. You will be able to see what I cannot see.”
“The bones?”
Fadey sneered. “I have thought of nothing else but the Wanderer since I learned what Damir was after. I know the bones are scattered, but we’ve found one, and your strange bond with the assassin will be the key to taking it.” He glanced back at Ingir. “We cannot get through the wards, and I cannot see them, merely sense a power unmatched. But with you, now all that will change.”
“You want the Wanderer for yourself?” My voice came out in a dry rasp.
“I do.”
“We do.” Ingir paused in organizing her herbs, her tone abrupt.
Fadey pressed a hand to his chest. “We do. When Ingir’s spell cast sensed a new power, a strong power, we wondered. When Itried to fall into a melder’s trance, but was warded against the burial site by a new kind of magic, I knew we’d found something with unmatched craft.”
I lifted my chin, terrified and furious all at once. “I will never meld them for you.”
Fadey barked a laugh. “Oh, I already knew after this you’d feel betrayed enough you would never help us. But your strength and craft will do well enough.”
“You can’t have it.”
“You won’t have a choice over what bones I take. You’ll be dead, Melder Bien.”
I froze. My bones.
