But I’ve never seen her before. At least I don’t think I have. “No.”
“It’s rare that I have an occasion to visit Briarlock. Your father has done some business for me in the past. I was hoping to hire him again, but time is of the essence.”
My eyebrows go up. “I can do any forge work you need—”
“I already said I don’t need metalwork.” She glances down at my leg again. “But you do seem to have the advantage of staying right where I need you.”
That makes me scowl. I jerk the steel back out of the forge and slam it against the anvil. “If you don’t need metalwork, then I don’t think I can help you.”
She comes closer. “Are you as hungry for silver as your father?”
I snort and swing my hammer. “I don’t think anyone isthathungry.”
“Can you be trusted to hold a message?”
“Couriers run out of—”
She grabs my arm, stopping my swing. “I don’t want a courier, boy.”
She’s a lot stronger than I gave her credit for. Her fingers dig into the muscles of my forearm, and I don’t have the leverage to break her hold.
She doesn’t let go. “You may call me Lady Karyl.” The way she says it makes me think it’s not her real name. With her free hand, she pulls a folded parchment from under her robes. A wide wax seal holds the paper closed. “A man will come to Briarlock this evening seeking the forge, because I intended to leave this with your father.” She pauses, her eyes boring into mine. “He will expect it to still besealed. Am I understood?”
I frown. “I—yes?”
She leans in, and her voice lowers, turning vicious. “If it is not, you’d best hide yourself well. The Truthbringers do not take kindly to deceit and fourberie.”
Clouds above. My father is mixed up with theTruthbringers?
He couldn’t be. Hecan’t. He knows what happened to Callyn’s father. I want to jerk my arm out of this woman’s grasp.
When the queen of Syhl Shallow was first married to the magic-wielding king of Emberfall to bring peace to both countries, rumor said there were a few minor assassination attempts in the Crystal Palace. It was four years ago, so I was younger then, still trying to figure out how to manage on one foot. But I remember travelers would whisper about how the king had fooled the queen into marriage, how hismagic was closely guarded, used only for his own gain. Our queen was new. Young. Untested. There were many people who wondered if the king was just biding his time until he saw fit to kill her, too.
Cal heard stories in the bakery, too. After what magic did to her mother, Cal’s father was openly critical of the king, so Cal usually had better gossip than I did: like the night she told me about how the king wouldn’t bother sending people to the stone prison because he could fracture all their bones at once—and then turn their skin inside out. Her little sister was only nine when Cal told me that story, and she later said Nora didn’t sleep for aweek.
Not long after the royal marriage, our queen had a baby, and the border between our countries was opened to all for travel and trade. It seemed like a tenuous peace had been achieved—but only on the surface. Whispers about the dangerous king continued, and Da and I would occasionally hear of calls for revolution. But Briarlock is a poor town that’s a four-hour ride from the palace in the best weather, so most rumors were sparse with detail and lacking any real motivation. Da used to scoff and say most were just women and men filling the time while they needed a horse shod or a wagon repaired. They would arrive with whispers about soldiers who were burned to ash for speaking out of line, or tales of a magical creature who could be summoned at the king’s whim to eviscerate his enemies. I’d heard enough to knowsomehad to be true—but many seemed too grand. Too awful.
After that cursed beast tore apart her mother, Callyn’s father believed every single one.
Late last summer, we heard of an opportunity to take a stand against the king, to protest againstmagicbeing present in Syhl Shallow. Those whispers about an uprising were suddenly backed by a plan. The Truthbringers had started as a close network of wealthy people who quietly opposed the king and his magic, but their thoughts had begun to spread among the people.
At the time, Da wanted no part in it. “We’ve got enough work for three men, boy,” I remember him saying. “I’ve got to make do with one and a half. We’ll leavemagicwell enough alone.”
Cal’s father, however, was one of the first to join up.
The protest turned into a revolt. Hundreds were killed, in a battle of swords and magic. That tenuous peace was rattled, and it’s never calmed since. The Truthbringers see it as evidence of the dangers of magic, and they’ve been emboldened by what happened.
I may be desperate for silver, but I want no part of a plot against the royal family.
I swallow. “I need to put this back in the forge.”
She lets go of my arm, and I take a deep breath. My head is spinning. This is worse than spending the coins meant for taxes. What has my father done? What has he involved us with? Didn’t he learn anything from what happened with Cal’s father?
I was worried about losing the forge. Now I’m worried about losing myhead.
Callyn coming after me with the ax suddenly feels like a premonition.
But then Lady Karyl says, “He will give you ten silvers once the message is delivered.”
