“Thank you. And no, I haven't.” Falcan removed his sunglasses as he stepped inside, revealing a pair of worried hazel eyes. He slipped the shades into an inner pocket of his jacket and nodded to my men. “Prince Malik. Prince Kyrian.”
“What's this about?” Malik asked as he stepped up beside me.
“I've had some troubling news,” Falcan said, his gaze shifting back to me. “News that may concern Duchess Amara.”
To the Triari, I'm a Duchess—the daughter of a prince and second in line to the throne. When Falcan wants to be extra formal, he'll call me Queen but when he wants to remind me of my blood, he calls me Duchess.
“How about I get you some coffee to start?” Kyrian offered.
“That sounds wonderful,” Falcan agreed. “Thank you.”
“Let's sit down.” I waved toward the living room.
Mal took the couch this time so he could sit beside me. Falcan took an armchair. Kyrian came in with a tray of coffee mugs a few minutes later, including my freshened cup. The coffee was handed out, Kyrian got settled on my open side on the couch, and Falcan took a fortifying sip of caffeine.
“There has been a theft in one of our museums,” Falcan finally began. “A Triari artifact was stolen and we believe it was stolen by Gregory.”
“Gregory, the ex-prince who murdered my parents and put Sairana's Ember into human hands?” I asked as my hand trailed to the necklace at my throat. “That Gregory?”
“Yes, Amara, that Gregory,” he said with a sigh.
“The same Gregory who the Triari have been hunting for months?” Malik growled.
“Yes. Him. Can we get past that now?” Falcan grumbled. “Gregory went into hiding and had enough money and allies to evade us. Now, it appears that he's stolen the Silver Tongue.”
Kyrian inhaled sharply.
I looked from Kyrian to Falcan. “What's the Silver Tongue?”
“It's a device that was made to subdue Bleiten,” Kyrian explained with a hesitant glance at Malik. “It was supposed to empower the user's words so that every command would be obeyed.”
“I've never heard of such a device.” Malik narrowed his eyes at the two Triari.
“That's because it was never used,” Falcan explained. “The Silver Tongue was built to be ineffective against Triari so that it could be wielded on a battlefield without harming our soldiers. Except there was one major problem—the tongue couldn't command Bleiten in their battleform. That made it essentially useless against Bleiten as well.”
“But it would work on them in their normal forms?” I asked.
“It did. The only limitation was distance—your target had to be within hearing range.”
“What is it? A collar?” I tried to imagine how a device could use sound to control someone's mind. Surely it had to be placed over a person's voice box.
“No, it's a thin piece of metal that attaches to the tongue with tiny prongs.”
“Sounds uncomfortable.” I grimaced.
“From what I've heard and read, it was so pliable that it could barely be felt.”
“But there were all kinds of issues with it—the biggest being time,” Kyrian took over. “It affected each target differently so there was no way to know how long you'd have control over someone. It was deemed too unreliable.”
“So, you guys put it in a museum?” Malik asked derisively. “Just left it out in the open?”
“Our museums aren't completely unguarded and the Tongue couldn't be used against Triari,” Falcan pointed out. “No Triari citizen would want it—it would be useless to them—and it was assumed that no one in the Host would dare to burgle a museum.”
“Does the Silver Tongue work on other races?” I asked.
“We don't know.” Falcan grimaced. “It was never tested on anyone else but it's likely.”
“Shocking,” Malik huffed. “I would have thought your people would have jumped at the chance to command the other races.”
