“Do you want me to go with you two to the meeting?” Kimu asked.
“No. I think it will be better if it's just us. But thank you,” I said.
“I'll come by later to check on you.” Kimu nodded at the King. “Welcome to the Midnight Clan, Your Majesty.”
Cyn lifted his chin, grinned, and said, “Thank you, Kimu.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
We met the Shanba priests in a cafe called Fork to Mouth. It was in the Magnolia District, named for all the trees that lined the streets of the upper middle class neighborhood. Fork to Mouth was roughly a straight march up from the Sable Fist, but once we were out of the Forgotten, we took a carriage to the cafe. Cyn had asked the Shanba to meet us at 2 PM, during the slowest dining hour. So, hopefully, there wouldn't be many people in the restaurant.
There weren't.
“Good. It's only them and us,” I said to Cyn as we headed across the cafe to the Shanba. “Unless there's another group of Shanba dressed in priest robes who wanted lunch at an off time.”
Cyn snorted from within his hood. He had his hair pulled back again and no one, not even the Shanba who were expecting him, recognized him. They frowned as we approached, then leaned back when we took the empty seats at their table.
“I believe there's been a—” one of the Shanba started to say.
“I'm King Cynric,” Cyn cut them off and pulled open his hood enough for them to see his hair. “There's been a few attempts on my life, and I've had to resort to clandestine meetings such as this.”
“Your Majesty,” the men said in unison, bowing their antlered heads.
I have no idea how they managed to keep from getting tangled together.
“Shh,” I hissed as I glanced at the wait staff, one of whom was approaching. “No one can know he's here.”
“We understand,” one of them said.
“Can I get you two anything?” the X'anti server asked, her bluish-gray skin warming beneath the golden light of the lantern above our table.
“A coffee and a slice of whatever dessert you recommend,” Cyn said.
“The same,” I said.
“The dream cake is, well, dreamy,” she said. “I'll get you two slices of that.”
“Thank you,” I said.
We waited for her to walk away, her hooves clicking on the floor. Then we returned to our conversation.
“Thank you for risking a meeting with us, Your . . . uh, Sir,” one of the Shanba said. “I am Alcha, High Priest of Tareth, and these are my fellow priests, Tla, Gorsi, and Yanu.”
“This is my mate, Ru'din,” Cyn's chin lifted when he said the word mate.
I nodded to them, then said, “We've heard about your missing relic. Could you tell us about it?”
“It's a diadem,” High Priest Alcha said. “Silver, with points at the sides to mimic antlers, and an emerald at its center front. It's called Tareth's Triumph and was a gift from our God.”
“We heard it's dangerous,” Cyn said.
“It can be. The diadem was once used to protect the Shanba Kingdom of Rercime. The High Priest would use it to turn away invaders without bloodshed.”
“How?” I asked.
“Mind control,” Alcha said, ringing warning bells in my head. “The diadem has the power to briefly control the minds of others. It could turn entire armies away.”
I exchanged a heavy look with Cyn. My instincts had been right. The relic did have something to do with the assassination attempts.
