“You’ll have to be more specific,” Kasira replied evenly. “I’m not very good at a lot of things.”
Elyae slammed the paper down on the table. “I found your message.”
All is proceeding accordingly.
“I’m not sure I follow,” Kasira said, though she did so perfectly. “I didn’t write that.”
“I saw someone take a note out of a book one night, and I’ve seen you heading up to that same area more than once.” Elyae’s satisfaction grew with each word she spoke. “I’ve been trying to catch you since then.”
I know, Kasira thought. Which was why she had let Elyae follow her, let her discover the book she had been placing notes in, though she had long ago stopped using it for her real messages.
Summoning a quill, she rewrote the same four words beneath the original in Eirlana’s left-handed script.
All is proceeding accordingly.
Then she turned the page about to face them. “My handwriting looks nothing like that.” Where hers flourished and spun, the writing on the note was short and choppy. Kasira’s gaze dropped to the small journal in Elyae’s pocket that she carried everywhere. “What about yours?
Elyae recoiled. “What?”
“You’ve been out to get me since I arrived here.” Kasira wove a light tone of exasperation into her voice. “At every step you’ve tried to undermine me, to make sure no one trusts me. Why are you so determined to make it look like I’m the enemy?”
“Because you are!” Elyae turned pleadingly to Allaster, whose expression hadn’t changed. “Listen to me, please. She isn’t to be trusted!”
Allaster studied them both. There came a point in every con where a mark made what Thane had called the cardinal choice. The point at which the mark walked away, toppling the house of cards you had built your ruse around, or committed themselves fully. She hadn’t known for certain when Elyae would accuse her, but the mage was always going to be the question she posed to Allaster.
Finally, Allaster asked, “May I see your journal, Elyae?” She stared at his outstretched hand. He waved it, and the journal materialized inhis palm. He flicked it open despite her choked sound of protest, but he only lined up the note alongside the journal.
The handwriting matched perfectly.
Kasira had made sure it would. It helped that there was nothing particularly unordinary about the girl’s writing, or else she might have questioned why a note written in her own hand had been shoved into a random book. She probably hadn’t even stopped to consider it, knowing as Kasira did that she hadn’t put it there.
“I didn’t—that’s not—” Elyae spluttered, staring at the two sets of writing.
Allaster scrubbed a hand along his jaw. “Give us a moment, Elyae.”
“Please, I—” She broke off at a look from Allaster, and in that instant, she seemed so incredibly young. Young enough that Kasira felt a tug of remorse for tricking her this way, for showing her that truth and earnestness were not enough to survive in this game.
How else will she learn?came Loraya’s voice, but the words only made Kasira sicker, because this was not a lesson she wanted to teach.
Elyae retreated a step, her horror melting into an unbridled fury that she thrust at Kasira. “This isn’t over,” she warned, grabbed her journal, and stormed from the room.
“Are we back to this again?” Kasira asked with a sigh. “I told you there was a spy in your midst.”
“And I believed you,” Allaster replied coolly. The energy from the coffee seemed to have left him, and he looked as though he wanted to collapse into his chair. “What I am about to tell you does not leave this room.”
Kasira let her mask of indignation break, replacing it with uncertainty. “What is it?”
With a wave of his hand, a thin silver bracelet materialized atop the note—the one Kasira had placed in the feed shed. “Fen found Elyae’s bracelet in the feed shed, near the grain mix for Benlo. Elyae doesn’t have any feeding responsibilities, so there’s no reason for her to have been in there, unless—”
“Unless she poisoned Benlo,” Kasira finished for him. “She wastrying to frame me, just like she tried to instigate me into fighting in the arena, and just like she’s trying to do now.”
It was as if hearing her voice his suspicions finally made them real. Allaster gave a pained grimace, and though she knew she shouldn’t let up, that this was the moment she had carefully orchestrated, the look on his face made her hesitate, if only for a moment.
Then reality came crashing back, and she followed through. “I told you I was the distraction. When you started to trust me, it made sense the real spy would want to cast doubt on me. The more time you wasted trying to prove I was your enemy, the less you would see the real thing.”
“Elyae is not a spy,” he rasped, tearing his hands through his hair until the ends stood up like errant feathers. “She can’t be. She’s as dedicated to the Library as any mage. More so.”
“You don’t know what they promised her,” she insisted gently. “For all you know, she’ll be the next Librarian if she helps them.”
