“Why do you wantdavrinroots? There are plenty at the keep, I’m sure. Or at the market.”
“I need them. I’m planting a garden of all my father’s favorites and need to get the bulbs in the ground while the weather is warm,” she said. Then added, “Plus, I have a surprise for you.”
“Oh?” I asked, raising a brow, intrigued. “What surprise?”
“You’ll need to wait and see,” she said. “Your nights are free, yes?”
“Yes,” I said slowly. Well, no, but I could shuffle things around should the need arise. Except for one very important meeting that I could not miss later this week—a meeting I had yet to even tell Millie about, even though I would be gone for a few nights at the very least. “What are you up to?”
“So suspicious,” she commented, grinning as she walked under the purple leaves of the bleeding tree. With the sunlight streaming through them, it cast the forest in an ethereal glow, soft and otherworldly.
Just then, my ears ticked, and I snapped my head to the side, my eyes scanning the empty forest. Millie stilled when I froze, and she watched me, stepping closer for protection, but wisely remained silent.
There was a buzzing. A gentle whirring, like an insect, but the sound was much too smooth. I recognized it, my brows furrowing in confusion as it bounced off a nearby tree. I released Millie’s hand, squeezing her wrist to keep her in place as I approached the tree.
A small black metal tracker scout was clinging to the edge of a nearby bleeding tree. Fortunately, tracker scouts weren’t programmed to successfully evade a motivated pursuer, only to be discreet. Most wouldn’t even notice them, but I’d been trained from a young age to be watchful and wary of them after a handful had gained entrance to Laras’s keep when we’d been children, recording private meetings between my father and the Kaazor.
Aina had trained us to detect their low frequency, that dull buzz that sounded like a quiet ringing in your ear.
When the tracker detected me close, it went limp, falling from the tree trunk to land in the moss. Crouching, I picked it up, holding it by its four translucent metal wings, pinched between my claws. The black body was small, no bigger than the tip of my finger.
The issue with tracker scouts was that they couldn’t be traced to their programmers. Which made them excellent tools for cowards and spies. So I crushed the tracker between my fingers, black dust from the body mingling with the minuscule tech inside. It wasn’t inexpensive tech. Whoever used it had the credits to spare. Then again, most who spied on House Kaalium did.
Would Zyre, the king of the Kaazor, do this? If so, what was he playing at, requesting a meeting with the heirs of the Kaalium at the border between our nations in just a handful of days, only to be spying on us? The Kaazor had used tracker scouts before. While this one looked like it was of Kaalium make, I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that the Kaazor didn’t keep spies within our nation.
Maazin of House Laan, after all, had slipped into my brother’s keep, undetected, and worked there for years. We’d believed him to be a spy for the Kaazor, until it had been discovered that he might’ve been of Thryki origins. Zyre had sent his head to us as if it had proved he wouldn’t kill one of his own, but could we really trust Zyre? Perhaps he was playing us all for fools. The scout must’ve followed me from Erzan. They could fly at startling speeds to keep up with a Kylorr.
“What is it?” Millie asked, the serious note in her voice breaking me from my thoughts.
“Nothing,” I lied, meeting her eyes as I wiped the black dust off on my pants. “I thought it was a tracker scout, but it was just an insect.”
The truth in reverse. Would she believe it? Or would she see right through my lies?
“A tracker scout?”
I smiled, approaching her. “During the last war with the Kaazor, tracker scouts were all over the Kaalium, used to spy on noble Houses and my own family. Aina taught us how to detect them relatively easily. I thought that was what the sound was, but I was mistaken. Still, I wanted to be sure.”
Millie’s brow furrowed, but I was relieved when she nodded.
“Shall we continue to the stream?” I asked, my mind replaying the conversation between us that the scout would’ve caught, but I knew it had been nothing of consequence. Still, it worried me that the scout had seen her at all. “It’s not far.”
That was a mistake. Her gaze narrowed on me, likely catching on my eagerness to usher her away from this area.
But she didn’t comment on it. Instead, we continued walking. Then she asked, “Who is Aina?”
My hand flattened on the small of her back, a small spasm that I hid with a gentle caress up her spine.
“My aunt,” I said. “My mother’s sister.”
“Oh,” she said. “The one you told me about? The one who gave you the fruit from the Kaazor?”
“Yes,” I said, thinking that conversation with her felt like years ago already when it had only been a few weeks. “Yes, that was Aina.”
“So you were close with her?” she asked.
My throat tightened.Yes. And then I’d turned my back on her when it had been my duty to join her on Pe’ji. I would live with that shame, that guilt for the rest of my life.
“Yes, we were close,” I replied quietly. “The new village, along the South Road, will be named Sorn. House Sorn was my mother’s line. And Aina’s. Though you would know that if you would only read the book I gave you.”
