“Okay,” I said.
“I don’t know what that means. Remember: not dead.”
Isadau turned and strode up the stairs.
She had almost given me a heart attack.
A panicky thought flared in me. “The Butcher’s scroll?!”
“I have it right here.” Lute held up the scroll case. “Safe!”
I landed back in the chair and grabbed my head with both hands, trying to get a grip. My heart hammered in my chest.
“Maggie,” Clover said quietly.
“Yes?”
Will and Clover stood together, looking like they had just seen a whole army of ghosts.
“You said those contracts were inert,” Will said.
“Yes.”
“These are not.” Clover raised a scroll. “It stings my fingers.”
Kaiden brought it to me. I slid my hand over it. The spell was alive and active. There was a name and a thumbprint on the signature line.
“I know that name,” Gort said. “She is one of Sauven’s royal guards. I served with her father.”
Oh crap.
“This one is not inert either.” Will showed me another one.
“How many of those are there?”
Will pointed down at the big black chest by his feet. It was filled with scrolls.
REDBERRY12
Avaria stared at me across the desk of my study. The sky was overcast today and in the diffuse light she looked like a stylized fantasy painting: lean, mean, dressed in gray jerkin and pants, wearing a complicated leather belt with way too many knives hanging from it. The kind of woman that would kick you in the throat, stab you twice, and then knee you in your face as you fell down. The hostility rolled from her in waves.
Unfortunately for her, I’d had a very long night and was suffering a pounding headache, and I was too tired to be intimidated.
“You have a problem with me,” I told her.
She gave me a derisive look and cocked one artfully shaped eyebrow. “Whatever do you mean, my lady?”
“I mean that I’m a woman who showed up out of nowhere. You don’t trust me farther than you can throw me. You’re strong, but that still wouldn’t be very far.”
“Oh I don’t know. If I was properly motivated . . .”
“When I first contacted Solentine, he likely expressed doubts about me. You’re a cautious woman, who is suspicious by nature. That paranoia has kept you alive so far.”
“Don’t talk like you know me.”
“You try to solve Solentine’s problems. I was a problem, and because of Everard he couldn’t remove me directly. He might have shared that frustration. You’re not fond of Everard either. You think that the Sleepless Duke is too dangerous to have as an ally so if Solentine and Everard went their separate ways, you’d likely open a bottle of wine to celebrate.”
She didn’t say anything.
