Thane stiffened and gave a curt nod. “You’ll have your payment as soon as I have an answer. My uncle will see to it.”
* * *
Thane didn’t like using the spymaster. He was not a good male. Although, Thane thought,hehardly was either. A good male would not have gotten himself into this predicament. He would have seen the folly in agreeing to marry a female who cared more about her dagger than her future crown.
Sighing, he found himself drifting toward the library. He had not seen Eislyn in days. He doubted she would be rifling through the books this early, but there was no harm in checking before he returned to his chambers.
He pushed inside the grand double doors. Morning light speared through the glass ceiling, shooting a warm glow across the endless shelves of books. In the very center of the room, Eislyn sat at a table surrounded by dozens of leather-bound tomes. Her hair fell into her face as she curled over a piece of parchment covered in her scribbled notes.
With a fond smile, Thane approached her quietly. She must have found something interesting indeed to be this absorbed in her studies. Suddenly, she started and glanced up at him with those wide eyes that were pools of churning silver. When she saw him, she relaxed.
“Sorry. You surprised me.” She gave him a small smile. “I’ve never seen you up quite so early. Not out revelling last night then?”
Thane frowned. He himself had helped craft the image. A boy prince, enamored with devilish revelry. He’d done it to make it seem as if he did not care about his father’s atrocities. It had worked. Perhaps too well.
“You know I don’t always stay out until dawn.” He settled onto the seat across the table, watching her spin her feather quill in her fingers.
“No?” She looked genuinely surprised. “That is what the rumors say.”
“I thought you realized that not all those rumors are true.”
“Rumors must be based in truth, or they wouldn’t exist at all. Maybe across the Mag Mell Sea, but not in our world.”
Thane’s frown deepened. Princess Eislyn seemed different somehow. She had grown colder toward him in the days since they’d spent the night out in the city together. Indeed, she almost acted as she had when they’d first met. It puzzled him. She had softened toward him, or so he had thought.
“Have I done something to anger you?” he asked.
Eislyn’s cheeks flushed. “No, of course not. I’m just engrossed in my studies. There are some interesting passages in these books, and I’m trying to make sense of them. I’ve scarcely been able to think about much else.”
He found himself smiling. While Thane was distracted by petty squabbles, courtly intrigue, and disobedient princesses, Eislyn had been tucked away in these stacks, searching for information on how to save her kingdom from further ruin. She was trying to save lives. He was merely trying to save his future crown.
“Tell me what you’ve found. I might be able to help.”
She hesitated for a moment, but then nodded, twisting her parchment around to face him. “First, I started by going through the recent books on the Fall, searching for any mention of the Ruin. I didn’t find much.”
After pointing at the top two lines, she waited while Thane read what she’d written. There were two references here to the Ruin, found in books around sixty years old.
The Ruin will kill us all.
And then...
They control the Ruin.
Thane snapped up his head. “This is it. You’ve actually found something, Eislyn. Where did you read these two notes?”
She gave him a sad smile. “I was excited, too. It spurred me on, thinking that this was the answer to everything we needed. These books. The words found inside of them.”
Confused, Thane nodded. “Of course it is. You’ve found references to the very thing that plagues your lands.”
“Except, this is all I have found, Thane.”
He stared at her for a long moment.
“I have been reading day and night all week. I’ve been through every book along that wall. These are the only two references to the Ruin. All I’ve done is confirm that whatever this thing is, it’s been around since the Fall. There are no answers here on how to defeat it.”
“Ah.” Thane sighed and glanced around. There were books stacked all along the table, some piled precariously on top of each other. He turned his gaze back on Eislyn. Now that he knew how hard she’d been working, he could see the evidence on her face. Her eyes were tired, and her skin pale. How long had it been since she’d had a good night’s sleep?
Reyna had warned that her sister was troubled.
