Twenty
Sabine Takes the Hunt
Sabine sat alone in her chamber with three pieces of proof laid out before her.
Cassian’s letter. Isolde’s music. The knowledge that Queen Mother Ilyra had signed the order threatening Corvyr.
The palace had kept her moving from one pressure point to another. Objects appeared. Notes vanished. Warnings arrived. People summoned her. She reacted, survived, moved forward.
She was done reacting.
Sabine gathered the hidden materials and locked them away. Then she called for Lysa.
“I need to set a trap,” Sabine said when Lysa entered.
Lysa closed the door. “What kind of trap.”
“The kind that makes the palace come to me instead of me waiting for the next warning.” Sabine crossed to her desk. “Someone has been entering this room. Someone searched it after the Blackwater. Someone left the carved bird. Someone took my notes about Isolde and left a message in their place.”
“The temple.”
“Or someone acting under temple authority.” Sabine pulled out a blank sheet of paper. “I am going to give them something to find. Something that looks like proof I have discovered more than I should.”
Lysa’s expression sharpened. “False bait.”
“Yes. But it must look real. Accidentally vulnerable. Something a frightened bride would hide badly while thinking she was being clever.”
They worked together.
Sabine drafted a note implying she had found a surviving confession from Isolde naming the priest who altered the Tenth Vow. She made it sound urgent but incomplete, as if she were still piecing together fragments.
Key phrases:
“Isolde knew. She documented the alteration.”
“The priest who changed consent into submission.”
“Proof hidden where temple cannot reach without crown witness.”
“Show Elara after evening prayer.”
Lysa read it and nodded. “This will bring someone. But catching a temple official creates consequences.”
