“I’m not sure.”
“Look what I found!” Charlotte carries a large, dusty tome to our table.
She was back in the library helping us the day following her injuries, and two days ago she snapped at me, telling me that if I apologized one more time, she was going to throw something at me.
I stopped asking about how she was healing after that. She insisted it was just a few bruises and that they didn’t botherher. But I saw the way she winced when she didn’t think I was looking.
She sets the book on the table with a thud, then grins triumphantly.
“What is it?” Antonia asks.
“Import records. Best I can tell, they go up until about five years ago.” She flips to a random page. “See? Every item that came into Pendralia was recorded. And if they have this, they must have the more recent ones somewhere else.”
“That only helps us for things that were brought in legally,” Antonia says.
“Yes, but you’d be surprised what people are willing to record. If this was meant for the royal household, what did they need to hide?” She shrugs. “What if those objects are in here? Or the elm’s breath plants?”
“That’s a lot of pages to search through,” Antonia says.
“I’m not doing much of anything else, and we’re running out of books to check,” Charlotte counters.
My shoulders slump, and I glance at our dwindling pile. Nate found us some books in other places around the estate, but we’re not finding a lot of helpful information so far.
The best thing we’ve found is that the gifting ceremony used to be done in smaller temples in each village. The emperor would travel and hand select loyal nobles to receive a gift. That seems to have stopped nearly two hundred years ago.
We also found record books of people who received a gift and what the gift was. But those were so old that the paper was crumbling under our touch. It was clear they hadn’t continued recording those. And considering the current practice is to keep the gift to one’s self, that made sense.
Genevieve hurries into the library, her cheeks flushed. We all set our books down and turn to her. Since Ludis’s return, wehaven’t seen much of her. But blissfully haven’t seen much of him, either.
“Is something wrong?” I spring to my feet and rush over to her.
She stops in front of me. “They just told Ludis that there’s riders approaching. They think it’s the emperor returning. I have to get back to him, but I wanted you to know.”
My heart thunders against my ribs. Every day, I ask for an update on the emperor and every day, I get nothing. The riders who were sent to find them haven’t returned. I wonder if they rode back together.
“Thank you.” I’m smiling. Honestly, legitimately, smiling.
She races from the room, and I wonder what she and Ludis are up to, but there wasn’t time to ask.
“We should greet them,” Antonia announces.
“Should I alert the kitchen staff?” Charlotte asks.
“They won’t want a party tonight, but tell them we’ll have it tomorrow,” I suggest.
“It’ll be a nice change from the library,” she says. “I’ll meet you at the front?”
I nod, and she runs off to inform the kitchen.
“Shall we?” Antonia asks.
Nate, who’s been standing guard outside the library follows behind us silently. I want to ask him if he’s heard anything, but I think better of it. Whatever the outcome, I’ll know everything soon enough.
As we leave the library, I am surprised to realize that I’m happy and a little excited about seeing them. Not just because I will find out if Brevan is alive, but I think I’m also looking forward to seeing Caiden.
I’m having a strange response to Caiden. The gift sitting in my rooms doesn’t make things any less confusing. All thosepieces, hand selected for me—smaller, less flashy pieces than most royals would want.
Though it’s possible that he doesn’t want to give a rebel more expensive pieces, I don’t think that’s the reason for his choices. I also can’t help but wonder if he returned my blades. It might be a test to see if I’ll try to kill him again. I brush my fingers over the hidden pockets, making sure they’re still there.
