I threw up my hands and spun back to Patrick. “How long have you been talking to Baldbeak?”
“I could ask you the same question.”
“Another of youraffinities, I suppose.”
“Exactly.” He ticked them off on his fingers. “Sleight of hand. The ability to move in the shadows. And communication with ravens … one that you apparently share, and to a greater degree than I.”
I glared at him for a long moment.
“Did you come to gloat?” I said finally, crossing my arms. “Because I asked you to leave me alone?”
“You wound me,” he said, pressing a hand to his heart.
“Yes, well, I admit that going with Milady wasn’t the best decision I’ve ever made.”
“Your aunt is strict,” he observed mildly. It could have been a harmless remark, but I stiffened.
“Yes, you know all about her, don’t you?” I seethed. “You have quite a history with my family. The little lowborn lord, adopted by the Edevanes.”
He grew very still.
“Ah. And you heard this tale from Milady, I presume.”
“Yes.”
“You heard that I betrayed the family. That I have a burning desire for revenge against all Edevanes, everywhere.”
He said it drily, but I kept my jaw set as I answered, “Yes.”
He sighed. “I will be honest with you.”
I snorted.
“I was sent to live with the Edevanes when I was very young—the impoverished son of a minor lord. A little boy too clever for his own good, always getting into mischief. They were kind to me, at first. But that changed. I barely knew your mother—she left not long after I arrived, but not before enlisting my help to steal several volumes from your grandfather’s study. I was left alone with Ban Edevane … and your aunt. It did not take me long to see Sybil’s—Milady’s—true nature. Her fascination with pain.”
“She said you betrayed the family.”
He laughed humorlessly. “The betrayal was all on her part. She lied about me to her father, saying I had stolen and destroyed some of his research. He refused to believe that it was in fact your mother who had taken it, and I was cast out. But my life does not revolve around revenge, as she seems to imagine. We do have a … rivalry. I make it my business to know when there is something she wants. And if I can keep it from her, I will.”
“And she wanted me?”
His silence gave me the answer.
“You knew who I was. And that is why you … ‘helped’ me. Watched over me.” I pressed my hands to my eyes. It was all too much to take in.
Patrick was shaking his head. “At first. Only at first. Netta … I wanted to thwart her, yes, but as I came to know you, and your predicament, I also wanted to help you. I knew her intentions couldn’t have been good. And I did not know your importance. Not yet.”
“Myimportance?”
“I have been following your mother’s research for some time, suspecting she may be dabbling in magic that has very far-reaching consequences. I suspect Milady was, too, and probably others. Bookmakers talk, you see. Your mother was—is—skilled at wards, however, and at misdirection, and none of us were ever able to find out exactly where she was. Until, one day, one of my … associates brought me a strange thing they had found. It was a handkerchief, stitched with a remarkably detailed map, showing the location of a tower.”
I started to feel sick. “Associates?” Only one person—or raven—had ever seen that handkerchief, that I knew of.
“I recognized the place, you see, as belonging to the Edevanes, as I had made it my business to know all they owned.”
“So you knew where to find us,” I said.
“I meant you no harm,” he said quickly. “But I did want to observe you.”
