“Of course,” Grand Master Lorn agreed.
“Thank you for the honor,” Kreya said, willing her voice to stay steady and low—she should have guessed he’d make that play—“but I will take the body.”
Eklor’s smile was back on his face, and Kreya resisted the urge to punch him in the mouth. He thought he held all the cards. “You cannot refuse such—”
She didn’t let him finish.Nowwas the time to play her cards. “Grand Master Lorn, your son has had quite a scare.”
Lorn rounded the desk. “Yarri—”
“Ahh, I see. How sad,” Eklor said. “The hero has become the villain. You are holding him hostage, in case I refuse you. You want to trade this innocent boy for the body of your friend.”
“I am not the villain here.” As proof, Kreya stepped aside and released Yarri’s hand. The boy ran into his father’s arms. “Iwouldn’t use someone’s loved one as a hostage to get what I want.” Now it was her turn to smile pleasantly. He was mistaken: she hadn’t brought Yarri to use against Eklor; she’d brought him to useonLorn. Encouragingly, she said to Yarri, “Go on, tell your father what you saw.”
“There were bones in my bed, Papa,” Yarri said. “Human bones. Lots of them.” The boy began to cry. “And then... and then... I saw dead people. They’d been attacked by a construct in a fifth-tier palace, where it should be safe. I... I...”
Lorn gripped his son’s shoulders. “Are you hurt? Did anyone hurt you?”
Crying full out now, Yarri couldn’t speak. He shook hishead. His father checked him all over, reassuring himself that he was unharmed.
“No one hurt him,” Kreya said. “And no one will hurt him. Right, Eklor?”
“Indeed,” Eklor said. His smile was more strained, but it was still fixed on his face.
“Here’s the deal, Eklor: I will withdraw my accusations. Publicly, as you wish, on behalf of all five Heroes of Vos. And you will give me the body of Amurra, to be mourned and handled by her loved ones. If anyone asks, we will say her husband was not present at the time of her death, and he wishes to say goodbye. If you are as innocent as you claim to be, what’s the harm in being gracious and kind?”
Grand Master Lorn rose. His face was a thundercloud. “You hid human bones in my son’s bed? You made my son a target, after you swore—”
“Your son is unharmed,” Eklor said. “And there is no proof the bones were mine, or even that they were human bones. Kreya has come to withdraw her accusations, not make new ones. Note that she carries no evidence of such a find with her. Only the word of a boy, untrained in the bone arts.”
“My son does not lie!”
“But he can be mistaken.”
She saw Eklor’s hand slip into a pocket. Withdrawing it, he twirled a talisman between his fingers. Glancing at Lorn, she saw the second his eyes glazed. Eklor’s other hand rested casually on the hilt of a dagger at his waist, as if daring Kreya to challenge him.
She weighed the odds and schooled herself to be patient. Amurra first.
“All I want is Amurra’s body,” Kreya said placidly. “If you are reformed, as you say, you will respect her family’s wishes.”
“Burning on a pyre in the guild headquarters is an honor—” Eklor began.
Yarri tugged on his father’s arm. “Papa, he put bones in my bed! Why aren’t you arresting him?”
For a moment, Lorn’s eyes cleared as his son’s truth broke through Eklor’s lies.A moment is all I need to save Amurra,she thought.
“Grand Master Lorn, you know my request is not unreasonable,” Kreya said. “Tradition is on my side. Her body should be handled by those closest to her.”
Grand Master Lorn asked, “What happened to the bones in my son’s bed?”
“Your guards burned them, as was appropriate,” Kreya said.
Eklor flinched. But he recovered quickly. “How convenient. But your accusations are beside the point—Grand Master Lorn has witnessed the spell up close and knows it breaks no taboos.”
He must have been using the talisman during the boy’s resurrection,Kreya thought. She wondered how often he’d used it and when it would run out of power. He could have created dozens of them, for all she knew.
“You saw with your own eyes,” Eklor said to Lorn.
He swayed slightly. “I... did.”
