“Grand Master Lorn, I am not here to cause trouble,” Kreya said. “Your son is safe, and the illegal bones have been destroyed. All I ask is for what tradition owes me: my friend’s body so we may mourn her properly.”
Despite the effects of the talisman, Grand Master Lorn was not an idiot. She was counting on that. With Yarri here to deliver the news, he couldn’t have missed hearing the unsaid truth: Eklor had murdered Stran’s wife, and Kreya was withdrawing her accusation under duress. Whether Lorn believed that also meant that Eklor intended to harm the Bone Workers Guild or not, she couldn’t say, and she wouldn’t count on it. As Eklor had pointed out, she came with no proof. As preposterous as it might have seemed, under the influence of the talisman, Lorn could probably be persuaded human bones justhappenedto show up in Yarri’s bed. She just had to hope it was enough—hope that hearing it out of the mouth of his own son was enough—to break through Eklor’s hold on his mind and tip the scales in her favor just this once, for Amurra’s sake.
“It’s a reasonable request,” Grand Master Lorn said.
Eklor frowned. “Grand Master!”
“You saved my son’s life, Eklor,” Lorn said. “Don’t undo the good you have done through petty stubbornness. You will let Master Kreya take the body.”
He looked as if he wanted to object more, but instead he inclined his head. “Very well, Grand Master Lorn. If Master Kreya will address the assembly of bone workers, then I will prepare the woman’s body.”
“Body first,” Kreya said.
Grand Master Lorn held up his hands to stave off further argument. “I will have her brought to you. Let us have no more distrust, and let us use today to demonstrate to the entire guild that we have put the past behind us.”
In her youth, Kreya never could have done it: stand in front of the entirety of the Bone Workers Guild and claim that her sworn enemy, the man who was responsible for her husband’s death, was noble and good. Her pride, herstubbornness, her innate sense of justice never would have allowed her to let the words fall from her lips. She would have punched her fist into the sky and declared she’d never defile the truth.
Now, knowing what it was like to lose Jentt and knowing what it felt like to have him back again... If lying would give Stran back his wife, she’d lie until her tongue turned blue. She owed it to him, to all of them.
Standing between Lorn and Eklor, Kreya plastered a false smile on her face. She met the eyes of her colleagues, the masters, the novices, and the students. They were bathed in the thin light from the thick stained glass windows that muffled the sounds of the outside world.Not unlike the way their minds are muffled.
“I was blinded by my own pain,” she said. “Stuck in the past. Unwilling to let go of my old anger and hatred. It poisoned me, and it nearly enabled me to poison you against Master Eklor, who stands before you a reformed man.”
Without moving his mouth, Eklor murmured, “Don’t overdo it.”
“I still hate him. I will always hate him.”
“Better,” he murmured.
She continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “To tell the complete truth, I want him dead. I will not be free until his heart stills, his breath stops, and his eyes stare sightless at eternity.”
“You are terrible at this,” he murmured.
“But it was wrong of me to let that hatred and anger cloud my judgment,” Kreya said. “He owes an insurmountable debt to the Bone Workers Guild and to Vos itself, and I have no right to prevent him from whatever small amount he can do to repay that debt.”
That didn’t elicit a comment from Eklor. She guessed she’d met with his approval, at last. Kreya continued: “I have no proof that an army exists. He claims he destroyed it on the plain. I have no proof that he uses human bones. There are no bones in his possession. I do not know that his spell of resurrection causes harm to anyone. That was mere conjecture. And so I officially, formally, all other ways, withdraw my baseless accusations, on behalf of the Five Heroes of Vos.”
She heard Eklor exhale beside her.He didn’t think I’d really do it,she realized.
She wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t, if she’d plunged forward convinced her own righteousness would carry the day. But she knew the answer to that. She’d have failed. He’d wormed his way too deeply into the guild.
“You must now use your own judgment as to whether to trust this man,” Kreya said. “Do not trust to mine. And please forgive me, an old warrior, for still aching with the wounds of battle and allowing the past to color my perception of the present.” She bowed to the assembly and then retreated while Lorn addressed the council.
Behind the dais, she discovered she was shaking. She clasped her hands together so no one would notice and turned to face Eklor, who had followed her. “Now it’s your turn to keep our bargain,” she told him.
“Very well.” He gestured for her to precede him.
Side by side, they walked through a quiet corridor. “One question, Eklor.”
“Ask,” he said, with a significant look at the guards who trailed behind them. His message was clear: if he didn’t like her question, she wouldn’t be walking out of here, despite her performance.
“Why not use it on me?” She didn’t say the words “persuasion talisman.”
He knew what she meant anyway. “I tried, multiple times that day in Lorn’s palace. But you... You don’t want to believe me.” He swept his arm out to encompass the guild. “Others do.”
“It won’t last forever,” she told him. She meant the talisman, his hold over the guild master, and Eklor’s own life.
“It will last long enough.”
