Page 118 of Shadowborne: Reckoning

“Brennan, what—”

“Sister, you look pale. You need to rest.” Gil appeared from nowhere, looming at my side, ignoring Hanson completely

A moment later, Hanson bowed and offered a tight farewell as I was ushered from the ballroom by my brother.

The moment we made it away from prying ears, as our progress out the door was slowed by waiting for a gaggle of noblewomen on their way to the powder room, Gil looked at me from the side. “What’s wrong?”

“Donavyn. I don’t know. But something happened.”

Gil glanced over his shoulder. I looked back, following his gaze, to find him locked on Ruin, an awful, menacing light in his eyes.

“Gil, stop.” I put a hand on his arm and Ruin caught the touch, locked in on it.

Gil turned away from Ruin as the women finally stumbled into the hallway ahead of us and I picked up my pace.

“I need to get back to my room. Now.”

39. The Proverbial Rug

~ DONAVYN ~

“Read both messages. Look at the codes. Take your time. Think it through. Tell me what you see. I need to play the devil’s advocate here. I need to push you on your conclusions.”

I handed the new message to Voski. After discussing it from every angle with Kgosi, I needed to know if this man saw the same things I saw. If he read the codes the same way.

For the dozenth time since we'd discovered this subterfuge, I cursed myself for not keeping originals of some of those intelligence reports.

Voski, with dark circles under his eyes because he hadn't slept, sat at the table in our chambers, placed the new message in front of him, Bren’s copy of the previous message beside it, then spread the code pages around it.

I watched him read, his eyes darting back and forth from the messages to the codes... then he frowned and read it all again.

I saw the moment he caught that little swoop I'd missed the first time, and his expression darkened. I wanted to ask him immediately if he understood it, but I waited until he’d been back over both messages, then looked up at me, his expression grim.

“Tell me what you’re reading.”

“I’m reading an order to assassinate you, remove Bren from service, and a fucking Furyknight telling the king that he’s flying home with safe, healthy dragons, even though he was part of a squad that’s been decimated.”

“Do you see any indication that’s true?”

Voski’s eyes darted left and right as he searched his mind. I prayed. I knew he didn’t have information I hadn’t gained for him, but could he see something I didn’t? Was I blind to some deceptive ploy?

“We know the claims from Draeventhall about the squad that was there,” Voski said quietly. “We have independent reports of the dragons flaming men. And Ciar…”

I nodded, but didn’t want to fill in blanks for him. I needed to see how his mind put these pieces together. Because that was the point that left me on solid ground too. We knew Ciar’s reaction to the events wasn’t faked. We knew Davros and Ciar were both dead.

“The chances it was only Ciar and Davros?” I asked carefully.

“It seems not only unlikely, but impossible,” Voski said, still searching his mind. “Perhaps… perhaps if it had been one of the others, one not as close to Ruin, I might have questioned. But Davros was his brother in more than their mission together. Those two trusted each other implicitly. If Ruin was keeping anyone alive, it was Davros.”

I nodded again, but my heart swung back on that pendulum of frustration. Because I’d drawn the same conclusion—but it only affirmed that it was possible Ruin spoke the truth about the events in the squad that day before he’d fled. What little Ciar had shared with Kgosi, along with Ruin’s story… It made sense. To a point.

“And yet…” Voski leaned over the messages again.

I sighed. “That little loop on the s—”

“As above, so below?”

“Yes. Do you know it? Does that ring any bells for you?”