And yet instead, here I was telling Brynan it was fine that he’d put his partner first.
Kat was turning me soft.
“Guards swept the palace, but didn’t find the intruder.” Asher shrugged. “Not even a trail of blood.”
“Of course not.” I pursed my lips. “Still, you could’ve written this in a report.”
“Not this next part.” Gael sat up and held my gaze—something only those closest to me managed for any length of time. The glow tended to unnerve the seelie. “I finished decoding the note.”
I straightened in my seat. “And?”
“I burned my decoding. I don’t trust it to paper. If my attacker had got hold of it…”
My money was on the attacker working for the king, their aim being to stop us from uncovering its contents.
“It was just addressed to ‘sire’—no clues about who that may be.” Gael placed the original note on my desk, unfolded. “This part says the writer went to the Riverton library as instructed and found a book that referenced the ‘undesirable situation.’ Apparently the humans didn’t realise the age of the book they had—it had been collected with writings by other scholars and rebound into a single volume, but the script matched that of a scroll in Dawn’s library.”
I sat back with a soft huff. “You think it’s one of the works taken to Albion as part of the marriage bargain?”
The lord who’d married the human queen a couple of hundred years ago had taken books with him—old books, as Lysander liked to scowl and complain about. The Dawn delegation must’ve found the information they sought in one of those.
Shit. Why hadn’t I spent more time in the library and less time caught up in Katherine?
There had been that one time where both things had crossed paths. Her thighs in my hands. Her sweet whimpers. Sunlight haloing her blazing hair as my ember had become a glorious flame.
Focus, Bastian. I raked my hands through my hair.
Asher frowned at the note. “That’s the only way I can think of humans having something that matched one of our scrolls. Does it say anything about the author of these papers? I wonder if we have a copy.”
“It does.” Gael swallowed. “The Lark.”
I sat up.
Asher’s lips parted. “You’re… sure?”
“I know what I’m doing. That’s what it said.”
The sorceress from the time we warred with humans. Considered little more than legend and fable by most, but legends and fables tended not to leave texts written in their own hand. We had a few. Dawn had more. And apparently Albion had at least one. I would have Lysander gather ours. Perhaps my spy could get her hands on Dawn’s, but they’d likely be missed.
It would be easier if I could give her more specific instructions of what to look for. “Any indication what this book said exactly?”
Gael drew a deep breath and squared their shoulders. “The book said there was an artefact that could end the Sleep.”
Old news. I tried not to let my disappointment show.
“You understand what Dawn getting that would mean, don’t you?” Gael sat forward. “If King Lucius isn’t bound to daylight hours, he’ll push for more power.”
Asher’s bronze skin lost it richness. He nodded, gaze shifting into the distance. “With only one monarch awake at a time, it’s clear who people need to obey, whether their family is tied to Dusk or Dawn. It curbs conflict. But if they’re both awake at once things will only grow more confrontational. I can hear Dawn folk now. ‘Why would I obey the queen when my king is here?’”
Lips pressed together, Gael nodded. “That’s why I burned my decoded version of the note. The king could use it as justification to take over as sole monarch. He wouldn’t need the queen. It would…”
“It would be a coup,” Asher finished for them.
“Another coup.” Gael gave a bitter smile. “This one of Dawn over Dusk.”
“There would be no more Dusk.” Asher frowned at me. “Why aren’t you reacting to this?”
I sighed. “I already knew there was such an object and that Dawn was after it.”
When Gael turned wide eyes on Brynan, his gaze dropped. “You too?”
“He works for me. I made him vow not to tell you. Thank you for decoding the note, Gael. Thanks doesn’t really cover the price you’ve paid, but I’ll see to it guards remain on your corridor.”
I’d been so sure the note would give me new information. Still, there were the Lark’s texts. Better than nothing.
Clearing my throat, I rose and started towards the door, so I could unseal it and let Gael get back to resting. “I appreciate you understanding this knowledge can’t go any further.”
“That wasn’t all.”
At Gael’s quiet addition, I spun.
“It doesn’t just say there’s an artefact that could free a ruler from the Sleep… It names it.”
My muscles went taut. This was a lead. A name gave us something to look for in the texts, maybe even coded references in old stories. “And that name is…？”
“The Circle of Ash.”
Not familiar. “A circle? What could that be?” I glanced at Asher—he was older than me and might’ve heard of it.
He shook his head.
“A hoop made of ash wood?” Brynan spread their hands. “Maybe it means ring rather than circle?”
“It’s unclear.” Gael rubbed a fold of their trousers between their fingertips. “I’m working with a coded reference to a spy’s translation of an ancient scroll. It may be the scroll is clear but the person who coded the note has phrased it in an obscure way as a failsafe to keep the information secret.”
Asher grunted. “Or it may be the text is just as murky.”
The bag containing Elthea’s box sat at my feet. Was there a ring or disc inside?
I huffed and nodded at Gael. “Seems I owe you an even bigger thank you. This gives us something more to go on with our research.”
Brynan rose as I caught his eye. “I’ll put together a reading list.”
“I’m sure you can do that back in your rooms.”
My guests gathered themselves, taking my hint.
“Gael—look after yourself.” I patted them on the shoulder as I opened the door. “And maybe let Brynan look after you a little. It’s as much for him as it is for you. He thought he’d lost you.”
I could picture it. Walking in, finding Kat on the floor in a pool of her own blood, a dark figure standing over her.
I had seen it. Kat. No blood, but instead the sharp scent of poison surrounding her. The changeling standing over her, triumphant. My eyelids fluttered as I pulled myself back from the horror of that moment and said my goodbyes.
Once they were gone, I pulled out the box. Kat must’ve cleaned off the soot. It hummed with weak magic, but it could be warded to disguise its contents—that would explain why the Horrors hadn’t pulled apart the chimney to get at it.
It seemed too great a coincidence that Lucius was on the trail of something important and lost, just as Elthea sent me to fetch a magically locked box from Horror territory. Giving him the Circle of Ash would see her well rewarded, her influence elevated—it would give her what everyone at court wanted.