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“Kargassa’s been keeping tabs on him—her—since the beginning. Even he didn’t realize that she was female, though.” Eamerson said. “He kept tabs on everyone in this mountain. Not just via the security cameras, but as soon as we had communications technology, he tapped into that.”
Sten gaped. “I had no idea he was so paranoid.”
Elora laughed. “No, you never witnessed his rants when it got the better of him. He was sure that you were bound to lead a rebellion against him at some point and usurp his rule,” she said to Sten. To Eamerson, she said, “or that you’d figure out his real secrets and sell them to his enemies.”
Eamerson and Sten both exchanged glances, looking deeply offended.
“That explains why he kept us so busy all the time.” Eamerson said.
Marli asked, “So what more do Kargassa’s papers tell us about the imposter? What can we use from that? How much of a threat is she to all of us?”
“We know she’s after the Seal, for the Consortium.” Elora said.
“Which we can’t allow to happen,” Odson jumped in.
“She obviously failed to open that vault in the closet, which means Jori truly is the only person that can open it. Therefore, just lock the Seal away for good.”
“We need it for the funeral,” Eamerson pointed out.
“Why?” Marli stood up to get a closer look at the seal that Kymri still held.
Elora sighed. “The burial chamber of the ancients is locked, to keep it protected. It’s a sacred space and is part of our deepest heritage and our most ancient rites, back to the first known dragon shifters.”
“That must be why we can feel the earth’s magic more, the deeper into the mountain we go,” Kymri said to Jori. “And why you can feel the magic in this key.”
“Those that are closest to the royal blood lines feel it the strongest.” Elora nodded.
Marli looked to Eamerson, “Does the tribe have any metal smiths that can make a duplicate?”
“There was one made already,” he nodded toward the side table, where the small collections of boxes obscured the other ‘seal’.
“Kargassa was prepared,” Marli moved across the room and retrieved it to compare to the other. “How do we tell the difference between them?”
Kymri placed the original seal in Marli’s palm. The real seal was lighter than the duplicate and it tingled in Marli’s hand. She looked at Kymri. “Well, Commander Steelscale, we’re going to need a plan.”
“And there’s not much time to form one before the funeral tomorrow.”
“Odson and I are going to sort through all of Kargassa’s papers and see if we locate where the communications transcripts for any new data over the last couple of months. There’s bound to be more information here than what we skimmed just now.”
“And we have to remember that the librarian has a key for the spelled doors to the tunnels—the mate to the one that opened the closet mirror. We don’t know what else it opens.”
Elora stood from the couch. “I’m going to wake our guests. We’ll need to run through the funeral protocols with them.”
“I’ll go with you, Ma. Just give me a sec.” Jori said.
“Glad you didn’t totally lose your mind,” Marli said to Jori. “But that was a lot dropped on you.”
Jori snorted. “It certainly didn’t feel too good knowing that my biological sperm donor abducted me to be weaponized—or as cannon fodder, whichever came first—against my mother’s people.”
“I’m glad it didn’t go that way.” Kymri slipped her arm around Jori’s waist.
He bent to kiss her lips. “I’ll be along in a moment. I need to speak to Sten.”
Kymri smiled and joined Elora in the hall.
“I’ll go—”
“Not yet,” Jori stopped Marli from following Kymri. “I—Kymri and I are officially asking both of you to participate in the funeral ritual.”
