‘Ah, but they have not heard of it from me,’ Fola said.‘What happened was terrible, but it did yield useful clues.’
‘Oh?’The queen inclined her head in curiosity.‘How so?’Then, in a whisper, ‘We should have this conversation in the privacy of my solar.’
Now came the delicate bit—how to give away enough information to get what she wanted from the queen without betraying Siwan’s and Llewyn’s trust.‘There is no need for secrecy.Only a simple observation, and a favour I must ask of you.The wraiths lashed out at the crowd at the festival, you have heard.What you havenotheard is that their wrath did not fall equally.’
‘In what sense?’Medrith asked.
Fola explained her observation.Some present during the attack had been brutally torn apart, while others—notably outlanders, such as her and Colm—faced no more danger than the touch of a few probing hands, as though the wraiths were searching for their intended victims and ignoring anyone else.
‘And anyone not of Parwys went unharmed, you say?’the queen said, her voice concerned.‘The haunting’s object is what, then?The destruction of the kingdom and all its people?’
‘Not all its people,’ Fola said.‘Every outlander that I saw went unharmed, but so did many Parwysh folk.’
The queen’s frown deepened.‘Now I am confused.’
‘Which tells us this—the haunting’s object is not only the nobility, such as your late husband and the Count of Glascoed.But neither is it everyone in the kingdom.’
‘Who, then?’
‘I have suspicions,’ Fola said.‘But nothing certain, yet.To lend them credence, I would speak with the present count, Ifan, who witnessed the first outburst of the haunting.I had hoped to catch him when court adjourned, but it seems court was never called.’
‘No,’ the queen said.‘My son had other matters to attend to.One of which was the departure of young Ifan.It seems he left for Glascoed in the early hours of the morning.Not spurred on by the haunting, my son insists, but by his duty to quash the rebellion that stirs in the Greenwood.Not that he will have any luck…’
Fola swallowed a curse.‘How long ago did he leave?If he is slowed by retainers and a baggage train, I might catch him on the road.’
Medrith shook her head.‘He rode out with only a small coterie of knights, leaving the servants and material he brought with him here.It seems he intends to oust the rebellion in the next fortnight and return in time for my son’s coronation.Ambition is often the folly of the young, of course, so we mustn’t begrudge him the wasted effort.’
‘Ah.’A soft voice drifted from behind Fola.She placed its lilting, almost musical accent immediately, though she had only heard it once before.Anakriarch Torin stood in the entryway to the foyer, between her and the castle door, his hands folded in the sleeves of his white robes.The nested triangles of his raw iron medallion glinted in the lamplight.‘Lady Fola of the Starlit Tower.A fortunate meeting.It saves me the trouble of seeking you out.’
‘I didn’t know you had been introduced,’ Medrith said, her voice and gaze as cold and hard as ice.‘Nor do I know what business you have wandering the castle, Anakriarch.’
Torin smiled meekly, though he kept his hands concealed.‘I confess, Your Majesty, I was summoned by your voices.I have business with Lady Fola.Her retainer badly wounded my subordinate in the chaos last night, you see.’
‘Your spy, you mean?’Fola’s left hand slowly closed into a circle, despite the bone-deep ache from her tussle with Llewyn the night before.Frog fluttered to her shoulder, where he shifted from foot to foot and eyed the anakriarch nervously.‘I gave Colm no orders but to keep watch.He sought no altercation.I am sorry that your man was injured, but if there was fighting, I place the blame for it at his feet.’
‘Alas, he is too badly hurt to describe the night’s events,’ Torin said.
‘Then how can you know that Fola’s retainer is to blame?’Medrith cut in.
‘From the blade left driven into his side, Your Majesty.’Torin’s quiet voice took on an acid bite.‘He cannot speak to what transpired, and my Lady Fola was not herself present for the duel, it seems.Yet the truth of the matter must be discerned, that justice may be served.I trust my Lady will have no objections to remaining here while her retainer is summoned for questioning, and will, naturally, submit to an interview herself?’
Medrith stepped between them.‘Is the Mortal Church’s interest in truth?Or in finding justification to destroy your rivals?I have heard from my brothers and sisters of the circle in Alberon how your order has treated them since its ascendancy in that kingdom.’
The meekness of Torin’s smile had been replaced by a quiet outrage.‘My power derives from the example of the Agion, Your Majesty.Earned by my virtue.Were I a liar, as you claim, it would fail me.It is a far more certain thing than your superstitions.’
Medrith laughed, then gestured with her staff.Thorns long and wicked as poniards sprouted between its white blossoms.‘These superstitions?’
‘Every delusion is built on a scaffold of reality,’ Torin said.
‘I will show you “delusion”,’ Medrith snarled, seeming to grow in stature as shadows gathered around her.
‘It seems I’ve stumbled into a long-simmering conflict,’ Fola said.‘I’m afraid I have other errands to attend to.I bid you both good day.’
‘By the purifying flame of Raj, Agion of Justice,’ Torin said, his voice rising with each word until it echoed through the foyer, ‘founder of my order, who saw the viciousness of the world and the need to cleanse it, I cannot let you leave.’
A crown of burning light whirled around his head.Three horns sprouted from it, flickering and white as the flame at the heart of a forge—one at each temple, one from the centre of his forehead.Yet he made no move, his hands still folded into the sleeves of his robe.
‘Let us not fight here in this ancient, venerated place,’ he said.‘I would not tear down the monuments of this kingdom until they can be replaced by something better.’
