“Personally?”Bastion asked, indicating the box on the table.“Two.”
“What does that mean?‘Personally?’”Valin pressed.
Bastion hesitated, his eyes darting between the spymaster and the king.He’d come here to tell them what happened, but he hadn’t counted on Valin being part of the conversation.
“I saw others in a memory,” he answered.“Lyanthis’s daughter was caught with us in the siege.She shared–” he stumbled, finding it difficult to land on the right word for that half-remembered dream “–a memory from one of the pirates.We saw teams being given the pendants, and Buck speaking to them about communicating… and destroying the pendants if they were caught.”
Queen Thyra spoke for the first time.“Is it possible someone else enchanted the pendants?”
“That is the most likely scenario,” Torvald responded.
“Since you’ve brought the pendant, we can test it and find out,” Valin said.
“You can do that?”Bastion asked.
The spymaster inclined his head as if it were the simplest thing.“It would be my pleasure to take this burden from you.”
“Lord Valin,” the king said, turning in his seat.The spymaster came to his side.“I leave this matter in your care.Find out who was behind this attack, as quickly as possible.”
Bastion scooped the box up and offered it to Valin.As the spymaster took it, their fingers brushed, and a jolt of panic made Bastion’s heart jump.The emotion came to him so viscerally, Bastion stiffened.Had he imagined it?Valin’s outward calm belied an inner turbulence that made the hair on the back of Bastion’s neck stand up.
Suspicion ran through his abdomen like an anchor, and Bastion knew with frigid certainty that the spymaster had no intention of following through on his suggestion.
“You mentioned what they were after,” the king said, circling back round.
“Yes,” Bastion answered.With difficulty, he dragged his eyes to the king.“Ulla and I heard a description in the memory of one of the pirates.Black and oblong, perhaps the length of an arm.Innocuous, like a piece of rock.Does that ring any bells?”
Everyone shook their heads except Valin, who had returned to looking out the window.
“Whatever this thing is, the pirates were willing to use a powerful weapon to get it.It was some kind of sound magic that put everyone who heard its call to sleep.”
To his right, Queen Thyra inhaled sharply.“Describe it, please,” she said.
Her reaction surprised him, and Bastion mentally kicked himself.On rare occasions, he’d seen her eviscerate courtiers and make it sound like a compliment.She might appear to be only a beauty, but he knew she was far from ornamental.
“It was a metal rod, perhaps as long as two men are tall, with a wolf’s head on one end.”
“Was there a moon the night of the attack?”she asked.
“No, Your Majesty.The sky remained dark.”
“And the sound?”
Bastion furrowed his brow and glanced at the others.Endre listened dutifully, ever the student of diplomacy and matters of state.The Queen Mother watched Valin from the corner of her eye, while the spymaster appeared disinterested.The king waited, but there was a bright focus that hadn’t been there before.
Bastion turned back to the queen.“It’s how I imagined my death might sound.”
She sucked in a breath, her face pale.
“Torvald.”His name was barely a whisper, but it charged the air in the room.Bastion tensed.The king frowned into his hand, eyes downcast.
“Do you know what it is?”Bastion asked.
“A carnyx,” Thyra said, a deep, shuddering breath making the word flutter on her tongue.“There are only nine in existence.They are the reason the Varo Citadel has never been breached.”
“I was not aware there was one missing,” Valin said, the residue of a sneer in his voice.
“Isn’t that supposed to be your job, Lord Valin?”the Queen Mother asked.She pursed her lips like she’d licked something unpleasant off her teeth.
