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Those were some dark days, Savannah said. It was really hard losing Eva like that. I thought she was a friend. What she did to Rio and to the others is unforgivable.
Rio certainly won't let it go, Tess added. Dante and I are really concerned about him. I wonder sometimes if he's too far gone--you know, on the inside. When I work with him, there are times I feel like I'm looking at an armed grenade that's just waiting for an excuse to go off.
Savannah exhaled a wry laugh. Pretty bad when Rio makes Tegan look like a poster boy for normal and well-adjusted.
Elise glanced down, feeling her cheeks heat up at the mention of Tegan. When she looked up again, it was to find Gabrielle watching her. He wasn't too terrifying in Berlin, was he? Tegan doesn't make it easy for anyone to be around him. No. No, he was fine, actually, Elise said, rising to his defense. He was kind and protective...well, and frustratingly complicated. He's the most intense man I've ever known. And he is...so much more than people might think.
She felt the room go quiet. Three pairs of female eyes were rooted on her now, each of the warriors' mates staring at her as fire shot into her face.
Elise, Gabrielle said slowly, her eyes brightening with understanding. You and Tegan...really?
Before she could stammer out an admission, she was pulled into the female's happy embrace. The two other Breedmates took turns congratulating her as well, making her tear up at the instant circle of sisterhood that they were so willing to accept her into.
It was through a moist, bleary gaze that Elise got her first glimpse of the tapestry that hung on the far corner wall of the library. The colors of the medieval setting were dazzling, depicting a knight on horseback as richly as if it were paint on canvas.
The intricacy of the needlework was extraordinary...familiar.
And unmistakable.
She'd seen a similarly intricate piece when she'd met with Irina Odolf. The embroidery that had been wrapped around the stack of letters Irina had found.
That weaving, she said, hardly able to breathe. Where did it come from?
It's Lucan's, Gabrielle said. It was made for him in the 1300s. A long time ago, when the Order was still new.
Elise's pulse kicked into an excited tempo. Who made it, do you know? Um, a woman named Kassia, Gabrielle said. She was a Breedmate to one of the Order's original members. Lucan says her talent with needle and thread was unmatched, which you can see from the detail in this piece alone. According to him, this was the last weaving Kassia made, and her most stunning work. That's Lucan on the warhorse--
May I look at it? Elise asked, standing up and walking over to see it up close.
On a distant hill behind the knight on the rearing stallion, a castle smoldered under a thin sliver of a moon. A crescent moon.
And beneath the horse's hooves lay a trampled field, rutted with deep tracts of earth.
castle and croft shall come
together under the crescent moon
The strange riddle played through her mind, carried there in Petrov Odolf 's tormented voice.
It couldn't be...could it?
Elise ran her hand over the delicate stitches of the tapestry's detailed border. All of it had been woven with such deliberate care. And in the lower right corner was the weaver's mark--a Breedmate symbol, just like the one she'd seen on the embroidery Irina showed her--sewn into the design.
Was there a message hidden somewhere in here?
Hidden here all this time?
What is it, Elise? Gabrielle came up behind her. Is something wrong?
Elise's heart was racing. Would it be all right if we took this down from the wall? I guess so...yeah, sure. She got up on the cushioned chair situated next to the tapestry and reached up to lift the piece from its hanging mount on the wall. Gabrielle held the tapestry gingerly in her hands. What do you want me to do with it?
Lay it flat, please.
I'll clear the table, Savannah said, and she and Tess went to work quickly removing the food and dishes to make space. Okay, here you go.
Elise trailed Gabrielle as she spread the tapestry out. She studied the piece in silence for a moment, remembering the rest of the cryptic verse:
to the borderlands east turn
