Page 76 of A Treason of Thorns

Pushing aside the torn strip of my skirt, I hold the stone into the light and take a look at it for the first time. Esperanza and Alfred bend to get a better view.

It’s not much—just a fist-sized piece of broken masonry, thesame warm color as Burleigh’s walls, streaked with grey and with darker, rust-brown stains.

“Blood and mortar,” Espie breathes.

“Yes,” I say. “Quite literally. This is what’s binding Burleigh. This is what my House needs back. Can’t you feel it, reaching across the countryside toward the rest of itself?”

But my companions shake their heads.

“Well, I can. And what’s more, it drew mortar out of my blood when I first touched it. What if—what if the reason Burleigh needs a Caretaker is that this missing piece is what allowed it to channel and control its own magic?” A sudden shock of recognition surges through me as I look down at the stone. I’ve seen this particular shade before, red and brown and grey all at once. Turning it over, I look at the stone’s underside, and there it is—a place where a chip has been hewn off of it. A fraction of Burleigh’s missing piece, taken for use in its Caretaker’s key. To allow someone to channel the House’s magic, as it no longer can.

“I think the key was made with a piece of this,” I tell Alfred and Espie. “Which is why a Caretaker can safely work House magic, but Burleigh itself can’t. What if Burleigh wasn’t bound, so much as broken? What if that’s what was done to all the Great Houses?”

Alfred’s eyes are blazing, and I can all but see the gears turning in his mind as he tries to recall anything he’s read that might support my epiphany.

“It’s true they don’t speak of deeds anywhere but in England,” he says slowly. “In my Italian sources, it’s alwayscuore della cassa—the heart of the House. In Spain they talk ofla fianza, which means something more like a deposit, or a guarantee. An assurance of theHouse’s compliance. In France it’sle contrat obligatoire—a binding contract or agreement, but I’ve also seen the rather more poeticesprit de le foyer—spirit of the hearth. I’d thought it was just semantics, though. The medieval chroniclers are known for taking rather a lot of artistic license. And nowhere outside of Europe has bound their places of power. The rest of the world left them free.”

“We’d best discuss this on the road,” I say. “We’re running out of time, and I’m still afraid of Wyn trying to take things out of my hands, and giving himself up for Burleigh while I’m gone.”

“Sit down,” Esperanza orders crisply. “In ten minutes, we’ll have the carriage ready. We’ll change horses wherever we can, and won’t stop for anything else until we get you back home.”

28

BY THE TIME WE ROUND A BEND IN THE ROAD AND THERed Shilling comes into view, I’m exhausted by forced inactivity and by constant, nagging fear. The anguished thrum of Burleigh’s heartstone, as I’ve come to think of it, saps my energy, too. But I can’t take it home—the moment I do, Burleigh and I will be at odds. I’ll have to get Jed and Mira off the grounds first. In the meantime, there’s only one person I trust to hold this unspeakably valuable treasure.

Before the carriage has fully stopped, I’m out of it and through the Shilling’s back entrance.

“Frey?” I call out as I hurry down the narrow corridor, between the storerooms and the kitchen and the public areas up front. “Frey, where are you?”

“In here,” she calls from her office. “Vi, is that you?”

Darting inside, I shut and bolt the office door behind me. Frey raises an eyebrow. “How was Cornwall? Did you find what you were looking for?”

“I found something else,” I tell her, keeping my voice low. “ButI have to get home to look in on Wyn, and to get Jed and Mira off the grounds before I go back with it.”

As I speak, I kneel at her side, taking Burleigh’s heartstone from my pocket and holding it out to her. Frey peers down at it, a quizzical look on her face.

“It’s not what you’d expected. Not what your father thought he’d find, either.”

“No, it’s a piece of Burleigh House. Frey, I can’t go home and take this with me. I’m afraid the House won’t understand. Burleigh’s bound to kill me, as soon as I set foot on the grounds with this, and honestly I wouldn’t blame it, even without the binding. The House needs to be whole again, and has no reason to trust people, when we’re the ones who broke it.”

“You want me to keep it safe, until you come back for it?” Frey says, guessing my request.

“Would you?” I ask. “If it makes you uncomfortable, you needn’t. This stone is the most dangerous object in England right now. If the king knew I had it—but I have to get home—there’s something the matter with Wyn—oh, how do I explain everything when I haven’t got the time?”

She reaches out and cups my chin with one hand. “You don’t, child. Give it to me. I won’t speak a word about that stone until you ask for it again.”

“Thank you,” I tell her. “Esperanza and Alfred have been so good to me, truly they have, but Frey, Itrustyou.”

“Go on, then.” Frey rolls her eyes. “No need for a scene. Get home, and do what needs doing, then pick up your trinket and save that House.”

I set the cloth-wrapped heartstone on her lap but she stops me when I’ve already got one foot out the door.

“Violet Sterling. Whatever goes on this next little while, try not to die. I’ll never forgive you if you do—you’re the best tavern girl I’ve had when you’re actually here, and you’d be the devil to replace.”

“I’ll try,” I say with a wry smile. “But I can’t make any promises.”

On the inside, my stomach is twisting into nervous knots. I half run back down the hall and burst out into the inn yard again, where it’s begun to snow, though it’s only the end of July.