Page 131 of Flames and Blood

Nobody tells me I’m imagining a plot in my own grief. Nobody tells me it’s a private matter, best handled quietly, best handled by people who know the family.

Caleb doesn’t say anything for a long moment, and when he does, his voice is very even.

“Your clan isn’t known anywhere.”

I shake my head. “They keep to themselves. They always have.”

“Then as far as the rest of the world is concerned, there is no Heir of the Aldrake. You aren’t in any record. Nobody official knows your clan exists, which means nobody official is ever going to ask what happened to you.” He watches my face while he says it. “Somebody sold you. Somebody buried a stranger under your name. Your own mother has decided to leave it alone. There is nobody left in the world who can make anyone answer for any of it.”

“I know.”

“I don’t think you do. Not yet.” There’s nothing soft in the way he looks at me, and nothing unkind either. “The Cravens are in. Whatever this needs. Resources, a name on it that carries weight outside your mountain, somebody in a room your mother’s council would never let a stranger into. You have it.”

I stare at him. I wasn’t ready for it to be this easy.

Strangers believed me in ten minutes. My own mother wouldn’t accept it in a month.

I don’t say that out loud. Instead, I ask the thing I’ve been wanting to ask since I walked in.

“Has anyone heard from Gideon Crowe?”

Bastien pushes off the door.

“Odile has. Twice.” He watches me while he says it. “About a week ago, and once since.”

“And?”

“He’s alive, he’s working, and he asked her to keep the rest to herself.” He grimaces. “Odile does what she says she’ll do. It’s the most irritating thing about her.”

“Working on what?”

“She wouldn’t say.”

“He’s working on this.” I’m clear as I say it. “Whatever he’s doing out there, it’s this. He wouldn’t have stayed away for anything else.”

Nobody argues with me.

“Where is he?”

“She wouldn’t say that either,” Serenity says. “Only that he was speaking to a broker.”

I get up.

“Then I’ll find the broker.”

“With what?” Serenity doesn’t raise her voice. “You have no transport and no money, and you don’t know which direction anything is from here. You’d get as far as the front gate and stop.”

“Then help me find him.”

“Kalli.”

“I spent thirteen months in a room waiting for somebody to come and get me.” My voice is sharp. “He was the one who came. I’m not doing that again.”

“You’re not doing that again,” Serenity says. “You’re doing something else, and I need you to hear the difference.” She comes around the table and stands in front of me so I have to look at her. “He called Odile from the road. He’ll call again. And when he’s finished whatever he’s doing out there, he’ll come back here. If you leave, you’re the one who’s lost. Not him.”

I want to argue with that. I can’t, because she’s right.

I sit down.