Page 61 of The Fifth Heir

A message appeared on the sleeping-chamber wall.

THE CROWN GATE OPENS AT DAWN.

Rafe read it from his bed and pulled a pillow over his face.

“Tell the crown to return at a reasonable hour.”

Leander opened his curtains. He was fully dressed beneath them.

I stared at him. “Did you sleep in your uniform?”

“No.”

“You changed before the message appeared?”

“I knew when dawn would occur.”

Rafe lifted the pillow enough to look at him. “He didn’t sleep.”

“I slept.”

“He paced for half the night.”

“I heard you too,” Torren said.

Leander ignored both of them and fastened the last clasp at his wrist. “We have less than an hour.”

Sebastian was already gone.

I found him in the common room with the First Trial instructions spread across the table. He had copied the visible inscription onto a separate sheet and drawn the sealed marks he remembered beneath the archive text.

“Did you sleep?” I asked.

“Adequately.”

“That means no.”

“It means the amount was sufficient for my current needs.”

I sat across from him. “You and Leander could save time by sharing answers.”

His attention remained on the page. “The alteration begins beneath the first word, but I can’t determine how many runes were sealed.”

“Does it matter now?”

“It mattered enough for someone to conceal it.”

“But the Trial begins in less than an hour.”

“That makes it matter more.”

He folded the page and slipped it inside his coat.

I touched the crystal torc. “What am I supposed to do?”

Sebastian finally looked at me.

The official instructions assigned one path to each of the four elemental heirs. Fire, Frost, Storm, and Shadow. Every man had been given a starting position and an objective.