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Both of us turn to look at Remi, who nods in the direction of Mother Agnes’s desk.
On top of the piles of papers and accounting books lies a familiar object. It’s covered in blood and gore—even the handle—but I can still see the glint of gold.
Gifted Sun and Hell Beyond, not that.
Simon hands me the braid as he walks eagerly to the desk. “Cat, make a mental note of how this lies,” he says, studying the hammer from several angles.
I suspect I’ll be able to remember it as well as Juliane would.
He nudges it. “Even heavier than I thought,” he mutters. Carefully he lifts it to carry into better light. “It looks like it’s plated in… gold?” Simon rotates it to study every angle. “I’ve never seen anything like this, but the dimensions are right. This could’ve been used in all the murders, maybe even on Beatrez.”
Remi leans against the doorframe, his green eyes locked on me. I look back at him, pleading for him to do or say something that will stop this nightmare, but his lips move silently in a phrase the architect has uttered countless times.You harvest what you plant.
What’s about to happen is my own doing.
“There’s something engraved on this side.” Simon raises it to show me, sounding almost excited. “Observe all this, Cat. Juliane isn’t here so our combined recollection will have to do.And you”—he nods to Remi—“are also witness to the condition of this hammer.”
I can’t nod, but Remi does—stiffly, just once—and Simon moves to the pitcher of water on a small table against the wall. There’s just enough in it for him to pour over the golden head. Then he sets the ewer down and wipes the blood away with his sleeve. All of it takes much longer than it should, like time itself has slowed.
Simon tilts the hammer into the candlelight, and I close my eyes, not wanting to see his face. “Presented to…,” he begins, then stops.
Presented to Magister Thomas of Iscano, the 6th Master Architect of the Holy Sanctum of Collis. May his work be Blessed by the Hallowed Sun.
Simon doesn’t read any of it out loud, however. And in the unbroken silence, my heart shatters in my chest.
