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I pulled out a folder labeledAlcatraz. That forbidding island was where Mother and Maylar had held the captive Healers prisoner. It was the place where everything had changed. The folder was fairly full, and when I opened it, I thought I might find information on the elixir, the Healers who had been held against their will, or possibly even a report on Fin’s and my infiltration of the elixir operation all those years ago. I hadnotexpected to find a sketched portrait of Fin staring back at me atop the stack of papers, his face looking exactly as I remembered him.
My breath hitched, and my chest tightened, constricting my lungs. I traced the strong lines of his face with gentle fingertips. He had grown fuzzy and indistinct in my mind’s eye, but my memories of him sharpened into pristine focus as I studied the drawing. It was so incredibly lifelike.
I could see Liam in his eyes and the shape of his lips. And this was merely a pencil sketch. Though Liam was still just a boy, I could see how much more he would grow to resemble his father in the years to come.
Hands trembling, I folded the sketch, then folded it again and tucked it into the side pocket of my tunic.
I felt a little light-headed as I skimmed through the rest of the documents in the folder, then peeked into the other folders, but all I found were more reports, along with some more sketches—of people and places I didn’t recognize. I shut the bottom drawer and settled back in the chair, thrown off balance by the unexpected encounter with an image of the man I had given my heart and body to so long ago. My stare lingered on the top drawer, my thoughts returning to its refusal to open as far as the three drawers beneath it, not to mention the fact that it had been locked at all when the only items within were utterly inconsequential.
Straightening, I pulled the top drawer open again, tugging harder than before. If I pulled it all the way out, maybe I would find something hidden behind it.
But it still wouldn’t budge.
I reached into the drawer, feeling the underside of the desk’s top to figure out what the back of the drawer was catching on. Maybe a protruding screw or nail. The desk was ancient, after all. Perhaps it was in need of repairs.
My fingers brushed over something hard and rectangular. Something shaped very much like a book. Or, rather, a metal pocket screwed into the underside of the deskholdinga book.
Heart beating faster, I slid the concealed book free and set it on the desk. It was leather-bound and worn but not ancient, like so many of the books in the study. The raven insignia that had represented the Corvo Dynasty since its inception two centuries ago was stamped onto the front cover.
Breath held, I opened the book. The first page was blank, but the second was filled with Mother’s familiar slanted handwriting. The top of the page was labeledCorvo City Marina, 276-279AE. Beneath the underlined label, Mother had listed a series of letters and numbers. It appeared to be some sort of code.
RMV - 25AE - 177
DIF - 178AE - 23
SHF - 236AE - 79
KSD - 143AE - 34
The first list filled nearly two columns. The second, labeledShadow District, 281-282AE, had only a few of those coded entries listed. I leafed through the book, surprised when the dates on the page titles moved past the present year and into the future, then flipped back to one of the earlier entries:
Corvo City, 285 AE
RMV - 23AE - 7
TLR - 264AE - 314
RSD - 225AE - 13
JNN - 116AE - 56
I skimmed over the four lines beneath the heading again and again. The trio of letters at the beginning of each coded line made me think they were the initials of a person’s name. Obviously, the first set of numbers were years, with AE standing forAfter the Ending.The Patrons had established the dating system to delineate the time before the Turn from the time after. But the second set of numbers...
Brow furrowed, I shook my head.
Someone knocked on the door, and my attention snapped up to Garath.
His eyes locked with mine, and he drew the pistol from his hip holster before reaching out to pull the door open.
Saira, one of Mother’s personal guards, bowed her head. When she straightened, her expression was grim. “Doctor Robins sent me to fetch Princess Delphinia,” she told Garath.
Cold washed over me, and I closed my eyes, shutting the mysterious book. I inched the heavy chair backward and stood, hugging the book to my chest, using it to shield my heart as I marched out of the study and down the corridor to watch Mother die.
7
Fin
Istood at the window of our room at the Drunken Stag Inn, peering out at the torchlit city. Corvo City might’ve been everything I’d remembered, or perhaps it was greatly changed, but I wouldn’t have known either way. My gaze was fixed in only one direction. My body was a humming, thrumming bundle of nerves I couldn’t shake.
