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It wasn’t until we were out of Camet’s earshot that Branok snorted softly. Certainly when Jaik gave us orders, we often felt like there was plenty left to discuss.
The noble that we were going to visit lived in a house at the edge of Rylow, near the southwestern gates. I noticed Branok hadn’t suggested we go to visit him until it was evening and the gates had been closed to protect the city from the Scourge, since they were more active at night. I glanced out at the heavy metal gates, thinking about where Honor was, somewhere on the other side. Was she still in the bone kingdom tonight?
We made our way in to see the noble. His servants parted before us, and we entered his living room. He leapt to his feet, guilt flashing across his face, and lunged toward the door.
“There’s nowhere to go.” I promised him. “You might as well speak to us.”
He cast a fevered glance between the two of us. The fact we were twins seemed to intimidate people, as if there was something supernatural about a split egg and a lot of time spent training.
“I don’t know anything!” he spat out.
“Always how I begin a conversation when I’m totally innocent,” Branok said with a smile, starting toward him.
We tried to ask questions, but when he realized he was in trouble, he seized his wife’s arm. She winced, her face turning pale, sweat beginning to beat along her forehead as if she were sick with some terrible fever. I stepped forward to catch her arm, thinking that she was about to fall, and the feel of her magic singed my fingers. When I pulled away, I could smell the scent of burning magic in the air.
Abruptly, he turned into a bird and swooped through the open window. I jumped after him, but I hadn’t expected that. She swayed and almost fell, and I turned back to catch her.
“What did he just do?” I demanded.
“More importantly,how?” Branok demanded. “He was a wolf shifter.”
When both of us looked at her, she shrank back. “It was new magic he learned.”
“From Ebba,” I finished that thought. The nobles must have asked for more from Ebba than one murder.
And every gift from the chaos god came at a cost.
“Are you pregnant?” Branok demanded.
She looked affronted, but then seeing his face, she reconsidered. “Not to my knowledge, my Lord.”
“Well, if your little birdie of a husband manages to fly back, make sure that doesn’t change.”
Branok and I exchanged looks. Ebba was trying desperately to procure a body, a royal infant in particular, and I was curious about why. My research suggested to me that perhaps he couldn’t rule this realm in the way he had before until he was able to find a suitable vessel. Until then, he was kind of like a ghost.
Though he was far too powerful a ghost for my liking.
We headed out, determined to dispatch our spies to chase him down. But as we neared the castle, a hooded figure moved out of the shadows toward us. I stopped Branok with a hand on his arm, my other hand already gripping the hilt of my dagger.
“Easy,” the man muttered under his breath. “King Caldren sent me.”
“That’s not actually something that makes me feel easy,” Branok said dryly. “What does he need?”
“He doesn’t need anything. But he isn’t comfortable coming into Rylow himself, and he had a message for you.”
He certainly shouldn’t be. Those nobles had wanted to kill him because the rebellion threatened their positions, and that had hardly changed. There were plenty of shifters who would side with the nobles for the sake of keeping things the same, even though they had liked and respected Caldren when he taught them at the Academy.
I wondered exactly how many would be loyal to him. I hoped a battle would never come to the gates of Rylow that made us do the exact arithmetic.
“And what is that?” Branok asked, while I studied the man.
“Kallus’s boats are making their way across the sea. A lot of them.”
So this was a message that came from Morick by way of Caldren. Branok and I would never have those spies in the sea, and I nodded. “Thank Lord Caldren for telling us.”
As soon as he had slid back into the shadows, I asked Branok, “What do you think Kallus wants?”
“Nothing that he’s going to get,” Branok said, looking irritated. And I wasn’t sure if it was because he thought Kallus wanted our Kingdom… Or because Kallus wanted to bring Honor back to the Grey Kingdom.
