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He laughed and immediately handed me a small platter containing a varied selection of sliced fruits, cheeses, and crackers. I put it on the sofa next to me, then crossed my legs and tugged my borrowed dressing gown over the top in an effort to warm my feet. He’d lit the fire twenty minutes ago, but the air still held a decidedly icy edge. If that didn’t change soon, I’d be borrowing some wooly socks.
“Did you get any answers from the confluence?” he asked, sitting down opposite.
“Nothing more than a godly version of ‘your message has been received and will be passed on to the appropriate division.’”
“Meaning the sword?”
“No. I was told the sword can only be destroyed in the darkness in which it was created. That’s not the confluence, apparently.”
“Did they happen to mention where it was created?”
“Of course not. I did, however, ask that question of the Codex, and was given a few somewhat vague image directions.”
“But not place names or coordinates?”
“What? And make things easy? Unlikely.”
He chuckled softly. “I guess it is expecting too much. What about the ring?”
“The Codex said all three Claws can be destroyed in the same fires in which they were created.”
“No, I meant did you ask where it was?”
I shook my head. “I did see glimpses of its location in a dream, though. Lugh seems to think it’s an old mine of some sort and will check the records tomorrow. Or today, as it now is.” I picked up a slice of triple-cream brie, dropped it onto an apple slice, and took a bite. Food heaven itself. “I did ask the Codex if possessing all three Claws offered the user additional powers, and the answer was a very definite yes.”
“That’s not entirely surprising. Godly artifacts do have a tendency to be ultra-destructive if they’re linked and used as one.”
And he’d know that better than anyone—except, perhaps, for Lugh. His family had been protecting the Tenebrous hoard—of which the Claws had once been a part—for centuries. There were two other hoards under the protection of the elves; the Éadrom hoard, which had been under light elf protection until its recent theft, and one other whose name I didn’t know and which I presumed was guarded by both.
I took another sip of bubbles. “I still don’t get why the Looisearch are willing to risk the destruction of our world just to ensure the Annwfyn never enter it again.”
“People wrapped in grief often can’t see through the veil of it with any sort of clarity.”
There was an odd note in his voice that once again suggested he was speaking from experience. Curiosity stirred, but I held my questions at bay. Our relationship was surface-level and very new besides, and it wasn’t my place to ask such intimate details.
Especially when he hadn’t offered any explanations the first time he’d mentioned grief in this manner.
I picked up a strawberry and dunked it in the little cup of chocolate sauce. The man really did make a most excellent cheese and fruit platter.
“I guess we’d just better ensure we find the ring before they can.”
Not to mention keep both it and the sword safe until we could find the means of destroying them.
“That might be a little hard when the descriptions you’ve been given are so vague.”
"They’re no more vague than the visions that led me to both the crown and the sword.” I shrugged. “What about you? Get any more information out of Jalvi?”
Jalvi was a cousin of his, and her sister, Telyn, had been one of five lives lost in the Annwfyn attack that had started this whole Claws mess. She’d been actively working behind the scenes for the Looisearch, but her luck had finally run out when she’d murdered Jules Auclair, a historian Lugh and I had arranged to meet. We hadn’t arrived in time to save his life but the description we’d gotten from the café’s waitress had led us—or rather—Cynwrig—straight to Jalvi’s door.
He grimaced. “She’s not saying much at all.”
“You’ve tried a truth seeker?”
He nodded. “All she’s been able to give us is what we already know.”
“Do you think her memories have been altered?”
“Possibly, though she’s been well guarded since her capture and few but me and the IIT have been near her.”
