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Whatever this was, it was clearly important.
Squinting down into the courtyard, peering around the curtain, I barely breathed.
While only one guard had been necessary to carry the object, he nodded to the others, who jumped into action, each taking a side and loading it into the carriage.
Slowly, carefully, they moved, as if the object was something infinitely precious. My stomach twisted. Anything Sabium was paying this much attention to—
One corner of the blanket slipped. Tymedes snarled at the guard, who immediately covered it, his face flushing.
But I’d seen.
The barest glimpse of a scrolled black edge that glimmered in the sunlight. A strange glass that seemed to absorb the world, instead of reflecting it back.
Sabium stepped forward, and I realized he was holding a book. A book bound in red leather with gold lettering. My breath caught in my throat.
One of his footmen opened another door to the carriage. Sabium began to step inside. I’d expected him to slide out of sight. Instead, he turned his head, meeting my eyes. He knew I was here, and he didn’t care. Some of what Tymedes had said was the truth after all. Sabium had so efficiently declawed me that he found it amusing to allow me to see what he was doing.
I backed away from the window, my head spinning.
Centuries ago, Sabium had used that mirror to spy on the hybrids and fae. While I didn’t believe it was the reason for his covetousness, resentment, and spite, it was certainly the tool that had allowed him to see how much more powerful they were compared to us.
If he was taking the mirror out of the castle, along with the book…
I had no doubt Sabium had been using that mirror for much, much deadlier tasks than spying.
* * *
A symphony of laughter and clinking glasses swelled around me. The air inside the tavern was heady with the scent of the stew currently bubbling over the hearth. Patrons sat on every available seat—and a few tables too. Barmaids navigated through them with practiced ease, arms laden with plates and mugs.
After arriving in Lesdryn, I’d stabled my horse and made my way directly to this tavern, finding a table in a darkened corner. Across from me, Vicer was grimmer than I’d ever seen him. A new scar wound along his forearm, and his eyes looked older, his expression resolved. When all of us had left the hybrid camp in the fae lands, he’d traveled to the foothills of the Normathe Mountains. His plan had been to convince Kaelin Stillcrest—the leader of that hybrid camp—to begin moving south. Clearly, that plan wasn’t going well.
Thankfully, his problems had nothing to do with me.
“What exactly are you looking for?”
I took a sip of my watered-down wine, stifling a grimace. And then I explained exactly what I was thinking.
His eyes lit up with interest. “It might be useless. We’ve considered similar tactics in the past.”
I’d expected that response. “Humans hadn’t seen thousands of their own people killed in the past. Thanks to Regner’s hybrid hunt, many of them are still living through that unique terror.”
Some people only cared when either they, or someone they loved, were affected. My father had been that kind of man. He’d been happy to watch hybrids burn, knowing there was nothing corrupt about us. But the moment he’d learned I was one of them, he’d agreed to help us.
I was both disgusted by his weakness and reluctantly appreciative that at least he hadn’t turned me in.
“I’ll see what I can come up with. I’ll meet you at the safe house.”
I nodded, and Vicer got to his feet, stalking away. My eyes drifted closed.
I’d managed to travel much faster alone than the others would in a group. If Prisca learned I’d allowed my horse to plod along the most deserted trails while I’d dozed, she would have snarled at me. Still, I’d saved myself at least a day of travel by only stopping for brief naps when I was so tired I thought I might topple from my horse.
But this was worth it. I knew it was. Surviving Regner’s court had taught me to scheme and lie and use my words as weapons. It was only looking back now that I could see exactly how Regner had used his own lies to control not just the court, but the population. I may have grown up in a castle, may have slept in lavish surroundings, but I’d lived with the same anguish Prisca had. Terror that clawed at me, waking me in the middle of the night until all I could do was curl up and shake, icy sweat sliding down my back.
Because I was corrupt. I’d somehow angered the gods. And one day, when I was discovered, I would burn.
Now I knew my mother must have been a hybrid.
That day when my father learned the truth, he’d seemed sickened. In the following days, he’d been distant, and I hadn’t had a chance to ask him anything about my mother before Regner’s guard killed him in front of me. He might have been the last family I’d had left, and I would never know.
