Page 88

He didn’t want to admit that, but the invisibility scarf was definitely something he wouldn’t mind having. He lifted it. “Can anyone use this, or was it specifically made for him?”

She shook her head. “It’s from Skäddar, I can tell by the embroidery letters. It’s probably an incantation to invisibility, so I’m guessing anyone can use it.”

He put it on. “Now I’m gone?”

She grinned at him. “I can see you. But I could see Marchant, too. That’s my secret power, remember?”

He tossed the scarf to her and she wound it around her neck and disappeared instantly.

“Now you’re gone,” he said.

She unwound it, handed it back. “I’ve seen this once before, on a woolen hat. But I can’t remember the working. I don’t think it was an incantation in lettering, it was an embroidered object.” She went quiet, her eyes getting a far away look. “Telling eyes not to see.” She smiled suddenly at him. “So there are at least two people who could make something like this.”

“And you know one of them?” He thought she was accessing a memory. A pleasant one.

“Long ago, when I was little. Just before we moved from Kassia and Cervantes into Grimwalt.”

“So you really are one of us,” he said, liking the sound of it. “You’re not Grimwaldian at all.”

She shook her head. “No, although my father would never give me a straight answer about where I was born. He seemed to think it would be dangerous for me.” She sighed. “He was frustrating in so many ways, and yet, he would do anything for me. Did do anything for me.”

Her gaze went back to Marchant’s body, and he realized it was bothering her a lot.

“I’ll get rid of him,” he said. “You start looking through the papers.”

She nodded in relief, and he noticed she turned away when he picked Marchant’s head up by the hair in one hand and grabbed the back of his coat with the other.

He went out the front door, and stood in the moonlit yard, wondering where to toss the body.

The prison was right in front of him, and Theo decided it was a sign.

CHAPTER 35

Turning back wasthe hardest choice Ava had ever made.

She’d stepped away as Luc, Rafe and Lineka had questioned the frightened trader they’d roused from sleep at a small camp on the Taunen road, and stitched a quick truth seeking into the strip of cotton she always kept in her pocket. She’d pushed past Lineka and then squeezed between Luc and Rafe and held it out to the trembling man.

Luc had sent her a quick look as the trader had taken it, babbling his thanks as if she were gifting him a boon. He’d been so grateful, the sight of her a relief to him, as if he believed the hulking warriors crowding him would not harm him in her presence, when she would be the first to strike him down if he was lying about her child.

She’d questioned him while he’d held her spell work tight in his closed fist, and he repeated the same story.

A girl and some soldiers had already stopped him, and he’d told them to go to Warven.

Tiano had made a face when the four of them returned to the unit waiting on the road and gave her the town’s name. She’d pointed back the way they’d come.

She’d accompanied them from the Illoa barracks. Captain Draper had offered them whoever they wanted as a guide, but Tiano had already proved herself and Luc had asked that she continue on with them.

“Back? How far?” Luc asked.

“The road that curved off to the right about three hours back.” Tiano lifted her shoulders. “I’ve never been there, but I’ve been told it’s small and out of the way. There’s no through route to anywhere. It’s a dead end.”

“How far from where the road splits to the town itself?” Ava asked.

Tiano shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

Ava exchanged a look with Luc.

“We go now,” he said, holding her gaze.