Page 129 of To Touch A Silent Fury

A rising sense of despair clawed at my throat. I knew he was right, and yet, the hopelessness of it all threatened to drown me. “Where can I go?”

Seth shook his head. “I thought I would have weeks to plan your departure. It’ll take me a couple of days to put the steps in place and get you everything you need.” Then he nodded. “Three days, the night before your wedding. That will be when you make your departure.”

“And until then?” I asked. “When Derynallis tries again?”

Seth paced back and forth, twitching one of the enveloping red velvet curtains. Eventually, he settled. “I can’t get rid of Daffinia. It’s too obvious, they’d know without a doubt that you discovered the treachery. And if I send her off, it’ll riskexposing our relationship. But I can replace Wainstrill without so much suspicion. I’ll swap him with someone more trustworthy, someone who will keep everyone out, including Daffinia. Someone who has no loyalty to my mother.”

“Who?”

“I have a couple of ideas,” he replied. “Stay here for a few hours. I’ll bring some clean food for you from the kitchens myself.”

I gestured around the room. “And she won’t find me here?”

He frowned, sorrow in his eyes at my obvious fear. “No. Only Braxthorn, his sons, and I are allowed in here. My mother is not welcome, much to her constant chagrin.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, resting my hand on the edge of the war table for support. “Thank you for everything.”

Seth shook his head. “I’m so sorry it has happened like this, Tani. You’ve never deserved your lot in life.”

Once again, the sympathy, so similar to Theollan’s sentiments, tensed in my throat. But I forced it down. “I have you,” I said, with a shrug. “I’m doing alright.”

He gave me a sad smile.

But the pieces on the table had caught my eye. Carved in stone was a map in relief, the lip of the land only a nail’s length above the sea, but it was clear enough. I’d seen enough maps on Eavenfold that I could trace the outskirts of the island and the swirl separating Stormnoon’s Elegy from the shores of Verdusk.

Most of the pieces were carved like shepherds with crooks. They piled up at the internal shoreline of the Sightlands, the coast of the Oktorok Lake.

I blinked, touching the head of one of the shepherds. “What is this? All these pieces near Unger Lift.”

Seth looked back to the table, pausing as if he had forgotten the pieces were there. “The final stages of a war that has been building for years. The one I’ve been trying to stop.”

Two shepherds sat in Droundhaven, one by the Vidarium. A full six lay near Unger Lift. Four by the border of the Soundlands, where they faced off against two carvings of a woman holding a flute, standing on a thick stone base.

It was the Five, I realised. The Sightlands troops were depicted by Edrin, the Shepherd. The Soundlands by Mephluan, the Muse. Over in the Tastelands, several carved men, holding goblets, sat near the western border of the Soundlands. Dional.

I pointed to the gathering of four carved women in Euphonos, and two carved women in Gossamir. “These are the Euphon troops?”

Seth nodded. “Yes.”

One shepherd was placed at the largely disused port in the southwest of the Soundlands. By Eavenfold records, King Odenor had decommissioned it long ago, but when I had passed through there, there was a healthy black market trading in all manner of goods.

And there was a shepherd sitting right in it.

Then the Wragg’s comments came back to me.The thane needs us.

I took it all in, connecting the dots. “Braxthorn means to support Thane Ivangor against King Odenor.”

Seth slowly nodded. “The Tastelands have been quietly ferrying arms into Sellador for years. The final stage will be a delivery of dragonscale armour and dragonblades. Alongside several thousand men. Braxthorn’s big move, his glory days of conquest returned, with the Euphons falling into line.”

Dragonscale and dragonblades.

By my blood, it was sickening. Vellintris.

She was just another part of the plan. Maybe shewasthe plan. The claw marks down her belly: I had suspected Chaethor. And yet, now, I wasn’t so sure. Maybe Braxthorn had riddenKallamont up north and torn her apart. Could he do that? Was he cold-hearted enough?

I shuddered. “For what benefit? Why start a war?”

“Greed and power,” Seth said simply. “Always those, Tani. King Odenor will not let us trade, and Braxthorn wants their natural resources. This is the final step of all of it.”