29. Bastian
Bastian
A sher led me into the palace, gestures clipped and tight. Bad news.
We kept quiet until we were in our side of the building. “What is it?” I murmured. “What happened?”
“Multiple things. Only one of them good. Things are smoothed over with the human queen, for now. She’s sending a delegation to continue the rekindled relationship between our countries.”
That was something. “And the bad?”
“His Majesty had several Dusk folk arrested for ‘aiding and abetting’ Ascendants.”
“Fuck. Let me guess—with flimsy evidence?”
“The flimsiest. And Faolán recognised one of the women who was taken—she’d witnessed some Ascendants painting outside her house?”
The woman we’d interviewed. “Her, an accessory? She came straight to us. Reported everything.”
“I know. I took it to Braea as soon as I heard. Even Cyrus tried to speak sense into the king, but…” His head bowed. “He had them all executed.”
For several steps, I couldn’t speak. Dusk folk who’d trusted their court to keep them safe, killed, and for what? For the king to discredit the queen? To score points over us?
“How many?”
“Twelve.”
Twelve more marks on my soul. Twelve more people I’d failed.
I nodded, every movement tight. “What else?”
Asher hesitated. “An attack. Gael.”
I swallowed, throat suddenly tight. “Are they—?”
“Injured. But on the mend. I arrived yesterday and checked them over—the healers did a good job. In a couple of days they’ll be fine. But they demanded to see you as soon as you returned.”
The note. I’d left it with them to decode while I was away. The attack had to be related. There was no other reason for someone to come for Gael. Either the attacker wanted to retrieve the note or silence them from revealing what they’d discovered in it.
I eyed the next set of guards we passed—there were more than usual. Good. They were taking this seriously.
Either Dawn had operatives on our side or one of their people had snuck through a lodestone. I needed to check the courtyard. I’d left threads of spidersilk on the doors so I would know if they’d somehow been opened.
We arrived at Gael and Brynan’s suite where we found Gael pale and laid up in bed with their partner fussing around them.
“You’re back.” Gael’s eyes widened as they pushed up on their pillows.
“Don’t…” Brynan eased them back, throwing me a tight smile.
“He’s right. Don’t.” I raised my hands and nodded towards the pillows. “I’m sure this can wait until you’re feeling—”
“No.” They sat up, swatting away Brynan’s protests. “I’m not as bad as he thinks. Really, darling, you’re fretting now. I can’t tell you here.”
“You’re worried someone may be listening.”
“Brynan told me your offices are secure. Once we’re there, I’ll explain.” They swung their legs out of bed, ignoring Brynan’s protests.
I would’ve voiced my own, but Gael moved with ease, only seeming stiff when they bent over and pulled on a pair of shoes. We filed to my office in tense silence.
Once we were sealed inside, I gestured for Gael to explain. “No one can hear us now. What happened?”
“I was working on…” They raised their eyebrows and eyed Asher.
“He knows about the note. Carry on.”
“It had grown chilly, so I went to close the window, and… there was someone there. In our sitting room.” They pressed their lips together, and Brynan squeezed their knee.
“Go on, darling.”
“I caught the movement out the corner of my eye and turned, but it was too late.” They rubbed their stomach, pale skin turning even paler.
“I barely managed to twist away from another strike. I don’t know how long I dodged them, trying to get to a weapon, but they got me again before I could.
Then… Then”—they covered Brynan’s hand with their own—“he came back early from reporting to Her Majesty.”
Brynan’s mouth twisted. “I think I pissed her off, so she sent me away. Thank the Stars she did. Someone was standing over them, all in grey, face covered. I couldn’t see anything of use.”
I worked my jaw side to side. “Let me guess—average height, average build, no sign of masculine or feminine features.”
Brynan nodded. “Their dagger had a bronze hilt, that’s all I can say.”
Asher made a soft sound. “A perfect assassin.”
Eyes gleaming, Brynan bent closer to Gael and touched his head to theirs. “They were ready to… finish things. But I…”
Gael chuckled darkly. “You blasted in. I thought someone had unleashed a Horror.”
“If I get hold of whoever that was, I’ll feed them to one.” He scowled. “I only managed to get a slash in.”
“ Only ?” Gael raised their eyebrows. “You sent them running. You should’ve gone after them, though.”
Brynan’s refined features scrunched up—an exaggerated version of his more customary thoughtful frown. “I had to check you were all right.” He shot me a look. “By the time I made sure this one wasn’t about to bleed out, there was no sign of the attacker. I’m sorry. I know I should’ve—”
“It’s fine. I understand.” If it had been Katherine, I’d have done the same.
Eyebrows rising, he exchanged a glance with Gael. Asher looked away, a smirk edging his mouth.
The old Bastian would’ve rebuked Brynan for not going after the assassin. Capturing them would’ve given us vital information. And while many watched my shadows with mistrust and fear, they weren’t my true power.
That was knowledge.
And yet instead, here I was telling Brynan it was fine that he’d put his partner first.
Kat was turning me soft.
“Guards swept the palace, but didn’t find the intruder.” Asher shrugged. “Not even a trail of blood.”
“Of course not.” I pursed my lips. “Still, you could’ve written this in a report.”
“Not this next part.” Gael sat up and held my gaze—something only those closest to me managed for any length of time. The glow tended to unnerve the seelie. “I finished decoding the note.”
I straightened in my seat. “And?”
“I burned my decoding. I don’t trust it to paper. If my attacker had got hold of it…”
My money was on the attacker working for the king, their aim being to stop us from uncovering its contents.
“It was just addressed to ‘sire’—no clues about who that may be.” Gael placed the original note on my desk, unfolded.
“This part says the writer went to the Riverton library as instructed and found a book that referenced the ‘undesirable situation.’ Apparently the humans didn’t realise the age of the book they had—it had been collected with writings by other scholars and rebound into a single volume, but the script matched that of a scroll in Dawn’s library. ”
I sat back with a soft huff. “You think it’s one of the works taken to Albion as part of the marriage bargain?”
The lord who’d married the human queen a couple of hundred years ago had taken books with him—old books, as Lysander liked to scowl and complain about. The Dawn delegation must’ve found the information they sought in one of those.
Shit. Why hadn’t I spent more time in the library and less time caught up in Katherine?
There had been that one time where both things had crossed paths. Her thighs in my hands. Her sweet whimpers. Sunlight haloing her blazing hair as my ember had become a glorious flame.
Focus, Bastian . I raked my hands through my hair.
Asher frowned at the note. “That’s the only way I can think of humans having something that matched one of our scrolls. Does it say anything about the author of these papers? I wonder if we have a copy.”
“It does.” Gael swallowed. “The Lark.”
I sat up.
Asher’s lips parted. “You’re… sure?”
“I know what I’m doing. That’s what it said.”
The sorceress from the time we warred with humans.
Considered little more than legend and fable by most, but legends and fables tended not to leave texts written in their own hand.
We had a few. Dawn had more. And apparently Albion had at least one.
I would have Lysander gather ours. Perhaps my spy could get her hands on Dawn’s, but they’d likely be missed.
It would be easier if I could give her more specific instructions of what to look for. “Any indication what this book said exactly?”
Gael drew a deep breath and squared their shoulders. “The book said there was an artefact that could end the Sleep.”
Old news. I tried not to let my disappointment show.
“You understand what Dawn getting that would mean, don’t you?” Gael sat forward. “If King Lucius isn’t bound to daylight hours, he’ll push for more power.”
Asher’s bronze skin lost it richness. He nodded, gaze shifting into the distance.
“With only one monarch awake at a time, it’s clear who people need to obey, whether their family is tied to Dusk or Dawn.
It curbs conflict. But if they’re both awake at once things will only grow more confrontational.
I can hear Dawn folk now. ‘Why would I obey the queen when my king is here?’”
Lips pressed together, Gael nodded. “That’s why I burned my decoded version of the note. The king could use it as justification to take over as sole monarch. He wouldn’t need the queen. It would…”
“It would be a coup,” Asher finished for them.
“ Another coup.” Gael gave a bitter smile. “This one of Dawn over Dusk.”
“There would be no more Dusk.” Asher frowned at me. “Why aren’t you reacting to this?”
I sighed. “I already knew there was such an object and that Dawn was after it.”
When Gael turned wide eyes on Brynan, his gaze dropped. “You too?”
“He works for me. I made him vow not to tell you. Thank you for decoding the note, Gael. Thanks doesn’t really cover the price you’ve paid, but I’ll see to it guards remain on your corridor.”
I’d been so sure the note would give me new information. Still, there were the Lark’s texts. Better than nothing.
Clearing my throat, I rose and started towards the door, so I could unseal it and let Gael get back to resting. “I appreciate you understanding this knowledge can’t go any further.”
“That wasn’t all.”
At Gael’s quiet addition, I spun.
“It doesn’t just say there’s an artefact that could free a ruler from the Sleep… It names it.”
My muscles went taut. This was a lead. A name gave us something to look for in the texts, maybe even coded references in old stories. “And that name is…?”
“The Circle of Ash.”
Not familiar. “A circle? What could that be?” I glanced at Asher—he was older than me and might’ve heard of it.
He shook his head.
“A hoop made of ash wood?” Brynan spread their hands. “Maybe it means ring rather than circle?”
“It’s unclear.” Gael rubbed a fold of their trousers between their fingertips.
“I’m working with a coded reference to a spy’s translation of an ancient scroll.
It may be the scroll is clear but the person who coded the note has phrased it in an obscure way as a failsafe to keep the information secret. ”
Asher grunted. “Or it may be the text is just as murky.”
The bag containing Elthea’s box sat at my feet. Was there a ring or disc inside?
I huffed and nodded at Gael. “Seems I owe you an even bigger thank you. This gives us something more to go on with our research.”
Brynan rose as I caught his eye. “I’ll put together a reading list.”
“I’m sure you can do that back in your rooms.”
My guests gathered themselves, taking my hint.
“Gael—look after yourself.” I patted them on the shoulder as I opened the door. “And maybe let Brynan look after you a little. It’s as much for him as it is for you. He thought he’d lost you.”
I could picture it. Walking in, finding Kat on the floor in a pool of her own blood, a dark figure standing over her.
I had seen it. Kat. No blood, but instead the sharp scent of poison surrounding her. The changeling standing over her, triumphant. My eyelids fluttered as I pulled myself back from the horror of that moment and said my goodbyes.
Once they were gone, I pulled out the box. Kat must’ve cleaned off the soot. It hummed with weak magic, but it could be warded to disguise its contents—that would explain why the Horrors hadn’t pulled apart the chimney to get at it.
It seemed too great a coincidence that Lucius was on the trail of something important and lost, just as Elthea sent me to fetch a magically locked box from Horror territory.
Giving him the Circle of Ash would see her well rewarded, her influence elevated—it would give her what everyone at court wanted.
Power.
With a growl, I set off to deliver the box… and work out how to get its contents back before Elthea could take it to her king.