7
The tavern was quieting down, the after-dinner rush having dwindled to a few villagers nursing cider or chatting softly near the hearth.
Outside, music from the festival still carried on the breeze, but here in the innkeeper’s private back room, just off the main tap room, the air was thicker, more still.
Malea sat across from Kurt at a sturdy wooden table scarred by years of tankards and knives.
The innkeeper, a round-bellied, balding man who’d finally introduced himself as Brandis, set a wrapped bundle on the tabletop with more care than one might expect from a man wearing a beer-stained apron.
“I don’t really want anybody else to see this thing,” Brandis said in a hushed voice, glancing toward the door. “Didn’t feel right.”
“You’ve done the right thing, Master Brandis,” Kurt said, his tone calm but watchful as the odd weapon was revealed.
The cloth fell open to reveal a long, curved, sparkling blade. It was beautiful…and terrible.
The handle was wrapped in worn black leather, but the blade itself gleamed like ice beneath the lantern light. It shimmered faintly, with a glitter too sharp to be steel, too clear to be glass. Malea leaned in slowly, breath catching in her throat. She knew that glint.
It was made of diamond. But it was a far site larger than any diamond she had ever seen. She didn’t think diamond crystals grew to the size. Not naturally.
Which left a chilling alternative. Master Goldman had taught her that sometimes magic could be used to create gemstones. She was no expert in magic, but she knew her gemstones, and this was not natural.
She looked over at Kurt for his reaction, but he said nothing, though his brow furrowed.
He sat back, letting her take the lead. Malea reached out, fingers steady, and lifted the weapon an inch off the cloth.
It was lighter than expected. Beautifully balanced.
Expertly made. She’d had just enough training in weapons work to understand the expertise that had gone into creating this one.
But it was the blade that made her catch her breath. It wasn’t faceted, but it was sharpened into a gleaming, deadly arc. It glowed in the dull light of the lantern, and she suspected this kind of weapon was meant for only one thing. It was meant to kill dragons.
“I’d like to take this back to my Master,” she said quietly, eyes still on the blade. “If you’re willing to part with it, I think the Master gem cutter I studied under would enjoy cutting this up and turning it into jewels.” So it could never hurt a dragon or virkin. Ever.
She didn’t say that last part aloud, but the thought gave her a deep feeling of satisfaction.
Brandis blinked. “You’d… What?”
“You know I’m a journeyman from the gem cutter’s guild,” she said smoothly.
“This stone has an unusual composition. Not something I’ve seen before.
I think my Master would get a kick out of it.
He likes unusual stones.” That was nothing less than the truth.
Master Goldman had quirky taste for a gem cutter, though he was one of the most gifted artisans in the country.
“Is it valuable?” he asked, eyes suddenly sharp.
“To the right people,” she said truthfully. “And very dangerous in the wrong hands. You were right to warn Kurt for his virkin friend. This could do very real harm to a virkin. Or a dragon.”
The last thought was almost inconceivable, but she knew the dragons had enemies. People who wanted to destroy the alliance between dragonkind and King Alric of Valdis had tried before. Many times.
Brandis nodded slowly. “You think it’s trouble.”
“I believe it is, but if I take it to my Master, and we cut it up, it can’t cause the harm it was likely intended to cause.
” She met his gaze squarely. “But if you ever see anything like it again, you should go straight to a royal agent. A patrol guard, a soldier, even a merchant with the King’s seal.
The crown needs to know if there’s going to be an influx of these sorts of things.
This kind of blade can have only one real use, and that is to harm dragons.
” She sat back and tugged at a slender gold chain that was around her neck, causing the pendant on it to pop out of the neck of her tunic.
She turned the gemstone over to display the seal on the back.
“I show you this to prove that my Master is allied to the crown. His work carries the royal seal. This is the piece he gave me to show at guard posts and among other crown agents on my journey. It is not something given, or shown, lightly.” Her gaze was solemn, and she judged that the innkeeper understood the gravity of her actions.
“I have seen that seal once before,” Brandis said, nodding.
“I know what it means, and I have to believe that the Goddess Herself guided me to you both this night. I’ve been agonizing over that knife since the moment I found it.
I’m glad to have it off my hands, if I’m honest. Bring it to your Master, and the King, if your Master deems it important enough, with my blessing. ”
Malea smiled at the man. “Thank you, Master Brandis. I will pass on your words to my Master. He gave me leeway to act for him in any extraordinary circumstances I might find myself in on this journey.” She reached into her belt pouch for the coin she had placed there earlier, when she’d stowed her pack.
She produced the gleaming coin—one from Master Goldman’s discreet emergency funds and set it on the table with a quiet clink.
Brandis’s eyes widened. “That’s a gold crown.”
She put the blade back in its sheath and tucked it carefully into her satchel. “You’ve done the right thing, Master Brandis. I promise I will get this where it needs to go and make sure your warning is passed along to our dragon friends and allies.”
“Alric is a good King. I’m pleased to serve the crown,” he swore, hands up in earnest. “And…if that blade was meant for a dragon…then I’m glad it’s gone.”
Kurt gave a faint nod of approval. “You’ve done your country a service, Brandis.”
At that moment, Sir Arch swooped into the room, his pale green wings gleaming in the lantern light. He circled once above the table, then landed delicately beside Kurt’s chair with a soft huff.
Brandis’s eyes went comically wide. “Is that a virkin?”
“He is,” Malea said with a faint smile.
“I’ve always wanted to see one,” Brandis whispered, eyes bright. “He’s…perfect.”
Sir Arch preened under the attention, wings spreading just a bit wider.
“You may greet him,” Kurt said, “if he permits.”
Brandis extended a hand slowly, reverently, and Sir Arch tapped it once with his tiny snout.
The innkeeper beamed like a child given a sweet. “I’ll never forget this.”
“You’re not meant to,” Malea said softly, shouldering her pack.
They left Brandis standing in stunned wonder, cradling the memory of a virkin’s touch. As the door swung shut behind them, the wind carried the sounds of music and laughter back to their ears. Both Kurt and Malea knew without speaking. The stakes had suddenly been changed.
They left the tavern and its warm hearth behind, stepping into the crisp night air.
The festival sounds had quieted now, the music fading into the distance as Kurt and Malea walked away from the village green, seeking a quiet place to have a serious talk.
The bonfire still crackled at the center of the green, flickering behind them as they walked away from the crowd.
Kurt said nothing at first, and neither did Malea. They moved in companionable silence down the path that skirted the edge of Middletown, away from the lantern-lit wagons and toward the treeline. Once they were alone in the dark, he finally spoke.
“So,” he said, voice low. “It’s real. Not just rumor. Is it truly a diamond blade?”
“It’s diamond. But not natural.”
Kurt glanced at her, his expression sharp. “What do you mean?”
“In nature, diamond crystals don’t grow like this,” she explained. “Not this long. Not this uniform.”
He frowned. “So, what does that mean?”
“Master Goldman teaches that sometimes magic can influence the shape and size of gem crystals. I think this has to be something like that. Someone is using magic to grow diamonds large and long enough to cut into blades, then polishing and honing them to lethal sharpness.”
Kurt let out a breath. “Salomar, the old warlord to the east of the mountains, was said to have weapons like that. Blades, arrows, bolts. All designed to pierce dragon hide.”
She looked up at him in the moonlight, her eyes steady. “That’s what this is for. Dragon killing.”
He nodded. “That’s why I was sent here.”
She stopped walking. He did too.
Kurt looked at her, the mask of charm gone from his face now, leaving only the warrior he had become. The spy. The man who had seen much, lost much, and still kept walking into danger because someone had to do it to protect others.
“I was sent north by the King’s order,” he said, voice hushed but clear.
“Isolde had heard rumors about foreign mercenaries gathering up north. Men who once worked for Salomar who had scattered after his fall. Some probably joined the mercenary horde that was repulsed years ago when the Jinn mercenaries took over the wasteland to the north and it was annexed onto the Kingdom of Valdis. But most of the soldiers who had once served Salomar were never accounted for. The rumors said they’d crossed the Dragon’s Teeth and found refuge in the far north of Valdis. ”
“Setting up shop again to make their dragon-killing weapons. I wonder if there is a mage among them?” she murmured.
“I have no idea. My orders are to find out what I can,” he went on. “Track any weapons I come across. Map the network. Report back. And if I can shut it down…” He didn’t finish the sentence.
“I wasn’t given a specific mission, though a warlord named Balreal was mentioned, as were diamond blades,” she admitted after a moment. “I was told to keep my eyes open. Watch. Listen. Report anything strange.”
Kurt gave a short laugh. It was a wry laugh, not a mocking one. “Well, this qualifies as strange, for certain.”
“Do you think the ice dragons know about the blades?”
“I doubt it. If they did, they’d never allow humans near their territory. They remember what it was like to be hunted.”
Malea’s thoughts swirled like smoke. “Someone crafted that blade. Someone with magical knowledge and enough resources to hide it from the guilds, and from the dragons.”
“Which means someone powerful.”
She met his gaze again. “We need to find out all we can. Before these weapons spread.”
Kurt nodded. “Agreed. I think we need to work together on this. Join forces and check in regularly to share information.”
The words settled between them like an oath. She nodded once, then looked up at the stars peeking through the clouds.
“How can the stars be so pretty when there is such ugliness in the world?” she asked idly, pondering the sparkling light above them. “They’re beautiful tonight.”
“So are you,” he said softly, then immediately cleared his throat. “I mean—the sky. The stars. Obviously.”
She caught her breath, then decided she had to have heard him wrong. She laughed off the intensity of the moment.
“I know what you meant,” she said, and started walking again, a half-step closer to him now than before.
And though they both had reasons to stay focused on the mission, the night air felt just a little less chilly with him beside her.
The second night of the festival was winding down when they returned to the village green. Malea said a soft good night to Kurt when he escorted her to the Rasim family wagon. There was still a light on within, so she wasn’t too late.
He surprised her by bending to kiss her on the forehead before sending her on her way into the wagon. She felt as if she was walking on air for a moment, surprised and delighted by the tender move.
A thought occurred to her. Maybe he was just putting on a show to explain why they would be spending time together.
Maybe he wanted to pretend that they were interested in each other in a romantic way, thus giving them plenty of opportunities to talk quietly and be together, without anyone realizing that they were both agents, working together for the good of the crown and country.
That depressing thought sort of put a damper on her feelings, but she tried not to let it show.
The more she was around Kurt, the more she was beginning to really like him.
In fact, she felt like she was really getting to know him as he was now.
An adult. A man of the world who had traveled widely and earned his place in his guild.
She admired him greatly, and she would admit, if only in the quiet of her own mind, that she found herself very attracted to him.