Chapter 11 #2
The man at the counter looked surprised to see me. I ordered a beer, studying him as he prepared it. He was tall, with a graying beard and salt-and-pepper hair pulled tightly back. A few of the strands were braided. “You’re Revna’s friend, right?” I finally asked.
He chuckled, handing me the frothing mug. “One way of putting it. And you’re the scholar.” I raised an eyebrow, and he waved a hand dismissively. “The queen has me helping with…a lot of things. Says I have a better pulse on the Nilurae sentiment than most people.”
I hummed and took a sip of the drink. It took all my effort not to wince at the watered-down taste. “Good to see people looking out for the Nilurae,” I offered.
“Someone has to,” he said, filling a mug for another customer. “Happy to help her out. Otherwise, the war would still be going and we’d all be starving. Can’t have the beer tasting like shit forever.”
I laughed.
“Halvar,” the man introduced himself, shaking my hand. “Why don’t you have a seat? Next round is on me.”
I turned to survey the open seating, and my eyes landed on a familiar face. I sat down in a booth, facing Volkan. “What brings you here?”
He smiled. “I could ask you the same thing.”
I shrugged. “Just finished making a report to Mira about Revna’s progress and wandered in. I know Revna likes it here.”
Volkan hummed before taking another sip of beer. He didn’t meet my eyes when he said, “She doesn’t come around much anymore.”
I narrowed my eyes at his tone but couldn’t parse it. He offered no clarification. “I’m here keeping an eye on that one,” he added, subtly flicking a finger to my left.
When I knew I could do it without seeming suspicious, I turned. Arne was there, bent down over a table, muttering to the two men sitting with him. I held back a groan. “I assume he’s telling everyone what a monster Revna is and how I’m not to be trusted.”
Volkan set his beer down with a thud. “Exactly right.”
Halvar stepped up to our table, mug in hand. “Here you are,” he said, setting it down in front of me. He glanced at Volkan, stern mouth lifting at the edge. “No interest in mingling with commoners, then?”
Volkan’s jaw dropped. “N-no! That’s not it at all, I’m trying not to interrupt—”
Halvar barked out a laugh. “I’m just giving you a hard time. Made me chuckle to see the only two foreign nobles hiding out here by yourselves.”
He strode back to the counter, wiping his hands on the rag thrown over his shoulder. I eyed my fresh cup, wondering if it was worth drinking. Instead, I said, “Didn’t know you had a thing for older men.”
Volkan groaned and put his flushed face in his hands.
Halvar’s voice joined the fray again. This time, though, he sounded furious. “Can’t believe everyone believes that impostor.”
I raised a brow at his hostile tone. I hadn’t heard him come back to the table. I looked up…
And locked eyes with a very incensed ghost.
I froze. The ghost in front of me was Halvar—the same man standing at the counter and whistling while he wiped down glasses. My eyes shot from the ghost to the living man over and over, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
The spirit realized I had heard him. “You can see me,” he whispered, stepping closer. “Can’t you?”
Slowly, I nodded.
“S?ren?” Volkan asked. “Everything all right?”
“Fine, fine,” I said, waving a hand. Something strange was happening here—maybe even sinister—and I needed to figure out what it was.
Especially if one of Revna’s most trusted friends was involved.
Did she know the man behind the bar was a fraud?
“I’m going to head back. The noise in here is giving me a headache. ”
When I stepped around the side of the building, the ghost was waiting for me. I crossed my arms. “How are you here,” I demanded, “while you’re also in there?”
Halvar scowled. “How can you see me?”
He didn’t know who I was—I often forgot when dealing with spirits, since most of the ones I encountered were from people I’d just killed with my helmet on.
But it was strangely comforting to know that this man, despite being a confusing contradiction, had no clue I was the Hellbringer.
“It’s my Lurae,” I told him. “Now what the hell is going on?”
He crossed his arms. “The man in there is a fake. A shapeshifter posing as me. And I was murdered by the liar who calls herself queen.”
Wait. Revna had killed Halvar?
The pieces all fell together. Surely the one posing as him was Jac, her missing shapeshifter brother.
If Revna had killed a friend, it would never have been purposeful.
Likely an accident. I tried not to wince at the realization.
I was more than intimately familiar with such mistakes.
Her failing confidence, her anger—of course, it was all justified.
But she was angry at herself. Not just at me.
Halvar continued to rage as I thought. “And no one recognizes the priests are still plotting. They sit in booths and whisper. Plotting to take back their power. But they aren’t caught because they can blend in without the veils.”
“The priests?” My attention snapped back to the spirit. Alarm built beneath my skin. “What exactly are they plotting?”
“None of it makes sense.” Halvar kicked at the side of the tavern, his boot passing through the wall. “They talk about Callum and Arraya—the two who founded Bhorglid on lies—and say they’re going to return somehow. The priests are waiting on something, but I can’t figure out what.”
Volkan had mentioned there was an assassination attempt on Revna the day before their delegation arrived in Kryllian.
Perhaps this was related. I tucked the information away mentally.
For now, I needed to ask him about another suspicion I’d been harboring.
“Are you here because you want to be, or are you unable to pass on?”
The man scoffed. “I wouldn’t know how to pass on if I tried. I’m stuck here—can’t seem to find any way out.”
I swore under my breath. This confirmed my suspicions. The streets of Bhorglid were dotted with dozens of spirits, more than what I’d seen during the days I’d spent here a few months ago doing reconnaissance.
My mind spun. I needed to get back to the library, see if I could find any information on Callum and Arraya that might explain what the priests were waiting for—or perhaps a book with theories on why spirits were unable to pass on.
“I have to go,” I said absentmindedly.
Halvar hollered after me as I rushed back toward the castle. “I want to see the queen pay for her lies, understand?”
I clenched my jaw. A shame my Lurae could get rid of only living people and not spirits.