CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Sacred Ash
SERAPHINE
We broke into Malrec’s private sanctuary at three in the morning.
There were more dignified ways to investigate treason.
None were faster.
Elowen gave us the key.
That surprised me more than I cared to admit.
She met us in the moon chapel wearing a dark traveling cloak over her nightdress, her hair braided down her back.
“My father keeps a second study behind the sanctuary wall,” she said. “I have never been allowed inside.”
Lucian studied her face. “Why help us?”
“Because he has lied to me since I was old enough to understand language.”
“That is not treason.”
“No.” Her expression cooled. “But when I was nine, I asked why the Moonmarked were dangerous. He told me their blood could infect ordinary wolves. When I was seventeen, I found medical records showing that was false. When I confronted him, the records disappeared.”
She looked at me.
“I have wondered ever since what else disappeared.”
I liked her.
This was inconvenient.
We entered through a narrow side door while Darius watched the corridor.
Malrec’s sanctuary smelled of cold stone and incense.
Moon statues lined the walls. A silver altar stood beneath the central dome.
Nothing looked suspicious until Lucian pressed the carved crescent Elowen indicated.
The wall opened.
Behind it was not a study.
It was a laboratory.
Glass vials covered three tables. Bundles of dried wolfsbane hung from hooks. Blue myrrh filled ceramic jars. Iron cages stood against one wall.
My stomach turned.
Inside the nearest cage lay tufts of gray fur and dried blood.
Lucian went very still.
Elowen whispered, “Gods.”
I moved to the central table.
Open ledgers lay beneath a stone weight.
The writing was coded, but the symbols beside each entry were not.
Blackwater.
Dunmar.
Hollow Fen.
Northwatch.
Dates stretched back years.
“Lucian.”
He came beside me.
His face changed as he read.
Dosage. Exposure. Response.
Subject retained cognition for six minutes.
Subject shifted involuntarily after second injection.
Subject attacked kin.
Elowen turned away and covered her mouth.
I felt sick enough to join her.
“These are experiments,” I said.
“On prisoners,” Lucian replied.
“Not only prisoners.”
I pointed to another column.
Village trials.
The border attacks had not been only political.
They had been field tests.
A shadow moved beyond the hidden door.
Lucian extinguished the lamp.
Footsteps entered the sanctuary.
Malrec’s voice came from the other side of the wall.
“Elowen?”
She froze.
“Answer him,” I whispered.
Her eyes widened.
Lucian nodded.
Elowen stepped through the concealed door and let it close behind her.
“Father.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“At this hour?”
“You raised me in a temple. Insomnia is almost ceremonial.”
I heard Lucian suppress a breath that might have been laughter.
Malrec did not.
Their voices moved farther into the sanctuary.
I searched faster.
At the bottom of the ledger pile, I found a folded piece of vellum sealed with black wax.
Not royal wax.
The seal showed a crown split by a crescent.
I broke it.
Inside was a list of names.
Councilors.
Commanders.
Clergy.
Beside each name: loyal, uncertain, disposable.
Lucian’s name had only one word.
Sever.
Mine said vessel.
Cold touched the back of my neck.
I showed him.
His jaw hardened.
“What does vessel mean?”
“I don’t know.”
From the sanctuary, Malrec said, “You have always been too curious, daughter.”
Something shattered.
Elowen cried out.
Lucian hit the hidden door hard enough to crack it.
Malrec stood over Elowen with one hand around her throat.
He had a crescent blade in the other.
His eyes went to us.
For the first time, the High Seer dropped the mask completely.
No gentle priest.
No patient adviser.
Only fury.
“You should have obeyed the law,” he said.
Lucian crossed the room in a blur.
Malrec flung a handful of powder into the altar flame.
Blue fire exploded.
The windows shattered inward.
A shock wave threw me across the floor.
By the time I could see again, Malrec was gone through a concealed passage behind the altar.
Elowen coughed, bruises forming at her throat.
Lucian helped her sit.
Darius rushed in with guards.
“He’s gone,” I said.
Lucian looked at the open laboratory.
“No,” he said. “He’s exposed.”
But Malrec had been planning this for years.
Men like that did not lose because someone found one room.
They changed the battlefield.
On the floor beside the altar, I saw a circle of black powder beginning to glow.
“Lucian.”
He turned.
The mark flashed red.
Then every moon bell in the palace began ringing at once.
Not the hour.
A summons.
The full moon trial had been moved forward.