Page 11 of Grave Situation

“What happened then?” Master asks, to Wat’s clear surprise.

“Well… I picked it up, and I knew I had to bring it to you. So I did.”

“Had you heard of me before that?”

Wat shakes his head, brow furrowing. “Now that you ask, I can’t say I had.”

Master Samoine nods and goes to ring the bell for one of the castle staff. “Thank you for your assistance, Wat. Could you please put it in that box on my desk?” He gestures, and I glance over at the box. It’s sat on his desk for as long as I’ve known him. I’ve never seen him open it, never asked what’s inside. It’s just a plain wooden box, about five inches square.

Wat goes to the desk and flips open the box. It’s empty. I flick an inquiring glance at my master, but he just shakes his head. Okay. I can wait.

Once the stone is inside and the lid closed, Master Samoine smiles at Wat. “Thank you. Someone?—”

There’s a knock at the door, and I turn to open it. Jass, who looks after Master’s rooms, is standing there with a smile. “He rang for me?”

I manage to smile back—Jass is always nice, and it’s stupid to get on the wrong side of the staff—and stand back to let him in.

“Ah, Jass. This is Wat. Could you please take him to the kitchens and make sure he gets a decent meal, then arrange a room for him for tonight at an inn in the city? A comfortable one. And in the morning, he’ll need a good horse and provisions for a week of riding. You can ride a horse?” he asks Wat, who nods, jaw dropped.

“Yes, sir, but I don’t need all that. I?—”

“It’s payment for your message safely delivered,” Master Samoine interrupts. “And I must also ask that you do not speak of the message to anyone.”

Seeming somewhat confused, Wat shrugs. “Sir, I don’t even understand the message. It all sounded like gibberish to me. I just repeated what I was told.”

I look at him sharply. Does he not remember the rock? Does he think he really just delivered a spoken message?

Master thanks him again, and Jass leads him out into the hall. I wait until the door closes to say, “Holy fucking turds of the gods.”

The smile that appears on my master’s face seems involuntary. “Tell me what happened.”

I fill him in, from the moment I decided to go to the infirmary right up until we reached his door. He’s silent for a moment.

“You know what it is, then?”

I’m scared to say the words aloud, so I nod.

“Talon.” He’s not going to let me get away with that. I suck in a deep breath.

“The life stone.”

My words seem to echo through the room. The life stone. Also known as the source of all creation. I scrape through distant memories, trying to recall anything that might be useful. Truthfully, I barely paid attention during our second-year class on the prophecies. I mean, everyone knows that prophecies happen during someone else’s lifetime, right? I never expected to have to actually live through a prophetic event. That’s for legends and dreamers.

It's not like the prophecies are all that clear, anyway. And on that note…

“Now what?”

The look my master gives me tells me he knows exactly how little devotion I gave to studying prophecy. “Perhaps before we move on, you should assure Tia that you’re well.”

Gods’ turds—Tia. I blew her off, and she’ll be pissed and worried.

“But be sparing with details,” Master adds. “See if the dragons have anything new to add.”

Sure, sure. Tell her nothing but dig for information. That totally won’t make her suspicious. I reach out through our bond.

“I’m okay. Sorry. I was dealing with a magic situation.”There, that’s pretty vague.

Her mental touch tells me she doesn’t believe a word of it.“Oh?”

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