Page 8 of The Threadbare Queen

Ava pushed back from him with effort, forced herself to give him room to step past her, back into the main thoroughfare.

“No more hiding in the shadows for you,” she said.

He smiled at her, but his face was taut. He was feeling the stress of winning the war almost more than when he was leading the Rising Wave toward Fernwell.

“I’ll see what this is about, and then meet you at the palace,” he said. “The general and I told the Grimwaldians you were busy and we’d meet later this afternoon.”

Then he was gone, and she stepped out after him, saw it was Rafe calling him, a small cohort of soldiers from both Venyatu and Cervantes behind him.

Ava watched as Luc bent close to Rafe and then turn toward the city gates with him. Most of the Rising Wave was camped just outside the city walls.

She wished she could follow.

But she had duties of her own, and she would need to think about what she may need to work into her clothing to shield against a Grimwaldian envoy, some of whom could possibly see through her protections.

It was not something she’d had to worry about before.

She might consider avoiding them, just to be safe, but one or more of them may know what had become of Tomas and Velda.

She would not waste this opportunity to find out what had happened to her friends. So she would take the time to think of a way to loosen their tongues and tell her what they knew.

Chapter 2

As he followed Rafe toward the city gates, Luc forced himself not to look back.

He wanted a last look at Ava, but as far as everyone else was concerned, she wasn’t there.

That was good, he knew. It protected her.

It bothered him that she thought someone had seen through her spell earlier.

He turned to Rafe. “Were you the one who met the Grimwaldian delegation at the palace gates?”

Rafe nodded. “The guards wouldn’t let them through, and someone called me to deal with them.”

“How many were there? When they were presented to me, there were only six.”

Rafe’s gaze sharpened. “There were six at the gates. The four senior diplomats and two assistants. You’re saying there are more of them?”

“They didn’t make it across the whole of Kassia, from the northern border to the south, without at least a few guards for protection.”

Rafe swore softly. “I should have thought of that immediately. Just the diplomats presented themselves at the gates. They must have left the rest of their group somewhere in the city.”

“That would be my guess.” Luc kept his eyes on their surroundings as they walked through the last line of buildings before the gates out to the open fields to the north of the city. No one paid them any more mind than usual. “Did they say where they are staying?”

Rafe rubbed the back of his neck. “No. I assumed they’d be given rooms in the palace.”

Luc shook his head. “No Grimwaldian will have that much access to Ava. Not while I’m alive to prevent it.”

“Understood.” Rafe glanced at him. “There was someone in Herron’s old palace rooms last night. The guards heard the rattle of drawers opening and burst inside, but whoever was there managed to escape. The window was open and there was a rope dangling down into the gardens.”

Luc kept his stride even, not letting any sign of his deep unease show. “Bold of someone to break in under our noses. Was anything taken?”

Rafe lifted his shoulders. “Nothing obvious. I’ve spoken to Raun-Tu, and we’ve made sure the gardens are patrolled now, too. And the cliffs. I found another rope at the far end of the garden, thrown over one of the walls built on the cliff. They came up from the sea, got a rope over the wall into the garden, and then another one into the Herald’s rooms.”

Someone who had inside knowledge, then. It would be impossible for a random thief to know which rooms had been Herron’s.

“They wouldn’t have gone to that trouble and then not taken anything. We just don’t know what, yet.” That worried him.

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