Page 128 of The Threadbare Queen

“Why are Catthans involved in this?” Luc wondered how many countries they’d have to add to their enemies list.

“I think to give the Speaker the ability to deny Grimwalt’s involvement. There is a contingent waiting for me on the Grimwalt side of the Illoan bridge. They have the coin Sirna was promised for kidnapping me there, and they may decide to come looking when Sirna doesn’t arrive with me.”

“How many?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. There’s a man, I didn’t get much of a sense of him, I was very weak when he joined us after laying the false trail in Bartolo, but he was obviously in charge, and taking his orders directly from the Speaker.”

Luc could see the strain on her face. He wondered what the man had done to her.

His rage wanted to rise up out of him on fiery wings and lift him into the sky, so he could rain down his fury from above.

“So he might come looking for you when you fail to arrive?” Massi was looking at Ava with concern.

“From what I gathered about him,” Ava said, “he will be beyond angry when I’m not delivered at the border.”

“How did they even get you in Fernwell?” Massi asked.

Luc wondered the same. And they would need to know, to stop it happening again.

“The Queen’s Herald, my cousin Herron, had something in his apartments in the palace. A spelled item of my clothing from when I was a baby that my mother used to find me when Herron abducted me years ago. It’s called a Focus. Sirna was the cart driver for the Grimwaldian delegation that came to Fernwell just before you left to deal with the Jatan. He was given the Focus by the man from Grimwalt, who paid one of Herron’s old guards to break in and steal it. They used it to track me and take me when I stepped out of the palace gates.”

Luc and Massi shared a look. Rafe had told him of the break-in the day Kym had arrived with her news about the Jatan coming over the border.

He hadn’t thought about it since.

“Where is it now?” he asked. It needed to be destroyed.

“Gone. I couldn’t risk escaping while Sirna still had it.”

Luc felt himself relax a little.

“So what’s the plan?” Massi asked. “Once we’ve finished up here?”

“We go to Illoa.” Luc looked at Ava, to see if she would object, but she simply nodded.

“And do what?” Massi wanted to know.

“And tell them they’ve started a war.”

Chapter 32

“We can’t actually tell some random border guards on the bridge in Illoa that Grimwalt has started a war with Kassia,” Ava said as she watched Luc pull his shirt over his head. “Not without first knowing what General Ru’s been saying about where I’ve been all this time.”

Luc looked like he didn’t care too much about that, but he crawled into bed and gathered her close. “What do you suggest?”

“I think I need to send a number of missives to Taunen, to people I think can be trusted, and to some of the old established families in the provinces who knew my grandparents and my parents.” She yawned, her jaw cracking, and snuggled against him, closing her eyes at the feel of his skin against her cheek. “It needs to be done quietly and quickly, before the Speaker has the chance to slip away or somehow twist what he’s done.”

He didn’t disagree, but she could feel the tightness in his muscles. He didn’t want to send missives, he wanted to draw blood.

“I didn’t even suspect you were in trouble.” The words were stark. “I had no idea.”

She lifted her head to look at him, surprised. “How could you have?”

He touched his forearm.

She didn’t understand for a moment, and then enlightenment struck. “You think my magic should have told you?”

He shook his head, then shrugged. “Maybe? I thought it did, once before.”

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