Page 26 of The Threadbare Queen

“What do you know?”

“I need to talk to Ava.” The captain looked around, as if expecting to see her.

“We can’t find her. It seems she’s disappeared.” Erdene watched his face as she spoke, and she saw him jolt at her words, and his golden brown skin lost some of its color.

“Ava was going to find you. Going to tell you what had happened with me and the fork. I heard her ask someone where you were as I was leaving.”

“What had happened?” Now they were getting somewhere.

“I was assigned to look for the Grimwaldian wagon driver who came into the city with the diplomats. Rafe told me it was important I find him, but that I was to be careful of magical utensils.”

Erdene lifted a brow.

Eckhart gave a brief nod. “He made a joke of it. He didn’t understand the true danger.”

“But now you do?”

Eckhart sighed. “I was enspelled, Ava said. She didn’t blame me for it.”

“What did you do?” Although Erdene was beginning to guess.

“I threw the fork that’s inside that box at her. She managed to duck.”

Erdene bet she had. The queen of Kassia was the strongest spell caster she had ever come across.

She had noted with interest that Ava had yet to realize how strong she truly was.

She must have had enough protection sewn into her clothes to make any assassination attempt difficult, if not impossible.

If assassination had been the aim. So far, they had tried to capture her, not kill her.

“What happened after that?”

Eckhart rubbed a finger down the bridge of his nose. “She asked me some questions about what had happened to me when I went to find the wagon driver, and we both became worried about the two other soldiers who had been investigating the whereabouts of the Grimwaldian contingent.”

“Ava wanted to check on them?”

Eckhart nodded. “But she was going to speak to you first. Not go looking for them without help.”

So Ava had been taken on her way to find her, Erdene thought. Someone had followed Eckhart, perhaps, and waited to see what havoc he managed to wreak with his fork.

“Do you remember anything before you were enspelled?”

Eckhart told her the name of the tavern, the order he’d received to find Ava and report to her. “I don’t remember being given the fork, or the instructions to throw it at her.” He ran a hand over a face that was pale and drawn.

“They would have had multiple plans in place.” Erdene gave him what comfort she could. “It might not have been her you were meant to attack. It could have been Luc, or even me.” The more Erdene thought about that, the more likely it seemed.

“I didn’t mean to attack anyone.”

“Perhaps enspelling you was simply them taking advantage of the situation to create chaos. They hoped they’d have a better chance of grabbing Ava if things were unstable.”

“Why didn’t she take a guard with her when she went to the camp to look for you?” Eckhart’s expression was haunted.

“She thought she was safe.” Erdene couldn’t say that no doubt Ava had been wearing her protective cloak. Somehow, the Grimwaldians had found a way around her protections, though.

“If it was the Grimwaldians, are they taking her back to Grimwalt?” Eckhart asked.

“That makes the most sense. But they’ve had almost half a day’s head start.” That didn’t mean they shouldn’t go after them.

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