Page 56 of Slaying the Shadow Prince
‘Surely this proves that I’m certainly not guilty of treason? Whatever lies you’ve been told, whatever additional strength the guild claims the wraiths have… I don’t know anything about it.’
‘Then what of your cuff? What is the magic or trickery there? You cannot tell me it’s not Naarvian steel.’
‘It is. But…’ Drue’s chest seized. She had trusted him amid shark-infested waters; she had trusted the ribbons of dark power pouring from him. Perhaps… perhaps she could trust him with this, too. Her hand went to her wrist, and she unclasped the cuff, offering it to him on her outstretched palm.
‘It has nothing to do with the source. It’s an experiment. One I carried out back in Ciraun. I forged it myself, treated it… It senses when wraiths are near. Here,’ she said at last, waiting for him to take it.
Tentatively, he did, only to drop it with a shout of pain, his skin scalded. ‘What the fuck?’
The steel circlet rolled across the ground before Drue retrieved it, frowning. ‘It burned you?’
Talemir showed her his blistered fingers. ‘You tell me.’
‘There is no magic or trickery. Notreason.’ She refastened it with a frown. ‘Just flowers.’
‘Flowers? You mean to tell me that the way to detect a wraith, to apparentlyburnone, is through… flowers?’
‘In a way, yes. This was the kingdom of gardens, after all.’
Talemir stared at the cuff as though he didn’t believe her.
‘It’s a particular type: a sun orchid,’ Drue continued. ‘My mother and my brother, Leif, told me about them, how rare they were. Then I discovered a patch of them, when I was fighting a wraith south of here. I saw it happen before my very eyes: a chemical reaction between these flowers that love the daylight, and the wraith’s darkness… When the monster came into contact with the bloom, it reared back, like it had been burned… and the flower… Well, it moved, as much as it could, as though to veer away.’
Talemir looked up.
‘When I’m in your presence, the cuff warms against my skin,’ Drue told him. ‘Not with the same force it does when true wraiths approach, like at the watchtower, like at the northern perimeter… That is far more intense. A dire warning.’
‘And what did you do exactly? To the cuff?’
‘I treated the steel with the essence of the sun orchids, just to see what would happen.’
‘How?’
‘I made an extract… and when I smelted the steel, I put the extract in the cooling tank.’
‘So youdidmeddle.’
‘Not with the source. Not in the way you accused me of.’
‘No…’ he replied quietly.
‘The patch of flowers I used to treat this cuff is no longer there. I have been scouting for more of the same on my patrols ever since, to no avail.’
‘What would you do if you found more?’
‘Grow as many of them as possible. Coat every weapon possible. Spread as much of it around the midrealms as possible.’
‘You think it’s that powerful?’
‘My cuff was the most successful of several experiments. Leif carried them out before me. I refined his work, but without a source of flowers, I can’t continue.’
‘Do you think the extract needs to be applied when forging weapons, or —?’
‘No. I think it could be done to existing blades.’
‘Interesting.’
‘It would be, were there another field of sun orchids.’ Drue tugged on his sleeve and led him down into one of the top levels of the mine. ‘Come on.’
