Page 91 of A Reign of Roses
“Mari.” I laughed. “Thank you, but—”
“Oh!” She pulled a dusty book from behind one of her pillows. “Or this book on the history of herbalism—”
“Let’s find the ledger first? Then I will gladly scavenge this pigsty of yours for gifts.”
Mari nodded brightly in agreement and moved to toss the dry leather-bound text back into one of the many mountains of cloaks and boots.
“Actually,” Kane said, halting her with an arched brow. “I’ll take it.”
She grinned and handed the hefty book to him. Kane considered the tome in his hands, flipping through it casually, his hair skating dreamily over his forehead.
My chest expanded. My two bookworms—I loved them so.
Dropping to the floor, Mari slid underneath her bed.
I raised a brow at Kane, who only shrugged, one large hand still holding open his new book as he craned his head down to study Mari’s sub–bed frame fumbling. “What are you—”
“Aha!” Mari scrambled out from the depths, her hair like a tumbleweed. “I knew I put it somewhere safe.”
“Indeed,” Kane drawled.
But Mari ignored him, plopping onto her unmade bed, and I did the same beside her. I’d missed her so much, I could have rested my chin on her shoulder like a faithful dog. But I settled for watching her leaf through the yellowed pages.
“This ledger was made by Oleander Cross!”
I peered up at Kane, expecting to share another confused glance. But his brows had met in interest. “It was?”
Mari nodded eagerly. “That means—”
Kane was apparently way ahead of her. “If he’d even do it.”
“Sure he would. That’s how he makes most of his coin now. He wouldn’t even have to know what it was for.”
“Somebody,” I interrupted, “please clue me in.”
“Oleander Cross is the finest historian and bookmaker in Evendell. He’s old now, but still crafts historical texts and ledgers. He’s most famous for recounting battles throughout Evendell’s history. The kind of books that will be passed down from generation to generation or kept in the most exclusive museums.”
“He crafts more duplicates than originals these days,” Kane added, wrapping his hands around Mari’s iron bed frame. “Because they go for so much coin.”
I fit the pieces together slowly in my mind. “You want him to craft a decoy to bribe Ethera with?”
“She’d give anything for the names of those who waged war against her all those years ago. She’s never been able to track down any of the generals or commanders. Not without this ledger.”
“So,” Mari added, “she won’t even realize when all the names are fake. She’ll hunt them down and never find a soul.”
“We’d have Kleio use a low-level noble to contact him, say it’s for a museum. He’d never know it’d be going to the Scarlet Queen.”
“And by the time she learns the names were false…”
Kane finished my thought. “We’d have already used her army to beat Lazarus. We could handle her wrath then.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. Not at all. “Mari, you’re—”
“Thank you!” She beamed. “I know.”
“This is pretty nice,” Isaid to Ryder, and I meant it. I hadn’t been inside the soldiers’ barracks, other than the tented pavilion that served as Kane’s war room and occasional forum. But Ryder’s quarters were clean and relatively spacious, even as they smelled a bit of horse and woodfire and boy. I’d wanted to come see him before we left for Rose. Only a day after we’d found the ledger in Mari’s room, Kane’s messengers had contacted the historian and paid him generously. We were leaving tonight.
Ryder’s hastily made bed could only fit one, and there was another across from his with simply folded sheets and a few errant crumbs.
