Page 44 of Queen Takes Triune
I had to be absolutely sure that whatever trap lay hidden in those pages, I could break it. Luckily, I already had plenty of my best weapon at the ready.
I swiped my index finger through the blood trickling down my throat and stretched out my hand toward the book.
Immediately, I sensed the flare of magic on the page. It was small, and certainly insignificant if I wasn’t looking for it. My blood amplified the signature, letting me see the tendrils of a delicate, intricate spell written on the page, almost as if the magic was in the ink itself.
“Can you turn it around for me so I can read it?”
Gina did as I asked, and the tug grew stronger. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the spell spinning slightly on the upper left-hand corner. Exactly where my gaze would automatically fall in order to begin reading. It definitely wasn’t an accident that was the location of the spell.
I focused on the opposite page. The first house name listed at the top was Edda. So we were definitely in the right part of the book. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the tendrils of magic reaching for me. It felt like a wide, slow tidal whirlpool, gently seeking across the sandy beach. Inviting me to play, even though I knew there were vicious riptides hidden just below the surface.
Without looking at the spell demanding my attention, I swept my bloody finger over the paper.
The spinning whirlpool dissipated like fog.
“What was that?” Gina’s voice shook. “A spell?”
“Yes.” I focused on the left-hand page. A small rune was written in the upper corner. It seemed familiar… but also strange. It stirred the delicate hairs on my nape with dread, even though I didn’t know what it meant. “It’s safe now. Does anyone recognize that symbol?”
Guillaume and Mehen had returned at the first hint of danger, the rest of my Blood in a circle around us.
Mehen let out a dragon hiss. “Sigil, not symbol. It was crafted with a very specific intention that only the maker would know as she wrote it.”
“Agreed.” Guillaume glided his finger in the air over the symbol, tracing the swirls and harsh lines. “It’s made from certain letters, but each letter’s broken into pieces, which makes it impossible to understand unless you’re the maker.”
The sigil almost looked like an S on its side with a rocking-chair base. An umbrella handle popped up toward the right corner, with a triangle and hook at the end.
“It was some kind of forget-me spell,” I mused aloud. “Almost like the geas my mother used to make everyone forget her. But this one only activated when Gina saw it. Does every consiliarius book have that symbol in it, then? Or only ours? How did we get it?”
“They’re printed by the Triune.” Gina turned the book back around and glared at the symbol. “I can see it now, but I swear, when I looked at the page before, I didn’t see anything remarkable. In fact, I can’t even rememberwhatI saw, only that it wasn’t important.”
“House Delafosse is on that page,” I said softly. “Can you read the consiliarius’s name now?”
“Wrenna Jade.”
Mehen grunted. “That’s not a name. It doesn’tringlike a name. It means something else. What’s the Dauphine’s given name?”
“Jeanne,” Daire replied immediately.
Gina rushed over to her purse and dug around for an ink pen. Slowly walking back toward us, she crossed off the letters one by one. “Okay, the letters left are W, R, A, and D.”
My magic pulsed in my blood, the letters pounding through me like a gong. “Ward. Ward Jeanne.”
Guillaume and Mehen looked at each other and said, “Fuck.”
13
Shara
Shaken, I leaned against Rik, soaking in his heat and strength. Sure, we’d figured it out before the spell had gotten me too, but it’d been close. Too close. If I hadn’t been bleeding, would I have noticed? Even if I’d realized that Gina had forgotten to look up the name, I would have taken the book and looked at it too, falling prey to the exact same sigil.
“That’s how she stays hidden,” Guillaume said. “She uses sigils to hide in plain sight. Has anyone ever talked to Leonie or her consiliarius in person? I’m guessing the answer is no. People know of Leonie, but in reality, have never talked to her.”
Gina paced back and forth, her heels ringing smartly on the wooden floor. “It’s all too fucking smart. Aima queens and their consiliari will follow strict protocols when contacting an unknown queen. Which means consulting the book to find her consiliarius. Only the rune wipes the desire to find her out of their mind and they move on, never realizing the truth.”
“How many other pages have that same kind of ward?” I dabbed more blood on my finger. “We ought to scan every page to be safe.”
Gina shook her head. “Actually, I don’t think that will be necessary. The books are regularly updated by the Triune. Well, regularly as far as Aima are concerned. I believe this book was sent to me about twenty years ago, so she’s been Leonie Delafosse at least that long. I don’t know that she’d need to ward any other names, though I guess it’s possible.”
