“Why especially now?” Alden asked.
“The ogres are stirring—at least, that is what I fear. Which is why I came to give you this.” Oralie snapped her fingers and a small glass sphere appeared in her palm. Sophie hadn’t realized Oralie was a Conjurer.
“Your cache?” Alden said, taking a step back.
“Actually, this is Kenric’s,” Oralie corrected. “He gave it to me, before he . . .”
She didn’t say the final word, but it cut deep all the same. Councillor Kenric had been one of the first Councillors Sophie had met, and he’d quickly become one of her favorites. He’d been warm and kind and quick to smile, and had always taken her side. But he’d been murdered a few weeks ago, during Fintan’s disastrous healing.
Fintan was the Pyrokinetic who’d trained Brant for the Neverseen. He’d suffered a memory break for his treason, but had managed to protect his secrets. When Sophie discovered she could heal minds, the Council ordered her to heal Fintan, and during the healing, Fintan had found the strength to spark an inferno of Everblaze.
Sophie had managed to grab Fitz and Oralie and teleport to safety—but Kenric had been lost to the flames. Sophie’s only consolation was that Fintan died in his own blaze.
Oralie took Sophie’s hand, placing the cache carefully in her palm. Seven glittering stones were set inside, each a different color.
“Kenric made me promise to give this to you if anything happened to him,” she whispered, “to make sure you’d be protected.”
“Does that mean he suspected his life was in danger?” Alden asked.
“We both did. Though I should’ve done more to help.” Tears slipped down Oralie’s cheeks. “I should’ve done so many things.”
Councillors weren’t allowed to marry or have children, in order to remain impartial in their decisions. But Sophie had seen a connection between Kenric and Oralie and suspected they’d been in love. They could’ve resigned from the Council and chosen to be together, but for some reason they’d kept their lives separate.
“He believed in you,” Oralie said, tracing a soft finger down Sophie’s cheek. “He told me you were the spark of change our world needed. So keep his gift close, and if the Council catches you, use his cache to buy your freedom. Do not let them send you to Exillium. You must also take this.” She handed Sophie an Imparter, a small silver square that worked like a videophone. “It cannot be traced or tracked—and I’m the only one you’ll be able to contact with it. This way we have means to contact each other.”
“What if the Council discovers your involvement?” Alden asked. “They will surely see this as treason.”
“Sometimes rebellion is the only course of wisdom. As all of you well know.” Oralie turned back to Sophie, and her mouth curved with a word. But by the time it slipped from her lips, it had changed to, “I must go.”
She raised her pathfinder to the moonlight and glittered away before Sophie could blink.
“Now that’s what I call mysterious,” Keefe said. “Foster, you should be taking notes. And who else wants to play with this cache thingy and see what it does?”
“You will do nothing of the sort!” Alden told him. “And you must not let anyone know you have it—I wouldn’t even tell the Black Swan. Our world could crumble if that cache fell into the wrong hands.”
“Really?” Sophie asked. It looked like one of the cheap marbles she used to play with as a kid.
“The object itself is not the danger. It’s what the cache contains. What do you think the biggest threat to our world is?” Alden asked.
“The ogres?” Sophie guessed.
“Actually, it is knowledge,” Alden corrected. “Information holds unimaginable power, and some things are too dangerous to be known—even by the Councillors. So they lock the most disturbing secrets away before having them erased from their minds. They’re called the Forgotten Secrets, and they are stored in what you hold there. Each Councillor vows to guard their cache with their lives. Oralie has taken an enormous risk by giving this to you. She’s also given you our world’s most valuable bargaining chip.”
Sophie rolled the glinting marble around her shaking palm, tempted to give such a huge responsibility back. But she owed it to Kenric to protect his gift. Plus, Oralie’s vague warnings had made it sound like she was going to need it.
“Come on,” she told her friends, shoving the cache into her deepest pocket. “We should get to the Black Swan.”
She reached for Fitz’s hand, and Keefe took her other hand. Biana clung tightly to her brother, leaving Dex to choose between Keefe and Biana.
“I won’t bite,” Keefe told Dex. “Ow—but no need to get squeezy!”