Teza scowled. “It’s like someone spilled a box of puzzle pieces and none of them fit together. Ephraim and Trey were in the pilothouse. They had stab wounds and slashes all over their bodies, and, apparently, bled to death before the explosion. In and around the hold, there were seven dead priests.”
“Priests?” Evan rocked back in his chair, resting the heels of his hands on the edge of the table.
Teza nodded. “Most were badly burned. It looked like they tried to go down into the hold and somehow the dragon got out of the collar and flamed them. Then escaped.”
“Hmm. Doctrinal differences, no doubt.”
“My lord?”
“The church flames mages, and dragons flame priests.”
“Oh. I see, my lord.”
Evan sighed. Destin would have understood immediately. Teza was willing, but Evan’s humor usually went right over his head.
“It seems that somebody who knew what he was doing used explosives to blow up the ship.” Teza set his bag on the table and opened it. “Destin found two collars in the hold. There was this one.” He held up the collar they’d used on the dragon. “And this.” He handed over another silver collar in a smaller size.
Evan tapped the runes etched into the silver. “Why is this familiar?”
“According to Destin, this is the collar that the healer wore.”
Evan looked up, puzzled. “The healer?” Had he met a healer?
“The collared mage at the meeting. The one responsible for ‘magical threats.’ Speaking of threats, you’ll find some interesting enhancements to that.” He pointed his chin at the neckpiece.
“Ah.” Evan saw what Teza meant. The collar was typical of flashcraft, except for the tiny bottles and pouches attached to the inside. “Something tells me that these are not medicinal.” He shook his head, bemused. “What would he have been doing on my ship? We barely spoke.”
“Someone wanted to prevent us from making a deal with Montaigne,” Teza said.
“More likely, they wanted to prevent the empress from making a deal with Montaigne,” Evan said. “Could it have been agents from the Fells?”
“That’s the common opinion,” Teza said. “The entire countryside is in a frenzy of superstition. The churches are packed. They think the wolf queen is going to send more dragons swooping down on them.”
“One day I’ll have to meet this demon queen and see if she really eats babies for supper.” Maybe I’ll sail north, he thought, instead of east.
“Just wait until they meet the empress.”
“I hope they don’t,” Evan said, his smile dying away. “I hope I’m wrong.” He cleared his throat. “Any word on who killed Montaigne?”
“Rumor has it that he killed himself. He was despondent over recent events, and went a little crazy.”
Evan snorted. “If true, it would be the first good deed he’s ever done. But I don’t believe it. Somebody finally got to him.” He raised his glass. “To dead Montaigne,” he said softly.
Teza raised his own glass. “To dead Montaigne.” They clanked. “See? It wasn’t a complete disaster. Montaigne is dead, and we prevented the empress from getting hold of the magemarked girl. That’s something.”
“But Jenna Bandelow is dead, too, and we don’t know any more than we did before. We don’t even know what her gift really was.” Evan brushed his fingers over the back of his neck, tracing the symbol embedded there. Different from Jenna’s, and yet somehow connected, rooted in the same magic, the same history.
“You didn’t kill the girl.”
“She’d still be alive if I hadn’t intervened.”
“Maybe not for long. In any event, we couldn’t risk leaving her there for the empress to find. We couldn’t chance an even more powerful Celestine.”
The food came. Evan waited until the server moved away again, then leaned in, pitching his voice low. “Why does my life count for more than Jenna’s? She was smart and brave, Teza! I think we would have been friends. It seems like we should be allies. It’s one thing to kill someone because they know too much. It’s another to kill someone because they can’t provide the answers you don’t have yourself.”
“What do you think Cele will do when she finds out the girl is dead?”
“What she always does. She’ll go back to hunting me. Maybe I should just get it over with and arrange a meeting.”
“No!” Teza said, too loudly. He looked around. Several people were staring, but they hurriedly returned to their meals. “Look,” he said softly, “no one can fault you for trying to survive.”
“No one but me,” Evan said. “I always put the ones I love at risk.” He paused. “It’s getting late. Let’s finish up so you can walk me down to this ship you’ve found. We’ll need to be ready to catch the tide.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Change is good, right? Maybe. But it’s never been easy for me. I’m not the girl who leaves, I’m the girl who’s left behind. And yet, here I am, launching a new series with a new publisher.