Midnight Jewel (The Glittering Court #2)(115)

“Really? That was taking it well?” asked Grant. “I’d hate to see when you don’t. I didn’t even hear a manasta when you came in.”

I rested against the wall too, close to Grant but not touching. “Warren’s up to something. First Tamsin and then . . .” I lost track of what I’d been about to say. My mind had jumped somewhere else, clutching at a fragile thread. “Manasta.”

“Manasta,” Grant and Aiana both repeated at the same time, correcting my pronunciation.

I went to the bedroom and returned with a Lorandian version of the letter. Grant and I didn’t read poetry in bed, but sometimes we tried to puzzle this code. “Manasta means ‘greetings,’ right?” I pointed at the letter’s first line. “Ma nahz taback. Do you hear it? Manasta is in there. Wouldn’t you open a letter that way? I mean, it’s not a perfect match. The back syllable is still there, and—”

“What’s the next word after that?” interrupted Grant.

“Dapine. It means ‘rabbit.’”

“Forget the meaning,” he said. “Read those words again. Use your best Lorandian pronunciation.”

“Ma nahz taback dapine.”

“Bakda,” said Aiana. She looked at Grant. “Or bakda?” There was a very slight shift in her tone the second time.

“Bakda,” he said, with a third tone. “Manasta, bakda.”

“What is that?” I asked.

“‘Greetings, friend.’” He had that light in his eyes, the one that said he was about to go on the hunt again. “Mirabel, you’ve broken the code.”





CHAPTER 30


TRANSLATING THE LETTER WAS PAINSTAKING WORK. Grant and Aiana had to sit apart from me and listen as I read, focusing strictly on the sounds and how they could be strung together into Balanquan words. Equally complicated was that there was no word-for-word substitution. One Lorandian word might contain all the sounds for two Balanquan words. Or maybe one Lorandian word contained half a Balanquan word that was continued in the next Lorandian word. On top of it all, we had to take the Balanquan tonal and stress differences into account. So, even when Grant and Aiana were certain they’d parsed a Balanquan word, they had to puzzle out which meaning it had.

We were bleary-eyed by the time we finished, and even then, the letter still had holes we couldn’t decipher. People’s names had been swapped with numbers, and Grant said the traitors probably had a key that listed them all. The writer also hadn’t focused much on grammar or style, so I tried my best to clean it up and add punctuation.

Greetings, friend. We have had occasional detection. 17 is replacing lost goods and still sending gold. He will supervise usual transfer so that you can deliver to green mountain.

How long until your _____ sees more gold? We need additional supplies and _____ start soldier payroll. Important to stay on schedule. First attack must be autumn. 34 is creating final schedule and will send out with _____ seekers on healing night. Send your gold to bay land if you can. If _____ then we will come to you in gold land.

Send response by 17.

I slumped back against the wall and yawned. The three of us sat on the floor, all worn out after the long hours. Well, Grant didn’t seem worn out. He burned with restless energy and leaned forward to study the translation sitting between us.

“An autumn attack,” he mused. “If they can act that soon, then they’ve got more in place than we realized. Or at least, they think they will by then. It sounds like they’re scrambling. Autumn’s a smart time. The land is still passable, but sea travel will shut down and limit Osfridian help. Discovering that part of the plan is huge. Osfrid can start sending backup now. I’d love to get my hands on whatever thirty-four’s schedule is—we need to figure out who those seekers are. And I’ll bet you anything that ‘bay land’ is Denham, which would probably mean ‘gold land’ is Hadisen. Whoever this was meant for is sending money—”

“Iyitsi, enough.” Aiana rubbed at her eyes. “You’ve got your translation. Stay up all night with it if you want, but we need to get back to Wisteria Hollow.”

“Wait just a little longer.” Grant’s eyes stayed fixed on the letter. “This needs to go to Silas right now. It’s already two weeks old. Come with me in case he has any questions, then you can leave.”

Aiana nudged me. “Can you hang in there a little longer, Banle?”

I answered with a nod and a yawn, and Grant finally glanced up. “Banle? Really?”

“No worse than Sekem,” she shot back. “But maybe not a good match anymore. The fledgling’s already left the nest, apparently.”

Grant pointedly looked back down at the letter.




Silas took a long time to answer the door, and I understood why when I saw him. Exhaustion had etched new lines in his face, and his glazed eyes didn’t seem to recognize us at first. He’d been traveling all day, and even the water route between here and Hadisen was taxing. But after a few blinks, his gaze grew sharper, and the familiar shrewdness appeared.

“It can’t be good if all three of you are here in the middle of the night,” he grumbled.

“It is good, actually.” Grant strolled in without invitation and beckoned for Aiana and me to follow. He laid the papers out on the desk and explained about our breakthrough. Silas was fully awake now and rewarded me with one of those raised-eyebrow glances when he heard about my role.