Stormcaster (Shattered Realms #3)(69)

“Celestine claims that the magemarked are related to her, that we have Nazari blood, which is why we belong together. Remember, it was Jenna who drew Celestine to the wetlands.”

“Jenna and the busker,” sul’Han said, half to himself.

Evan’s mind was racing along, and now it skidded to a stop. “Busker? What do you mean?”

The healer sighed. “Back at Solstice, when I was still in Arden, a street performer—a musician—led my sister into an ambush.”

“Oh!” Evan said, unsure where this was going. “Did it—? Was she—?”

“She was unhurt, but one of her personal guards was killed. The Queen’s Guard tracked the busker down in Chalk Cliffs, and he turned out to have a magemark, too.”

Evan was stunned. He’d been living alone with this secret for most of his life, but now the magemarked seemed to be surfacing at every turn, flushed out of hiding by Celestine.

“Did you ask him about the mark?” Evan leaned forward. “What did he tell you?”

The healer shook his head. “He claimed he didn’t know much about it, either. He’d been working with a gang out of Baston Bay when he was recruited to do a street concert, supposedly to try to woo my sister on behalf of a suitor.”

“So . . . this person . . . used his gift to try to murder the heir to the throne?” Evan felt as if he were standing on a sandbar that was being washed out from under him.

Sul’Han nodded. “Now, bear in mind, most of this is secondhand, because I just arrived home after . . . after a long time away.”

“In Ardenscourt.”

“In the south, yes.”

“So . . . the busker . . . What is his name?”

“Breon d’Tarvos, he calls himself.” The healer was watching Evan closely.

Evan made no attempt to hide his surprise. “Tarvos! But that’s where—”

“That’s where your stronghold is,” sul’Han said, nodding.

Evan was beginning to see why the wetlanders might be wary of him. How could he possibly win their trust with that history on the books?

“The busker has the gift of . . . ensnarement? Enticement?”

“Something like that. My sister—she wouldn’t—anyway.” The healer fumbled his way to the end of that sentence as if changing his mind several times on the way. “So you can see why we’re trying to jam all these pieces into the same puzzle. One theory is that Arden’s behind it, because we’ve been enemies for so long. That assumes that Carthis is here as a proxy for the Montaignes, hired as mercenaries to fight their battle for them, since the thanes are in rebellion.”

“Celestine is nobody’s proxy,” Evan said. “If the young king thinks she’s biddable, he will learn to his sorrow that she is not.”

The healer nodded. “I agree. Given what happened in Ardenscourt, and the fact that the busker was in Chalk Cliffs when it came under attack, I’m inclined to think that the empress came north on her own, and she was after the busker.”

Evan didn’t want to ask, but he had to know. “You mentioned that the busker was in Chalk Cliffs. Where is he now?”

“We don’t know,” sul’Han said. “He was in the city when it fell. We believe that he might be among the prisoners the empress took back to her capital.” Again, it seemed like he had more to say, but didn’t.

Evan tried not to surrender to despair. Despite everything he’d done, all the plans he’d laid with Destin, another of the magemarked was in the empress’s hands.

So, now what? Maybe Brody was right. These wetlanders might decide to trade him to the empress in an effort to make her go away. They might believe they had no other skin in the game. Evan had to convince them otherwise.

“Once Celestine realizes that Jenna is still alive, she will conquer the wetlands, realm by realm, until she finds her. If you want to defeat the empress, you are going to have to join together. If you don’t, she will win. Ask the survivors of Chalk Cliffs.” He paused. “Do you think there’s any chance of that—joining together?”

“It won’t be easy,” the healer said. “There’s too much blood on the ground already.”

“And there will be more—you can count on that,” Evan said. “What about you? Why are we having this meeting? What are you hoping for?”

The healer held his gaze for a long moment. And then, somehow, chose to trust him. “You’ve heard people speak of a Captain Gray,” he said.

Evan nodded. “He was at Chalk Cliffs,” he said. “Everyone seemed to be worried about him.”

“She was at Chalk Cliffs,” the healer corrected him. “Captain Gray is my sister Alyssa, the heir to the Gray Wolf throne. We believe that the empress took her captive, and that she is now somewhere in Carthis. I intend to go after her, and I’m going to need your help.”





27


SETTING THE TRAP


When it came to political intrigue, Hal Matelon had one thing going for him: by now he had a network of men he could trust with his life—men he’d fought alongside on multiple battlegrounds in this never-ending war. He was counting on that now to help him find his brother.

On the downside, his was a well-known face in Ardenscourt, even after a year away, since he’d spent most of his winters at court. So he sat in the corner of the tavern, collar turned up, face turned away from the lamp, hoping that he wouldn’t be recognized. The last thing they needed was another Matelon held hostage by the boy king.