Raven's Strike (Raven #2)(92)

"The Shadowed is evil," agreed Seraph.

Phoran cleared his throat, and Seraph turned to look at him. He glanced once at the setting sun, then said, "I ought to mention that the Memory came last night. I asked him if he knew who the Shadowed was, but he didn't. I wonder if you have a question you would like me to ask him tonight?"

"I do," said Seraph, before anyone else could say anything. "I'd like to know the details of the second part of the spell that steals the Orders to tie them to the gems."

That night, when the Memory beckoned Phoran, Seraph went with him. She made everyone else stay back in camp.

"If it was willing to come out with everyone here, it wouldn't force Phoran to come to it," she said, staring first at Jes, then at Toarsen and Kissel. "I will see to it that Phoran comes to no harm - and he will do the same for me."

"Now mind you," she told Phoran as they tromped up to the little rise he'd gone to the night before "Jes is going to follow us anyway. There's nothing I can do about that - but he'll stay out of my sight, and hopefully not interfere with the Memory."

Phoran smiled down at her. "If I'd tried to leave Toarsen and Kissel behind, we'd still be arguing."

"Yes," she agreed. "But you are only an emperor, after all, and I am Raven."

He couldn't tell if she was teasing or not. He rather suspected not.

The Memory came again. It said nothing to him, nor did it appear to notice Seraph. It fed from his wrist this time. Phoran had thought it would be less awful with Seraph there, but somehow it was worse. As if, he thought, someone was witnessing his rape, it increased the humiliation and feeling of violation. The pain was as bad as it ever had been.

When it was finished, the Memory said, "By the taking of your blood, I owe you one answer. Choose your question."

Phoran staggered to his feet and felt Seraph's arm come round his waist to help support him.

Phoran tried to remember what Seraph had told him she needed to know. "There are three parts to the spell that the Masters use to steal the Orders from Travelers and bind them to gemstones. What happens in the second of the three parts."

"The Masters take the gem, already bound to the Order, and they place it in a man's mouth. He is the sacrifice to power the spell. They cut his throat, and when he is dead they remove the gem." The Memory swayed and its voice changed, rough with remembered agony. "They took it, still warm from the dead man's last breath, and touched me with it. I could feel it pull, I knew that something bad was happening."

"This happens immediately," asked Seraph urgently. "You knew right away?"

"Yes," said the Memory, but it didn't sound like the Memory anymore. It sounded like a man in pain.

"Tier would have known if it started before that night in the Tavern."

Phoran didn't think that Seraph was speaking to the Memory anymore, but it said, "Yes." And it was gone.

"Come," said Seraph, stepping away from him until she held him by the arm rather than around the waist. "I need to talk with Lehr and Tier."

Phoran felt so tired, so weary, and the camp seemed a long way away.

"Come," Seraph said more gently. "Your Memory has give us a different clue than I expected."

"What do you mean?" Phoran started the long trek back to camp.

"I thought I'd learn something of the magic they used," she said. "And I did - though nothing that I can use. But it might have given us a clue about the Shadowed."

They hadn't gone far before Jes joined them. Without asking, he pulled Phoran's arm around his shoulder.

"Lean on me," he said.

Toarsen and Kissel came next.

"They didn't listen to you either," Phoran whispered to Seraph.

She laughed. "At least they didn't bother arguing."

They set Phoran down upon his bedroll, and Seraph tucked him in with all the expertise that his nurse had had when he was a child younger than Rinnie.

"There now," she told him. "Go to sleep."

But he didn't, he just closed his eyes and listened.

Seraph moved away from Phoran and lowered her voice. "Lehr, Olbeck was Shadowed when you found him attacking Rinnie and Phoran."

"That's right," he agreed. "That's what Jes says. I told you Akavith said Olbeck killed poor Lukeeth."

"Lukeeth died the day Tier was stricken," she said. "As best I can piece it together."

"What did you find out?" asked Tier, putting a hand on her shoulder.

She held his hand with her own. "Wait," she said. "Lehr?"

"I don't remember exactly, but either that day or the day before," he agreed.

"Tier, do you remember anyone touching you the day we noticed there was something wrong with your Order?"

"I was at the shop all morning, Seraph," he said. "Of course people touched me."

"Tell me who," she said turning around to face him so he could see her urgency. "Tell me. Not everyone you talked to, just the ones who touched you, Tier." He was a Bard. He could remember them all.

"Alinath and Bandor, of course," he said slowly. "The Brewmaster came with breadmother to replace the one we lost. The miller brought flour. Ciro and his son. Those were the only ones who touched me - that I remember, anyway."