The Heart Forger (The Bone Witch #2)(46)

“Are you going to tell them?”

“I would have, no matter my affection for you. We are honor bound to do so.” Althy turned to Zoya, who was being unusually quiet. “And what do you think?”

“Well,” the pretty asha said calmly, “judging from Polaire’s current state, while she may not be keen on allowing Tea to sacrifice her life for Mykaela’s sake, it’s obvious that she’s willing to sacrifice hers to do the same. Isn’t this all a matter of perspective then? Don’t you agree, Likh?”

The boy started. “Ah. I don’t know. What Althy said makes sense…but so did what you said.”

Althy shook her head. “You are right about one thing, Tea. Polaire would have never allowed you to use the book.”

“But Polaire knew one of Aenah’s spells,” I insisted. The rune around Mykaela and Polaire glowed fainter but remained constant.

Zoya peered closer at the couple. “It’s not any rune I’ve ever studied before, that is true.”

“Polaire owes us answers as well,” Althy conceded. “This rune’s not life threatening at least. It’s unusual to find this kind of rune in a Faceless’s book, given the trust this requires.”

“Don’t be hard on either of them, Althy,” Princess Inessa interrupted. “I know you better than most. And if Tea hadn’t learned to control the azi, we would still be stuck in Kneave, right? If Lady Polaire hadn’t learned this spell, it would have doomed Lady Mykaela. Incidentally, Lady Tea, can you reestablish a rapport with the azi?”

“Yes.”

“Can’t you force it to stay?”

“I can, but it needs its rest too.”

“It sounds odd to hear you refer to that monster like it was a pet.” The princess paused, reflecting. “You’re going to let Tea keep the book, aren’t you? Cat’s out of the bag, so all you can do is limit the catnip.”

“Not quite,” Althy said firmly. “I will keep the book close to me for now, and there will be repercussions later. That shall be up to the association, though I shall ask for leniency.”

I’d hoped she’d see things closer to Zoya’s perspective. But I had committed many of the runes to heart, so the book’s loss was not too great. “I understand.”

“Now that that’s settled”—Princess Inessa clapped her hands together, delighted—“I’d like to take a look at the book myself.”

“It’s not something Your Highness should be reading,” Kalen said, breaking his silence in favor of admonishment.

“Why not? It’s not like I’ll be able to use the spells. And the more you say I can’t, the more I want to.”

A stray thought entered my mind. The last time you wanted to see something you weren’t supposed to, we wound up wearing each other out.

I looked at Fox, now a bright red. The telltale embarrassment filtering through our link told me it was an inadvertent slip.

“But first, the prince’s heartsglass. We need Khalad to take a look.” Princess Inessa reached into her robes. Khalad scooted forward.

“Well?” Zoya demanded after several minutes.

“He’s well,” Khalad reported. “As well as he can be anyway. He has the same sleeping sickness as the other nobles Master visited.”

“Is there a way to cure him?”

“Master was working on a possible spell for it, but he never left me any instructions for replication.”

“Why were you and the prince wearing your own heartsglass?” Zoya asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be wearing each other’s?”

“Kance suggested that we wear our own until we’re more comfortable with our engagement.” A small smile played on her lips. “But neither of us reneged on the exchange, so I was able to sneak into his chambers with Althy and filch his heartsglass when the fighting started.”

“When you create a memory, you take in several hundred impressions at once,” Khalad said. “Smells and sights and touch make up only a small part of it. Whoever caused Kance’s illness left a faint trace there…a desire to return to Daanoris.”

“Daanoris?” Althy asked. “I doubt that Holsrath has ever been there, and there were no representatives from Daanoris at the betrothal. Emperor Shifang has been trying to woo Inessa for years, and we thought it wouldn’t be appropriate to offer him an invitation.”

The princess winced. Something flared up in Fox before it was swiftly shuttered away.

Khalad sighed and handed the heartsglass back to Princess Inessa. “That’s all I can find. If Master were here, he might have found more.”

“You said he was in Daanoris, right?” I asked.

“Looks like all clues lead there.” Althy rubbed her chin. “Unfortunately. Daanoris was a closed nation until recently and not very keen on outsiders. Let’s decide our next step at Ankyo.”

“That might be more difficult than it looks,” Kalen said. “We might have prevented them from sending an army after us, but that doesn’t mean soldiers in every outpost from Kneave to Ankyo won’t be on the alert. Pigeons fly faster than we can travel.”

Zoya groaned. “I am not looking forward to fighting our way to Kion.”