25 #4

Aelyn read the order again. The route ended beneath the Citadel, in a conduit older than the new walls. The key’s code matched the plate Cevran had brought to Varek.

“Was the woman at the post expecting an answer?” she asked.

“She said an answer could go in any direction except north.”

Cael was protecting his position. He was also leaving a channel open.

Aelyn avoided ascribing any greater intent to him.

“The fourth thread ends here,” she said.

Neral copied the document. The scribe certified the seal and kept an impression in clay. Lenda took another copy to the king’s healers. Aelyn kept the original in an unmarked box.

“Will we send it to the warrior?” Lenda asked.

“The western routes are closed. Cevran knows her messengers, and Varek expects us to try to reach her.”

“She may need the location.”

“She also needs the evidence to survive.”

Aelyn tied the certified order, Oren’s message, and the mountain impression together with the white cord.

“We’ll wait for a way out that begins far from us.”

The document stayed in Caleryon.

Isolde was still in the mountains, beside a man fighting to breathe. Between them lay snow, patrols, and four years of silence.

Darian was waiting for her in Ardan’s room.

The king slept beneath two blankets. Ravel had reduced the sedative again, though the fever returned every night. Three pieces stood on the strategy table: a crown of fire, a dragon beneath the mountain, and a road without an emblem.

“The Archives have made a third copy,” Darian said.

Aelyn placed her councilor’s brooch beside the board.

“A good decision.”

“It was the archivist’s idea.”

“A good decision by the archivist.”

Darian looked at the king.

“Varek controls half the Guard and almost all the grain routes.”

“He also controls some of your signatures.”

“I want a list of every order connected to the Cendral file.”

“Ask the Archives.”

“I need your register.”

“My register belongs to the families.”

“I can stop the transfers.”

“Start with the five laundry workers.”

“They’ll be freed tomorrow.”

Aelyn studied his face.

“And Cevran?”

“He left Caleryon under Varek’s protection.”

“Your arrest order still stands.”

“Yes.”

Darian took the road piece and turned it between his fingers.

“The woman in the marsh said you’d spent years opening what I closed.”

Aelyn’s heart struck her ribs once.

“What woman?”

“You know who.”

“I want to hear you say it.”

Darian placed the piece beside the crown.

“Isolde is alive.”

Aelyn kept her hands on the table. She had imagined those words in the voices of boatmen, healers, and women arriving late from a route. Receiving them from Darian hurt.

Isolde was alive. She searched for a question she could hold before him and first found the image of the two of them running among the Harvest Festival stalls with sugar on their sleeves. For an instant, she had to close her eyes.

Darian moved a chair. Aelyn braced herself against the board before he could bring it to her.

“Where is she?”

“She fled west.”

“Did you hurt her?”

Darian looked at the burn showing beneath his sleeve.

“I struck her during the fight. I attacked her injured shoulder. She’d lost strength in her left leg, and I used it to block her way.”

Aelyn gripped the edge of the board until she felt its relief against her palm.

“Did you try to capture her?”

“Yes.”

“Keep those words when they ask you about the marsh.”

“Varek knows you recognized her,” Aelyn said.

“He suspects. My report leaves her identity open.”

“You’ve bought time.”

“I need it too.”

“She needs it more.”

Darian went to Ardan’s bed.

“I cut off a core to get the civilians out. I left an evacuation route open.”

“Do you want me to write that in your favor?”

“I want her to understand that I can help her.”

“When she comes back, she’ll understand your decisions in full.”

“Varek hid what the cores would do from me.”

“Isolde was in front of you. You could see her when you blocked the way.”

Darian looked away from the board.

“I know.”

“You also had four years to look at the people who kept disappearing.”

Darian rested both hands on the edge of the bed.

“If I bring him down now, his men will cut off the grain and open the Scar.”

“Then prepare storehouses outside his control, free witnesses, and hand the routes over to the Council.”

“That will take months.”

“Start tonight.”

Ardan moved beneath the blankets. He opened his eyes and looked at the pieces. His hand took time to reach the board.

He took the crown of fire and placed it on the road without an emblem.

Darian watched the gesture.

Aelyn let the king withdraw his hand himself.

“She’ll return when the road belongs to her,” she said.

“She may return with an army.”

“She may return with people you know by numbers.”

Darian looked at the piece.

“Are you in contact with her?”

“I have evidence looking for a way out.”

“That doesn’t answer me.”

“It’s the answer you’ll get.”

Aelyn picked up her brooch and went toward the door.

“Tomorrow I’ll open the transfer register,” Darian said.

“Tomorrow I’ll check how many pages are missing.”

She left before trusting the promise.

Aelyn put away the fourth thread.

When the time came, she would know what to send along it.