The Theft of Sunlight by Intisar Khanani (story reading .TXT) 📕

“Could I have a word with you?”

It doesn’t occur to me that there’s really nowhere to actually have a word with him until he pauses where he is. Then he gestures me on, and as I reach him he falls into step with me. We stop at a door just before the great sweeping staircase that the royals use. It leads to a small, windowless guard room I never even noticed; the guards within immediately step out at Matsin’s request.

He leaves the door partially open, for propriety’s sake, and turns to me. “Something has happened?” he hazards. The bright yellow glow from a luminae stone lights his features and gleams on the oiled leather and polished bronze of his armor. I’m still in my nightshirt and pants, my shawl doing very little for propriety, but it hardly matters in this moment.

“A woman I’ve been working with—a tax clerk—she’s disappeared. The same one I went out with yesterday, when you followed us.” I hand him the letter and let him read it himself.

His expression, serious before, grows increasingly grim as he peruses the letter. “What, precisely, were you researching?”

“The princess can tell you that.”

He raises his gaze to me, then nods. “You’re sure it’s related?”

“There would be no other reason to target her.” And her family has no idea that the snatchers might be involved. “I need to visit her family, tell them what I know,” I say with sudden decision.

“You’re not leaving the palace.”

What? “Kirrana is missing and you’re worried about me going to see her family?”

“You were wounded, were you not? By someone who might prefer to finish the deed he started? And then you were followed by an unknown man? You can’t go to this family as if there is no danger to you at all.”

“How do you know all that?”

“Because the princess swore me to silence and told me to keep a watch on your safety. I understand you’re not exactly safe outside these walls.”

Fair enough, though I wish she’d told me. “I’m not going to walk there. I’ll take a carriage.” He opens his mouth to protest. “And you can come with me, if you’re that worried.”

He closes his mouth. Takes a breath. “All right.”

I stare at him in astonishment. Did he just agree to go with me?

“But not now. I can’t leave my post here. I’m off duty in an hour; we’ll go then.”

“I should go sooner—”

“Not alone. I swear I’ll take you to find your friend’s family, along with a quad as escort. And I’ll report her as missing at once. She works at the tax office; the palace guard will help investigate. You write back to her mother with what you know and send it ahead of us. Agreed?”

There’s a sharp look about him, a heightened awareness that tells me he’s taking this very seriously. And that I should not underplay the threat the Scholar still poses to me. There’s likely not much I can accomplish alone that Matsin isn’t about to order. “Agreed.”

I set up in the common room where I won’t disturb the other attendants, and send off a flurry of letters, my mind jumping from possibility to possibility. First, a letter to Kirrana’s mother, telling her that I will be bringing Captain Matsin in the next hour or so, as I’m able, and that he will have the palace guard informed and set to work immediately. Then a letter for Alyrra to be delivered when she will accept it, and another for Garrin, because he has taken on the responsibility of the existing investigation.

I get up and pace back and forth when I finish, then sit down to rest my foot. I will no doubt walk plenty today; it’s better not to start out hard. But I cannot sit still, tapping my hands nervously against the table as I think of Kirrana followed and attacked. My hands still. It was Bren’s man who followed us yesterday to make sure we were safe. And Sage told me, that first time we went to meet the thieves, that Red Hawk’s men helped search for a girl who disappeared.

I write a brief note to Bren describing Kirrana’s disappearance and explaining that I’m going to her home. I don’t know that he can do anything, but I’d rather ask than miss a chance to help her. Bren told me how to contact his trusted page—not that I had expected to need to do so. I’m glad for it now.

While I’m waiting for him to arrive, I return to my room to change into one of my simpler new skirt and tunic sets, wrap Niya’s story sash about my waist. I pause a moment in the room, trying to think.

This is my fault. For involving Kirrana, for drawing attention to her. I should have known she was more vulnerable than I. It’s my fault she’s been taken.

But that’s not right—in the end, it is the snatchers’ fault. Berenworth Trading Company. The thrice-cursed Circle of Mages, who are too powerful to take on, too dangerous to face. Darkness take them!

I take a shaky breath, check my pockets. I should have my bone knife. I cross to my desk, slide the drawer open quietly so as not to wake Mina. There is the knife, and beside it the archer’s journal. The archer, who destroyed her king to save her people. And the Fae sorceress with her seemingly incredible magical ability. I stare a long moment at the book, then slip it into my pocket, bind my knife in its sheath to my calf, and write one final letter.

Bren’s page arrives just as I’m finishing, his hair sleep mussed but his eyes alert. He accepts my note to Bren, promises to pass off the other note to another page at once, and departs.

I set out after him. There’s still a half hour before Matsin will be able to take me to see Kirrana’s family. I don’t intend to waste it.

Chapter

44

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