Page 97 of Lady of the Lake

I don’t know what I expected to find here, a map of Brocéliande with red Xs all over it, perhaps, or plans for a surprise strike. Tana said it would be something tiny but huge. Maybe a powerful sword? Excalibur itself?

Whatever I anticipated, it wasn’t this: a small, barren room and an alcove with a few gray folders. A worn oak desk stands against one wall. There’s nothing else.

Inset into the wall is a small, round door. I try to open it, wondering if what I’m looking for is beyond it. It’s locked.

I pull my lockpicking kit from my pocket, then hesitate. Looks can be deceiving. I should check this room first.

I pick up one of the folders and open it. It’s a ledger of some sort. Columns of numbers are annotated with words likeInc. Period,Risk Factor, Temp. Resistance, Contamination Index, Replication Rate.I scan them all, trying take in information about temperatures, contamination, although I have no idea what I’m really looking at. I only know it seems important.

Each row has a six-letter code, and the page I’m looking at is dated three months ago. I flip through the pages. They seem similar. The next folder is more of the same, except it’s dated earlier—about two years ago. The third folder goes back fiveyears. There are more folders, each of them with the same kind of data.

I slide the folder back in place. My pulse races faster. I’m on the verge of a major discovery—I can feel it. I walk over to the desk and yank open a large drawer.

To my shock, the interior of the ancient looking desk is ice-cold. It’s not just a desk. It’s a disguised refrigerator.

I stare at its contents.

In the desk drawers, I find tightly packed test-tube racks. Each test tube contains a pale liquid, is stoppered with a cork, and is labeled with a six-letter code. I pick up one of the test tubes, labeledAGNU6B,and inspect it. It almost looks like polluted water.

I put it back, my head spinning as I slot things together. The columns in the folders. Incubation Period, Risk Factor, Temperature Resistance, Contamination Index…

These are terms cataloging infections. Viruses, germs.

Something tiny and huge.

The secret Wrythe keeps here is a biological weapon. A plague.

I return to the alcove and pick up the fourth folder. It’s dated even earlier. And the fifth goes back ten years before. I pick up the last gray folder and check the date on the first page.

It’s dated seventeen years ago.

They’ve been working on this forseventeen years?

The Fey invasion was fifteen years ago. Europe wasn’t at risk when they started this project.

I notice a thin notebook hidden among the folders and retrieve it. The notebook is more like a log. Flipping through it, I see multiple hands jotting down their insights, successes, and failures. I’m too exhausted to read it thoroughly, but sentences jump out at me, burning into my retinas:

Death within minutes—unusable because spread will be curtailed too quickly.

Deadly to humans and Fey: unusable.

Deadly only to Fey, weakens humans: investigate further.

Weakened virus, targets magic, weakening subjects: investigate further.

Aetherin-X26 deployed—initial results promising. Spread across entire territory assumed within months. Targets magical infused flora and fauna.

Feybane Contagion—transmissible with full-blooded Fey. Demi-Fey can contract but not spread it.

Deployed. Spread across entire territory. What territory? I stare at that sentence and check the date.

Sixteen years ago. Just before the Fey invasion. The invasion that Auberon started because of the blight that spread across Brocéliande. The rotten crops.

Oh,fuck.

“Fascinating read, isn’t it?”

The voice behind me turns my blood to ice.

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