Page 79 of Silvercloak

How could she? How could she speak to the sweet, kind mage who raised her when it would only put him more at risk?

“Saffy, my love, sometimes I feel like I’m talking to a brick wall. Although that stretch of creamstone in the alley behind the Cloakery certainly has better conversation. Don’t tell me you’ve gone mute again? Because frankly, I don’t have anotherLost Dragonbornup my sleeve.”

Levan watched her grapple with the emotions, but he didn’t ask her about the significance ofLost Dragonborn,or what her uncle meant bymute.

When Mal tried several more times before finally giving up, the kingpin’s son said, “Your uncles raised you?”

Saff nodded numbly.

“What were your parents like?”

Once again, Saffron did not want to taint her parents’ memories by sharing them with a Bloodmoon. And yet she was also supposed to be under the influence of truth elixir, and so she’d have to answer.

“My mother was a Healer. And she was very, very good at it. She developed a hornpox vaccination that cured a savage outbreak when I was three or four. King Quintan himself nominated her for the Vallish Distinction Prize. She had dozens of job offers after that, mostly in the capital, but she refused them all. She believed rural villages were just as deserving of excellent care.” A wistful smile twisted her lips. “She could alsodrink.She loved honeywine. The smell always reminds me of her.”

And your terrible family took her from me.

“What about your father?”

A sort of sighing feeling sunk into Saffron’s chest, heavy and solid. “A highly gifted Enchanter, but he never had particularly grand ambitions. He used to spend his days pottering around our house, charming it in new and increasingly absurd ways for when I got home from school.”

Something reared in Saffron’s memory—something she hadn’t been able to quite shake.

Aspar, on that fateful night of the final assessment.

Once upon a time, I owed your father a great debt of gratitude.

Would she ever find out what that had meant?

Saffron’s hand went once again to the wooden pendant hanging around her neck.

“Our front door changed color depending upon who knocked. One of my father’s favorite enchantments. Sky blue for an acquaintance,heart red for a lover present, past, or future. Clover green for an enemy, plum for an old friend. Vibrant orange for someone trustworthy, pale pink for a blossoming relationship. Mustard yellow for family and, erm, traveling salesmen. The best door in the world. This pendant is all that remains of it, and of them.”

The two jewels, studded into the wood. Emerald and purple sapphire.

“I still don’t quite understand how he wove that spell—how the magic could understand human relationships well enough to reflect them back on the beholder. But the door was damaged on the night they died, and the enchantment slipped out of it. I wish more than anything it still carried the magic. It would feel like my dad was with me, in some way. And it would show me exactly who I could and couldn’t trust.”

Levan stopped walking for a moment.

“Can I?” He gestured to the pendant.

Saffron nodded, unsure why her breath froze in her throat as his hand went to the necklace, holding it up to the nearest streetlamp. A frowned notched between his brows.

“I think I can re-create the enchantment. If you want me to.”

Something surged in Saffron’s heart. “How?”

“I remember something similar from an ancient book of enchantments in the mansion library. The volume is six hundred years old—from when House Portaran reigned. They were gifted Enchanters too, and wanted to spread their knowledge to all the people of Vallin.”

“Do you remembereverythingyou read?”

He shrugged, a little bashful. “The pages remain in my head, like a personal library I can peruse at any moment. Do you want me to try?” He gestured to the pendant, and the softness of his words took her aback. “I understand if not. If the spell feels sacred.”

Sacredwas the right word.

“Why would you do that for me?” she asked.

“To see if I can,” he said evenly, still composed despite his lowered defenses. “It’s very interesting magic.”

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