Page 27 of The Seeker
“Someone—someone who knows exactly who you are—called me. They asked me to come here.”
“Yes.” She pursed her lips. “Someone did. Without my knowledge.”
“Who knows who you are? Your parents, of course. The ones who run the haven.” He quickly ran through everything he knew about North American havens and who their guardians might be. It wasn’t knowledge that was readily available to most scribes, but then Rhys wasn’t most scribes.
“Did your parents come to this place for you? Where were you before?” Rhys sorted through bits of information, tossing one option to reexamine another, trying to piece the puzzle of her identity together in his mind.
Her accent was clearly Northern Indian. Who were Sari’s contacts in Northern India? Whom did she trust? Only one person fit all the necessary criteria.
Oh.Oh.
“Patiala lives in India,” he mused. “Patiala of Udaipur. More accurately, shedidlive in India.”
Only a flicker in Meera’s eyes gave her away.
“Patiala disappeared after the death of Anamitra,” Rhys said. “Orsala told me they hadn’t heard from her in years.”
“Orsala of Vestfold? You know many people,” Meera said. “Of course, the library of Glast is considered one of the greatest in Europe. I’m sure you’ve met hundreds of scribes and singers. Glast is the most prominent combined library still in existence, I believe.”
Patiala. Northern India.
Meera?
Why hadn’t he seen it before? Rhys’s heart picked up. Not Meera.Meera Bai.“Glast is a great library,” he said, “but it is nothing like the ancient library in Udaipur.”
Heaven above, it was so obvious.
The server brought coffee, and Meera added cream before she responded. “Yes, the library of Udaipur is one of the greatest in the Irina world. But don’t be so dismissive of Glast. Combined libraries are rare. Did you grow up there?”
Meera Bai. He was sitting across from Meera Bai.
Rhys refused to be distracted. “Udaipur is the singers’ library, filled with the wisdom of millennia. Led by Anamitra, most ancient and wise of Irina.”
Meera placed her cup carefully in the saucer. “Anamitra is dead.”
“But her heir lives.” Rhys could feel the rush of blood as his pulse pounded.
Gabriel’s fist. Nothere!
Not in this strange, hot backwater on the other side of the world. Why would she come here? Why would she live on her own in this place with so little protection? Why would she expose herself to danger? What could possibly be worth that kind of risk?
“Meera,” he whispered. “Why are you here?”
She sipped her coffee. “I’m having breakfast with you.”
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
“I’ve told you, I’m doing research into Irina—”
“Meera Bai.”
She looked up with a level gaze. “Who?”
Chess matches with this woman would be epic.
Naked chess would be better.
Damn his libido. He didn’t need to be distracted by that mental picture.
