Page 53 of Thorns & Fire
Hiding a smile, Torj made for the next flight of stairs, and the next.It wasn’t hard to pretend he was utterly captivated by the woman he carried; it certainly wasn’t hard to convince the guards they passed that he desperately wanted to take her to bed.Guards and guests alike gave them fleeting, knowing smiles as they passed, and Torj wished the night was heading in the direction they assumed.
However, as they reached the next landing, Wren practically leapt from his arms and stared at a pair of double doors before them.She blinked.‘This is the library?’
Torj pushed a door open.‘Apparently so.’
Wren gasped as she entered behind him, and even Torj had to admit it was an impressive sight.There were shelves of books as far as the eye could see, a private collection to rival that of Drevenor’s archives.
‘Unbelievable,’ Wren muttered.
‘The study is at the far end,’ Torj told her.‘I hope you’re still good at picking locks...’
‘How do you know I can do that?’
Torj scoffed as they headed towards where Kipp had told him the study was.‘How many of your poisoned victims were found within a room locked from the inside?’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Wren replied, already twirling her hairpin between her fingers.
Torj suppressed a smile.For so long he had abhorred Wren’s other life, had resented that she felt the need to take justice into her own hands, but there was something intoxicating about seeing her in her element.
When they reached the study door that matched Farissa’s description, Wren took her hairpin and a thin piece of wire to the lock.It was a sight to behold – a beautiful woman dressed from head to toe in finery, crouching before a silver latch.
Torj heard the lock click, and a smug smile graced Wren’s face as she pushed the door open.
‘What are we looking for, exactly?’she asked, surveying the large oak desk.It was meticulously organized, unlike the workspace of someone else Torj knew.
‘Anything that could indicate correspondence from Drevenor.A letter with an academy seal, a familiar name – even familiar handwriting,’ he replied.‘No one outside of Drevenor is supposed to know what happened, and yet Audra received information that secrets were being sold here.If we find one of Farissa’s false leads, it will confirm who the traitor is.’
Something rattled, and he looked up to see Wren testing the drawers.‘All of these are locked.Keep a lookout.’She was already brandishing her hairpin and wire.
Torj kept another smile to himself.Gods, he loved her confidence, her complete mastery of herself in situations like this, and how she was never afraid to give an order, even to a Warsword.
Glancing at the door, Torj rifled through books and pieces of parchment while Wren worked on the drawers.
‘False bottoms,’ she announced, not even looking up as she lifted the first layer of contents.
‘There might be hidden compartments at the back as well,’ Torj offered.
‘This isn’t my first break-in, Bear Slayer,’ Wren huffed.
While he searched the shelves, pulling out volumes and testing for a secret passage, Wren continued rummaging through the desk.
‘Here,’ she called, setting something down for him to see.
Torj frowned.‘Royal ancestries?’Leafing through the sheets of parchment, he saw nothing special about the lines of succession listed.‘You can get these records anywhere...’
Wren pointed to something faded in the top corner of each page.‘But they didn’t come from just anywhere.’
Torj held the parchment up to the light, where an imprint of Drevenor’s sigil had been pressed, the lettering and design raised.
‘It’s not a seal,’ Wren said.‘But it’s as good as.This was made with an embossing stamp.My guess is that these documents were taken straight from the academy’s archives.’
Torj tried to absorb the implications, but couldn’t wrap his mind around why someone would risk revealing Drevenor’s secrets by sending documents one could obtain at almost any library throughout the midrealms.
‘Odd...’Wren murmured, pausing over the lineage for Naarva.‘Zavier’s been left off this.It’s incomplete.’
Torj peered over her shoulder, and sure enough, there were no heirs listed below King Mulder and Queen Yolena.‘It could mean anything.’
‘It could,’ Wren agreed.‘But it’s a link to Drevenor at the very least.’
