Page 88 of The Chaosweaver's Daughter
He knew it. “And that’s why you’re here?”
“Yes. Ehmetheavilysuggested it. I wasn’t happy about it. Eventually, we both agreed it made sense for me to be here with the children and—”
“In case they’re targeted.”
“Precisely.”
“What makes you think it was intentional?”
“The spear. They were collected from the hunting party for study. All but one was marked by the royal smith.”
“And the one that struck Ehmet is of unknown origin.” Kas’s words were a statement rather than a question, and Hevva nodded, her lips pressed in a firm line. “You have a great team; they’ll figure out who didthis.”
“I know.” Her lower lip quivered.
Kas stood and rounded his desk to scoop his sister into a much-needed embrace. “Everything will be all right.”
“I hope so.”
After a long hug, Kas returned to his seat and braced his elbows on his knees. “Tell me, you must have suspicions about what’s going on. Is this recent incident connected to the rumblings from earlier in the summer?”
She chewed her lip. It was such a decidedly un-Hevva-like expression it sent Kas’s pulse racing.
“Tell me?” he urged gently as he reached for the decanter.
“You know Hothan Tarisden?”
Kas paused in the middle of topping up their glasses. “Nes’s dad?”
“Yes. You may want to fill that up a bit more.” She pointed to his finger of whiskey.
Kas tripled it.
“This story starts... around forty-three years ago.” She shrugged. “You’re aware that Hothan hates us?”
“He was my friend. Speak for yourself, he didn’t hateme.”
She chuckled morosely. “Notus,us. The aristocracy, nobility, titled folk. He had a falling out with Alva after Vahit died.” Hevva, after marrying into the Crown, began referring to the late Queen Adellan and the late King Hethtar the Third by their given names, a fact that Kas never once ceased to find amusing. “Ehmet never knew what happened between Hothan and his mom, but they’d known one another since youth. When Ehmet was eight, he met Hothan; but Hothan stopped writing, for the most part, a few years back, after Alva and he exchanged words, not long after Ehmet and I got married.”
“Are you saying Hothan—who is dead, as far as I know—has something to do with this current situation? The man never struck me as a traitor.”
“Yes and no. Hold your horses, little brother, and let me take us to our destination.”
Kas rolled his eyes and sipped his drink to stop from interrupting.
“Ehmet never knew what happened, but he said Alva lamented the way her friendship with the tutor concluded, especially around the end of her life, when she was sick.” Hevva leaned forward conspiratorially. “Once, long ago, around the time Ehmet and I met, Alva told him of a long-lost love. She’d—”
“No!”
“Shut up and let me tell the story!”
He leaned back with a huff, miming locking his lips and throwing away the key.
“Alva told Ehmet of a love she hadjustprior to becoming queen. Her parents pushed her onto the throne. She was in love with someone else and had to abandon him for Vahit. Alva hinted that Ehmet was the only good thing to come fromit. And he thought she meant to come from the political marriage to Vahit, but...”
Kas’s mouth dropped open, but he’d committed to shutting up, so he stayed silent.
“What if Alva meant Ehmet came from her relationship with her ‘love’? He was born precisely nine moons after Alva and Vahit’s handfasting, Kas. What are the odds? You know how difficult it is for people to conceive. Ehmet’s magic is different from the rest of his family’s, which makes senseifit’s truly a mutatio—”
