Page 126 of The King of Koraha
“I read him when we first arrived. He wasn’t under Xerxes’ influence. He didn’t have any alarming thoughts.”
“What about when he guided us here?” Rendor asked. “Did you pick up on anything?”
“I didn’t read him at that time. It was only forty angles or so after we’d seen him. Najib was distracted and upset when he came to our room at angle zero, but I would have been alarmed if he wasn’t. Learning about an assassination plot is upsetting. Xerxes must have gotten to him after angle zero. He’s already in the city.” Shyla still had trouble believing it happened that fast.
“Hakana, did Advisor Najib receive any visitors between angles ten and forty?” the King asked.
The page jerked her attention to the King. “No, sire. But a Quirin monk visited him around angle one-seventy the jump before.”
Shyla and Rendor had talked with Najib about bringing in the monks to guard the King, but they’d agreed it was too soon. “What did the monk look like?” she asked Hakana.
“Uh…a monk. He wore a brown tunic and pants under a sun cloak.”
In other words, like every single monk in the Quirin monastery. “Hakana, can I read your memories of the monk?”
Uncertain, Hakana glanced at the King.
“It’s your choice. I won’t order you to do something that makes you uncomfortable.”
“Uh…yeah, okay. What do I have to do?”
“Think about the monk. What did he say or do while here?”
Hakana scrunched up her nose. Shyla reached with the magic of The Eyes, witnessing her memory as she escorted the monk—
“Scorching hells, it’s Lonato,” she exclaimed.
“The new leader of the Monks of Callow? The one who almost caught you?” The King scrubbed a hand over the auburn stubble on his face.
Shyla was impressed he remembered. She had told him a massive amount of information in a short period of time. “Yes. He was disguised as one of the Quirin monks.”
“Do you think he used a pendant on Najib?”
“Yes. He must have ordered Najib to kill us once he found out we were here.” And the advisor did a great job of keeping Lonato out of his thoughts. Shyla marveled over the timing of the visit. They had really rotten luck.
“Can you free Najib of the compulsion?”
“If he’s wearing a blackfire pendant, which I think he is, then I can.” She remembered Najib tugging on his collar.
“And if he’s not?”
“That’ll be harder.” Much harder, but she didn’t wish to upset the King.
The King clenched the hilt of his sword as he stared at a distant point. He’d cast off his formal robe and wore an ordinary tunic and pants. The sword hanging at his side was far from ordinary. Glints of blue—probably sapphires—decorated the quillon.
“Xerxes will eventually know you survived the killing sun but will also believe you’ve drowned,” the King said. “Najib didn’t inform me of your visit or of the assassination plot during our last meeting. That might work in our favor. If Xerxes thinks you’re no longer a threat and I’m clueless and he has Najib working for him…he might be overly confident and make mistakes.”
“We have to keep our survival a secret fromeveryone,” Shyla said, tilting her head to Hakana and the guards.
The King glanced at them. “Is that possible?”
“Yes. I can erase their memories of this entire encounter.”
“No,” Hakana cried. “I won’t tell anyone. I promise!”
“We know you won’t,” Rendor said. “But if Xerxes asks, you won’t be able to resist him. I couldn’t. I told him everything I knew.”
Hakana paled.
