Page 42 of The City of Zirdai
“Thanks,” she said.
He nodded and joined the others. Shyla then relaxed—a mistake. Her adventures caught up to her and fatigue threatened to topple her. Before going to rest, she filled her water skin. Jayden did the same. He set the swords down.
“Do we have people who can fight with those?” she asked.
“Yes, most of the Invisible Swords can handle one. We prefer knives as they’re easier to conceal and to fight with in a confined space.”
Good to know. “Give me the rest of the torques. I’ll take them to the monastery later. Plus I can check on the baby.”
Jayden pulled them from his pack. “At least we reclaimed four more.” Jayden inspected one in the druk light. The Invisible Sword symbol was etched into the metal along with other glyphs and symbols. Jayden turned it over. He ran a fingernail along the back, then squinted closer. A strangled sound escaped his lips.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“This…” He held up the torque. “Is new!”
Not sure she understood, she said, “New as in—”
“As in somehow the Heliacal Priestess is making more. As in, she might have hundreds instead of the dozen original ones.” Jayden slumped against the wall.
Seven hells. That was bad.
“Let’s not panic.” She guided him over to a table. “Sit.” After fetching a couple rolls of jerky, she handed him one. “Eat.”
As he chewed on his, she dug into her pack and removed the torque she’d taken from the Arch Deacon. She laid the four of them on the table. “Obviously the Arch Deacon I interrogated back at the old headquarters didn’t know about these new torques or they didn’t have them at that time.” She considered. “Platinum is rare and expensive. If a large quantity was recently purchased, one of your contacts in Zirdai will know how much. Right?”
“Yes. It’s hard to keep things like that quiet.”
“Good. Once we know how much the priestess purchased, we can estimate the number of new torques she has.” She gestured to the ones in front of them. “Are all these new?”
Jayden examined each one, turning them over. “Two are, the others are not.”
“All right. Come with me to the monastery later to check the others. Once Mojag is back, you both can go into the city and ask about the platinum and see if anyone knows about a missing baby.”
He rubbed a hand over his face. “Okay.”
“First, get some rest.”
“You, too.”
After she woke, she collected Jayden and they headed to the monastery. This time she didn’t waste energy trying to sneak up on the monks. The news of their approach reached the monastery well before they did. When they arrived, Hanif waited for them in the surface building.
“How’s the baby doing?” Shyla asked.
“Not well. My healers are not sure what’s wrong with him so I’ve sent for Zhek.” He studied them. “Any news on the babe’s parents?”
“Not yet. We need to take a look at those torques. Can you retrieve them for us?” she asked.
Now she received a shrewd appraisal. “I’m just about to assess three acolytes. If you’re willing to help me out, I can spare some time to fetch them for you.”
A niggling sensation warned her that this wasn’t going to be that straightforward. “All right. What do you need?”
Seeming way too happy about her acceptance, Hanif led her down to the training room on level seven. “These three acolytes are almost ready to take the oath. They all arrived at the monastery over a short period of time four circuits ago. All on different sun jumps, but it’s a bit odd for us to get that many so close together.”
Ah, she sensed where this was going. “And you suspect they might be spies.”
“Yes. We’ve had them in the past. Over the last twenty circuits, the people in power have sent a dozen or so of their loyal supporters to infiltrate us, hoping they’d become monks and steal all our secrets.”
“The vagrants have the same problem. How do you catch them?” Jayden asked.
