Page 84 of The Study of Poisons
“What’s that?” Yelena asked.
“The old battle symbol forsiege. The dead King used these markings to communicate with his captains during times of war. They were originally created hundreds of years ago by a great strategist. Read me the next set. They should be numbers.”
She told him twenty-seven and ten. He counted the lines of text until he reached line twenty-seven and then counted the letters and spaces in that line. The tenth character was A. On a clean piece of paper, he wrote A. Then he asked her for the next set of letters and numbers and repeated the process. He ended up with the letters: A, E, L, B, L, SPACE, Z, R, which was easy to rearrange into: BRAZELL. Not a surprise, and another clue that the general was influencing the Commander. Because normally, Brazell wasn’t a favorite and he’d make a horrible Commander.
“Who is it?” Yelena asked.
“Guess,” he said.
She glanced at him with bloodshot eyes.
“I’ll give you a hint. Who was the happiest about the change? Whose name keeps popping up during the most bizarre situations?”
He studied her expression and saw the horror fill her gaze as she figured it out. She would be the first person executed under the new regime.
Nodding, he said, “Right. Brazell.”And I won’t let him harm you, love.Valek would switch out the puzzle pieces tomorrow night and name a new successor. After all, if the Commander was dead no one would know. And if he was caught and hung as a traitor, it’d still be worth it to save Yelena.
* * *
After learningnothing new about the trouble Star planned for the Sitian delegation, Valek held a meeting in his office with Kenda and a few of his agents. He also invited Ari, Janco, and Maren. They brainstormed ways a person or persons could ruin relations between the two countries.
“An archer in the trees of the Snake Forest,” Ari said. “Most of the leaves are down, so they could kill a few Sitian officials before the delegation even reaches the castle.”
“Do we know which route through the forest the Sitians are going to use?” asked Inrick.
“The main north-south route is the most direct from the Sitian Citadel to the castle,” Valek said.
“In that case, Ari and I can scout ahead of the delegation and clean out any nasties lying in wait.” Janco’s eyes lit with glee.
“Can they?” Kenda asked Valek.
Offended, Janco said, “Of course. We’re the only ones who found Yelena during the fugitive exercise.”
“What if there is more than one…er…nasty?” she asked.
“No problemo, puppy dog. We can handle multiple nasties.”
But Kenda raised a good point. Star would probably have some backups just in case the first archer missed.
“I can go along and babysit,” Maren snarked.
Janco snorted. “Can you be quiet in the woods?”
“Canyou?” she shot back. “With all the prattling you do when you fight, I’d—”
“I don’t—”
“Janco,” Ari warned.
“It’s a good idea to have two teams of two,” Valek said. “Ari, can you recruit a fourth scout?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. That covers the delegation’s trip to the castle and their trip home. Once inside, they’ll be assigned to the guest wing, where we can guard and protect them.”
“Andkeep an eye on them,” Kenda said. “For all we know they could be assassins after the Commander.”
“True. Kenda, you’re in charge of the schedule and ensuring the delegation is safe within the castle.”
