No True Way Read Free Page B

of the constant background chatter of his life. The muscles in his shoulders relaxed. He rested his hands on the ledgers, his eyes on the crystal, and let his thoughts still.
    The Vision unfurled instantly.
    Lelia sat before him.
    No, not in the little room with the crystal. In the quarters Lord Grier had gifted her, two hallways down. He was here but also
there
, in a different
then
—different even from the ones he’d been to previously.
    There were no ledgers on the bookcase behind her. The one she opened looked fresh, unused. The first one, he realized. She tapped her lip with her pen, her brow creasing—and then reached for Bloom.
    And took the cover off the sound hole.
    Her eyes scanned the darkness inside the gittern and, slowly, she started to write crisp, black runes in the ledger.
    The first time, he realized. Before she’d fully memorized the code.
    She lifted her eyes, and they locked with his. A smile spread across her face, the smile he missed every damn day. His heart pounded like a war drum in his chest.
    The Vision, mercifully, melted away. He found himself slumped on the table, half sprawled over the ledgers. His temples burned with the threat of an oncoming headache.
    A weak groan escaped him, and then, quite unexpectedly, he laughed.
    The gittern. Of course. She’d hidden the code in the one place he’d never look, inside the one object she knew he’d never part with.
    Not sure I’ll ever forgive you for not telling me about this,
he thought, dragging himself upright.
But I also can’t deny your cunning.
    He found a burst of energy that carried him back to his quarters, and he dumped the ledgers on a table before reaching for Bloom’s case.
    â€œWelcome back, Wil,” Maresa said behind him, but he ignored her. He flipped open the case and took the unstrung gittern out. As he’d seen Lelia do in his vision, he twisted off the rosette over the sound hole and peered inside.
    Empty.
    Nothing.
    No . . .
    Disbelief rocked him. She’d
clearly
looked
inside
the gittern. There should have been
something
. The headache knocked, pounding on his temples. Something wasn’t right, he just couldn’t place it. Something.
Something . . .
    The fretboard. The smooth, dark wood. He peered closer at the gittern.
    He was no Bard, but he knew that Lelia’s instrument, though well-tended, hadn’t been this pristine. She’d taken pride in the nicks and bumps, saying it added “texture” to the music. Her nails had worn away parts of Bloom’s fretboard—but this one was perfectly smooth.
    Someone had replaced Bloom with a copy, albeit one that passed a cursory inspection. Someone had
been in his quarters
.
    â€œWil?” Maresa looked startled, even a little scared.
    â€œ
No,
” he snarled, not to her, but to the impostor gittern. His fingertips wrapped the wooden neck and he focused,
reaching
—
    And Saw—
    Reality snapped back into place. He sensed Vehs’ alarm.
    :Should I alert the Guard?
: he asked.
    :Give us a moment,:
Wil thought, focusing his fury on Maresa. She took a step back, her face draining of color, her throat moving in a gulp.
    â€œMaresa,” he said, a dangerous edge to his voice. “
Where
is Lelia’s gittern? Where did you take it?”
    Maresa plastered a placating smile on her face. “Wil—I—ah—I thought I would—”
    :No Truth Spell needed here,:
Vehs commented dryly.
    Wil rolled to his feet. “What the hell is going on, Maresa?” His voice was quiet, icy. The madder he got, the quieter he got. A good thing: Ivy slept one room over. “You replaced Bloom with a copy, I
Saw
you do it.
Why?”
    Her smile evaporated. “You didn’t know Lelia as well as you thought.”
    â€œObviously,” he growled.
    â€œShe spied for the Queen,” she said.
    Wil felt every fiber of his being still.
    :Vehs? Can you verify this?:
    His