Semua Bab The Luna They Burned: Bab 21 - Bab 30

Delphine was never one to be patient, but after three years of carefully adjusting her position she had worked out that it was better to wait than to act in certain situations.She waited for the odd things that Kaelan had done around the Halloway envoy. She waited while he refused at dinner to bring up the subject, and she waited through the whispers which had begun to spread—servants who had noticed that his attention stayed on them too long, and guards who said the envoy moved as if she had lived in the place all her life. In the way she usually did when collecting information, she had put all the pieces together and, the morning after she found out about Kaelan's refusal at the council, came to the conclusion that waiting was no longer worthwhile.She got the investigator in through a contact who was three territories away from Ashcombe; this contact was a wolf named Halvard who had earned a modest reputation for finding things that people wanted found and for bu

Rhys had no special reason to be in the laundry room. Yet recently he has started to find excuses, little errands which would allow him to go through rooms where Selene at times works. Unfortunately, though, he could not have explained if asked precisely why he needed the excuse.He convinced himself that it was curiosity—there was something about her movement, something in the way she sparred, and the way she spoke, which kept drawing him to a place he couldn't name. As he walked down the corridors carrying out errands which he didn't absolutely have to do, he told himself a great many things and believed the majority of them until the afternoon when he saw her folding laundry in the laundry room by herself, without realizing that he had entered.He halted at the doorway and watched, since the way in which her hands moved prevented him from reaching a reason in his mind.It was folded exactly as Wren had used to fold it. Not just competently, in the way that anyone could learn to fol

Two days later she returned to Petrus, not willing to let his account go unexamined and hoping to get all the details he could remember before the trail grew any colder than it had already done.She spotted him in his usual position by the eastern gate. This time, instead of being startled when she came near, he simply straightened up, gave a sigh, and showed the quiet attitude of a man who had come to terms with the idea that his secret was no longer completely his own.You never did give us any specific details," she said without saying anything at first. "For example, the colour of a dress and a time. Now, please think carefully, Petrus. Was there anything else in the way it was worded that seemed unusual to you? Was there anything which might indicate who had written it?"He pondered it for a long time, his brow creased, obviously making an effort to bring the memory back into clear focus after having deliberately tried for three years to forget it. "The handwriti

Clearly thought out, the dinner had been organised for a modest number of guests, and when Selene walked in she noticed that among them were several of the senior members of the Halloway delegation together with the top wolves from Ashcombe, precisely the sort of audience Delphine would have if she had something more than just ordinary conversation.This time Delphine sat down directly opposite Selene, with no attempt at subtlety in the way they were positioned, and did not make her move until after the second course had been served.Emissary Marrow, I've had a question.][The Founding Rites of Halloway—more precisely, the autumn ceremony, the one with the river blessing—I know that it's very important within Halloway custom, and I should like to get your point of view on it, since you must have taken part in it extensively during your years of service.Selene's stomach fell. She was entirely unaware of any Founding Rites, any river blessing, or any autumn

This time the letter came without any prompting and was included in a shipment of dried herbs which Selene had not asked for, just as Moira had done once before; yet the message contained in it, after having been decoded, had a urgency much greater than any of those that Selene had received up to then.A small wolf, I have noticed a change in the currents surrounding you over the past few weeks, with attention drawing towards areas which I hadn't exactly expected when I sent you to that border. I can't give you any new information regarding the conspiracy you're pursuing. All I can do instead is warn you, and I want you to take this warning seriously rather than treating it as just another example of my usual evasiveness. Give up on this mission and go back into the shadows where you have been safe for these three years. The thing you are circling in that house has qualities I did not fully take into account when I set you on this course. For the first time since I pulled you f