Kalyna the Cutthroat by Elijah Kinch Spector

Author:Elijah Kinch Spector
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: female, magic, european, drama, father daughter relationship, family, spymaster, con artist, hostage, kingdoms, prince, prediction, secret identity, trickery, deception, epic fantasy, adventure, action adventure, adventure books, science fiction and fantasy, fantasy novels, fantasy books for adults, fiction, novels, fiction books, fantasy book, books fiction, fantasy novel, fantasy fiction, epic fantasy books, fantasy, historical, action, mystery, pirates, witch, friendship, witchcraft
Publisher: Erewhon Books
Published: 2024-11-26T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

I woke as the room was darkening, so the sun must have been setting. Such was my first day of “research.” I sighed deeply.

In the last bit of light, I flipped open volume 35, which I was only partway through. What was the last thing I had even written in it, I wondered? Had I added anything since leaving Abathçodu?

The volume opened easily to the last pages I’d used. More easily than normal, in fact, because there was something wedged between those pages. It was a folded piece of paper, and on its outside was scrawled in Cöllüknit: “Smart Boy.”

Well, of course I opened it and read it in the waning light of Adomas’ library, even as I clicked my tongue at the slight ink bleed from Dagmar Sorga’s heavy pen-hand onto the blank next page of my Commonplace Book.

You told me you read Rotfelsenisch, and it’s easiest for me to write. I hope you can read this.

If you need me, I plan to spend my next bit of time in Kalvadoti, at the Hyrax Nest. That’s if you need me, not if K does. Do not tell K about this. I don’t want to see her.

And don’t let K get too full of herself. She’s going somewhere dangerous.

“Huh,” I said, out loud, to no one. I wished that Dagmar had been a little more specific about the amount of time and what “going somewhere dangerous” meant. Besides, if I needed her, how could I possibly make it all the way to another Skydašian city without telling Kalyna? Nonetheless, I was strangely comforted.

I got up to leave and decided my Commonplace Book volumes could remain in the library. Who would want them? I also left the matches I had brought in order to light lamps that, it turned out, were empty. I would have to bring oil tomorrow.

I took a step toward the stairs, then stopped. Did I trust Kalyna to not go through my belongings?

I turned back, wrote simply, “Kalvadoti: Hyrax Nest” in my Commonplace Book, and then used the matches to burn Dagmar’s letter. In a perverse way, I felt that Kalyna would have been happy I was learning to be more careful, even though it was in order to keep something from her.

Then I went back to town and told everyone about how dreadfully busy I’d been doing research all day.

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