The Helm of Midnight by Marina Lostetter

Author:Marina Lostetter [Lostetter, Marina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

* * *

That was the first thing the Martinets asked when they arrived. And still, Krona didn’t know what to say.

She and her escort now stood with three Martinets outside the building. The others were being interrogated within. A breeze blew softly over the hill, through the trees. Leaves sizzled in the distance.

The Martinets, two women and one man, each wore a thick circlet of gold with a set of bulky glass ram’s horns soldered to it, spiraling down around their ears. Strewn through the glass were flecks of metal and crystal, which sparkled as they moved. Krona knew the horns to be enchanted, but did not know their purpose—that was a closely kept state secret. The horns were the only magic the Martinets used. Tied over their mouths were silky white bandanas, not for hiding their identities so much as the movement of their lips, which Krona figured played into the purpose of the horns.

One of the women had deep, coal-rimmed eyes. She asked the majority of the questions—had been asking for hours.

“Were you not also present at the Chief Magistrate’s Jubilee?”

Bristling, Krona tried to keep the affront off her face. No one wore a head covering in the presence of Martinets—no masks, no helms. She felt naked without it; her last encounter with the internal investigators was all too near in time and space, and the usefulness of her helm had just been proven. Her ears still rang from the reverberation of the ricocheting shot. “Yes.”

“You were responsible for capturing the only detained intruder during that attack, correct?” The woman raised a makeup-darkened eyebrow.

“Correct.”

“But here you were unable to stop the—”

“But she recovered all of the bottles,” Krona’s escort interrupted. Krona knew the Martinets were simply doing their job, but he seemed to take their questioning as a personal affront. Not so surprising, as this was probably the first time he’d ever had his actions on the job questioned. Attacks on Vault Hill were rare, for good reason.

Without his hood and cage, the guard wasn’t nearly as imposing. His cheeks were rounder than Krona would have imagined, and he seemed younger than his posture and capabilities suggested. He had a sharp nose and reddish-brown skin under a mop of pitch-black hair. “The tally was taken before you were called. The thief didn’t get away with a single bottle-barker, in part thanks to Mistress Hirvath.”

“And I was about to commend her for that,” the Martinet said. “You all fought well, by the tell of it. But no one can answer me this: where the intruder came from or what in the Valley they look like.”

“They were shielded, somehow,” Krona said. “Blurry and indistinguishable at times. Invisible, even. I suspect an unlawful enchantment, but it would have to be one the likes of which the Valley has never seen.”

The Martinets shared a look. “What possible combination of magics could do that? Even if the intruder was able to develop such an invention and get it into the vault, there are caged guards everywhere, which should have nullified the enchantment.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.