Trinity of Bones by Caitlin Seal

Author:Caitlin Seal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Published: 2019-10-28T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

She and Felicia spent the next three hours working on the transformation until Naya was confident she could mimic Felicia’s features well enough to fool the guards. Learning the new face felt easier than it had in the past. Naya wondered if that was due to all the practice she’d had at manipulating aether, or if she was slowly losing her attachment to the way she’d looked before she’d died. It was a disconcerting thought.

“You’re sure this is right?” Felicia asked as Naya let go of the transformation.

Naya shook her head. “I’m not sure how else I can get out of here without being followed. I’m sorry, I know I’m asking a lot of you.”

“It isn’t that.” Felicia smoothed her skirts. “Like you said, all I have to do is wait here for you to come back. It just gives me the shivers seeing you look exactly like me. You could go out there and kill someone, and people would think I’d done it.”

“I’m not going to kill anyone,” Naya said.

“Oh, of course I know that,” Felicia said, though the fear in her aether seemed to counter her words. “I’ve just never done anything like this before.” She smiled weakly. “When Lord Delence offered me this position, I was hoping for adventure. But I was thinking more of catching the eye of some pretty messenger boy who’d turn out to be a long-lost prince or something, not so much of lending out my face to hunt spies.”

Naya’s eyebrows rose. “I seriously doubt any of the messenger boys here are princes in disguise.”

“You’re right,” Felicia said seriously. “Princes are far more likely to hide in the kitchens. Maybe I should sneak back down there tonight.”

“Please tell me you’re joking,” Naya said.

Felicia laughed. “I am. Still, you never know. That sort of thing happens all the time in the stories, and stories have to come from somewhere, don’t they?”

They spoke for a few minutes more. After that Felicia left to get some rest before they set their plans in motion. Once she was gone, Naya went back through her notes, looking for anything she might have missed regarding Trade Master Galve. So far as she could tell, Galve had never so much as traveled to Ceramor. If he had been working with Valn, it would have been through intermediaries.

A knock at the door startled Naya from her contemplations. She glanced at the clock. Almost midnight. How had it gotten so late?

The knock came again, quiet and precise. Naya frowned, then stood and checked the aether. There was something odd about the energy on the other side of the door. It felt too thin to be someone living. Francisco, perhaps?

She opened the door to find a palace servant standing on the other side, her face set in a polite smile. A spark of anticipation danced through the woman’s thin aether.

Before Naya could ask what was going on, the servant leapt forward. Her shoulder connected with Naya’s chest, sending them both stumbling into the room.

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