didn't give the pages any more than a glance until he saw his father's writing. The sight of the flowing script made something in him break. He fell on his knees, felt glass bite through his skin, and dissolved into grief.
'She was bringing the wine.' Ashara's voice came from the doorway. 'She said she had just knocked on the door when it flew open and threw her back.'
'Where's Gaven?' Aunn said.
Gaven tried to compose himself and got to his feet, fumbling with the papers in his hand. Aunn stood in the doorway, relief plain on his face as Gaven returned to his view. Cart and Ashara crowded the hallway behind him.
'Is the servant badly hurt?' Gaven said.
'She'll be fine,' Ashara said. 'You're bleeding again.'
Gaven looked down and saw blood soaking into the knees of his pants, where glass had cut through the cloth and sliced his skin. 'It's nothing,' he said. The cuts burned, but they weren't serious. He looked at Aunn. 'So tell us about Nara.'
Aunn took a deep breath and let it out. 'Very well. Nara ir'Galanatyr led the Royal Eyes from 975, I think, to 996. She was supposed to be close to Queen Barvette, but I've heard nasty rumors that she had something to do with the old queen's death. When Aurala took the throne, though, Nara became one of her closest advisors, and she stayed that way right up until the end of the war.'
'When she was dismissed,' Cart said. 'She didn't want Aurala to sign the treaty, so Aurala appointed a new spy master who would work for peace.'
'Something like that,' Aunn said, 'but there was more to it.' He paused, biting his lip.
'What?' Gaven asked.
Aundair's internal politics were a mystery to him, for all that he'd been caught up in them since leaving Dreadhold in Haldren's company. But opposition to the Treaty of Thronehold was something that Nara and Haldren evidently had in common.
'Well, first of all it's not entirely clear that Aurala has ever been interested in peace, except a peace that results from her sitting on the throne of a reunited Galifar. So it's possible that she replaced Nara purely for show, to convince the other nations that she was serious about the treaty-serious enough to remove her most trusted advisor.'
'What has Nara been doing since the end of the war, then?' Ashara asked.
'To all appearances, she's been in seclusion-I think in Wyr, by the Eldeen Border.'
'But you think she's been working for the queen in secret all this time?' Ashara said.
Aunn scowled. 'Actually, the thought hadn't occurred to me. But it's possible. Perhaps they've spent three years plotting the next stage of the war. But that would mean…'
'That all of this goes back to the queen,' Gaven said. 'The barbarians invading the Reaches, the Dragon Forge, my dragonmark. What about Haldren? Were Kelas and Nara behind all that as well?'
'Indirectly,' Aunn said. 'But that would also mean that Aurala is planning her own assassination, or planning to stage an attempt on her life at least. Because that's what Kelas thought he was doing.'
'Ending a thousand years of Wynarn rule over Aundair,' Cart said. 'At least, that's what he told Haldren.'
'Kelas might have lied,' Ashara said. 'Or Nara might have lied to Kelas. Think about it. Poor Aurala-she has rogue generals starting hostilities in Thaliost, barbarians threatening her western border, and insurgents plotting against her. Naturally, she has to take drastic measures to secure her throne-destroying Varna, invading the Reaches, taking control of House Cannith and Arcanix. What's next? Some kind of assault on her own people under the guise of putting down a rebellion?'
Aunn shook his head. 'I got the sense that Kelas knew everything Nara does, or just about.'
'Which puts you in a difficult spot,' Gaven said, 'as long as you're wearing his face.'
'I've survived worse.'
Gaven looked at Aunn and scratched his chin. What did he actually know about the changeling? He was a Royal Eye-deception and intrigue were his life's work. He had been sandy-haired Darraun, a whispering dwarf opening Gaven's manacles, tall and proud Aunn, and now Kelas, the mastermind behind the Dragon Forge. Gaven had never seen his real face, and he wondered if he would ever know the real man. Aunn lived in a world Gaven could barely imagine, and he seemed perfectly at home in all this discussion of conspiracies and betrayal.
'What did she say?' Ashara asked.
'First she asked about the storm-the demonstration for the queen.' He snapped his fingers. 'She said she saw it, so she can't be in Wyr, that's two hundred miles from Varna.'
'Unless she was using magic to watch it,' Ashara said.
'Anyway, she asked about the queen's reaction to the demonstration.'
'And she cited the Prophecy,' Gaven added. 'She saw the storm as a fulfillment of the Prophecy.'
Aunn frowned. 'So did she plan the Forge in order to fulfill the Prophecy, or is the Prophecy just an extra?'
'I don't think it's just an extra,' Gaven said. 'If Nara is trying to shape history so the Prophecy is fulfilled, it's because she wants whatever she thinks the Prophecy promises. Like Vaskar-he brought about the clash of dragons at Starcrag Plain because he wanted to be the Storm Dragon. He wanted to cross the bridge to the sky and become a god.'
'So what does Nara want from the Prophecy?' Aunn asked.
'The destruction of Aundair?' Ashara said. 'Barbarians plundering the land as some kind of revenge against Aurala?'
'Perhaps,' Aunn said, 'but then why all the intrigue? It would be enough to stir up the barbarians, perhaps weaken the armed forces from within. She wouldn't need House Cannith and Arcanix for that.'
Gaven ran his fingers through his hair. 'But she needed them to build the Dragon Forge, to take my dragonmark. To make that storm that she thought fulfilled the Prophecy.'
'And she thinks she needs you for the Prophecy as well. 'We need him in place when the time is right for the reunion,' she said.'
Reunion-the word sparked a memory, and he shuffled through the papers in his hands. 'Storm and dragon are reunited,' Gaven said. Then he found the page Aunn had read. ''In the darkest night of the Dragon Below.' The Time of the Dragon Below is beginning now.'
'What else is supposed to happen in the Time of the Dragon Below?' Cart asked.
Gaven closed his eyes and tried to remember. 'The rise of the Blasphemer,' he said, and an echo of a vision flashed through his mind, an impression of bone-white banners. Beyond that, his mind was a blank. 'I can't remember what else.'
'The Prophecy makes my head spin,' Aunn said.
Gaven sighed. 'All this political scheming does the same to my head.'
'I need some of that wine now.' Aunn moved to the table by the bed and stopped, staring down at the wine bottle and the glass beside it.
'Are you sure it's not poisoned?' Gaven said, trying to laugh.
Aunn turned and pointed at Ashara. 'The servant who was hurt-she told you she was bringing wine to Gaven.'
Ashara nodded. 'She said she was just about to knock on the door when it flew open.'
'And the glass broke on the floor in the hall. So why is there a full glass of wine here?'
'There was a young man,' Ashara said. 'He came just after you did, holding a glass of wine. You told him to set it down and bring the bottle.'
Aunn shook his head. 'How long has there been a spy in Kelas's house?'
CHAPTER 14
Aunn bolted to the room at the end of the hall, where Cart and Ashara had placed the injured servant. The bed was empty. He forced himself to walk back to Gaven's room, though he wanted to run.
