“Could be.” Brody followed him out the door.
Gwennore was sitting with the other women in the hallway, enjoying a meal. “Brody!” She jumped to her feet and hugged him.
Annika looked him over curiously. “He was the dog?”
“Gwennie.” Brody took hold of her shoulders. “I heard you were poisoned. Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. How are my sisters? You came early. Is something wrong?”
Brody smiled as he gave her shoulders a squeeze. “Everything’s fine. They were just worried about you.”
Silas cleared his throat. “Are you going to hug each other all day? We need to be going.”
Brody released her. “I’ll be back soon.” He followed Silas to the stairwell.
“What’s going on?” Gwen ran after them.
“Stay in the workroom for now,” Silas called back to her. “I’ll send some guards to watch over you.”
“Why do we need guards?” Annika yelled.
“Just to be safe.” Silas bounded down the stairs.
Brody kept up with him. “Do they know about the murder?”
“Not yet.”
“Has Gwennie made any progress with figuring out the curse?”
“Maybe.”
Brody snorted. “You’re not very forthcoming.”
“Neither are you.” Silas glanced at the shifter as they reached the ground floor. “Why did you come early?”
Brody shrugged. “Leo and Luciana wanted to make sure Gwennore was safe.”
“Why?” Silas opened the door to the courtyard. “Has something happened?”
Brody squinted as they stepped out into the sunlight. “A special envoy from Woodwyn came to the Eberoni camp.”
Silas halted. The elves never sent envoys. They were the most reclusive people on the planet. “What did he want?” When Brody hesitated, a lump of dread caught in Silas’s throat. “They want Gwennore.”
Brody nodded. “The royal family is requesting her return.”
Silas fisted his hands as his heart started to pound. “Why? Is she a member of the royal family?”
“They wouldn’t say. They just demanded her back.”
Silas scoffed. “They rejected her as a baby, and now they think they can simply demand her back?”
“Leo and Luciana are as suspicious as you are. They were actually relieved that she’s here, since it gave them a good excuse to turn the elves down.”
Silas strode toward the dungeon. “We can’t let her go, not when we don’t know what they plan to do with her.”
“I agree.” Brody walked barefoot beside him. “That’s why I came here to make sure she was all right. Leo thought the elves might have a spy here.”
Romak? Silas wondered. Could Romak have been spying for Woodwyn?
“I did some spying, myself, around the envoy and his secretary,” Brody continued. “People don’t watch what they say in front of a dog.”
“What did you learn?”
“They called Gwennore a princess.”
Silas stopped again. Had he fallen in love with an elfin princess?
“They had another name for her.” Brody winced. “But they said it with such disdain, it made me worry that if she did go to Woodwyn, she would be mistreated. She’s already endured enough prejudice. So I told Leo and Luciana that I didn’t think she should ever go.”
Silas frowned. “What did they call her?”
“Half-breed.”
Silas blinked. “Half…?
Brody nodded. “Obviously, she’s half elf. But the other … we have no idea.”
Half-breed. Silas resumed his walk across the courtyard. Romak had known who her parents were, but he’d died before he could talk. Did that mean her parents were important? Powerful enough to silence a prisoner in another country?
When Silas reached the group of soldiers at the entrance to the dungeon, he asked two of them to guard the workroom. As they dashed off, he led Brody inside.
Half-breed. Silas had never heard of any elf coming across the border to have a child. And Gwennore had been born in Woodwyn. That meant someone, who was not an elf, had traveled to Woodwyn. And since Gwennore was a princess, that someone had had an affair with a member of the royal family.
“You’re back,” Dimitri said as Silas approached with Brody. His eyes narrowed. “You brought the shifter.”
Brody snorted. “Takes one to know one.”
Dimitri stiffened.
“It’s all right.” Silas motioned to last cell. “The body’s in there.”
Brody slipped into the cell.
“What’s he doing?” Dimitri whispered.
“Seeing if he can detect the smell of the Chameleon,” Silas said. “It would explain why the murderer looked like Karlan but wasn’t Karlan.”
Dimitri nodded, then leaned close. “Can we trust the shifter?”
“I believe so.” Silas’s breath caught as a sudden thought occurred to him. “Dimitri, when did your uncle go to Woodwyn as an envoy? How long ago, exactly?”
Dimitri tilted his head, considering. “It must be twenty-two years. Why do you ask?”
Silas swallowed hard. The timing was right. Was Gwennore the daughter of Lord Tolenko? If so, she was Dimitri’s cousin and a member of one of the Three Cursed Clans. The daughter of a dragon shifter. Shit. That would explain why she could hear the dragons. Somehow, she’d inherited the gift from her father.
“What is it?” Dimitri watched him with a worried look.
“I—I need to be sure before I…” Silas took a deep breath. If his theory was right, then Gwennore belonged in Norveshka just as much as she did in Woodwyn. By the Light, he wasn’t giving her up.
“It’s a good thing I’m here,” Brody said as he exited the cell. “I can tell you for sure who the murderer is.”
Silas grew tense. “The Chameleon? He’s here in Norveshka?”
Brody nodded. “I’ll help you find the bastard.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“The Chameleon is here?” Petras asked with an incredulous look. “In the castle?”
“It’s possible,” Silas admitted.
He’d asked for a private word with his brother, and Petras had taken him to his suite of rooms next door to the queen’s bedchamber. The king couldn’t bear to be separated from his ailing wife for very long.
“Dimitri is taking the shifter, Brody, through the castle right now,” Silas reported. “If the Chameleon is still here, Brody will be able detect his scent.”
“You can detect shifters, why don’t you do it?” Petras asked.
“I’ve never met the Chameleon before,
