“On the contrary. Glamourie has always been difficult for him; he takes after his father in that regard. But my sister was veiled when she arrived, and through the gauze, the roughness in his assumed features was not obvious. And due to her rank, the guards did not check her too closely. Meanwhile, their prisoner’s appearance was flawless.”

“Then you have your sister in jail?”

“At present, yes. She resumed her old form once her son was safely away. It is an untenable situation, however. I cannot detain the Svarestri queen indefinitely, a fact she well knows.”

“So she’s sitting around your hunting lodge, playing cards or whatever, while that son of a bitch tries to kill Aiden?”

“But from what Claire tells me, subrand was not trying to kill Aiden during the attacks. In fact, he never so much as looked for him. Both times he went directly after you. He even waited to attack the second time until he knew you had returned home.”

“He wanted me to tell him where Aiden was.”

“Did he say so directly?”

I tried to think back. It wasn’t easy. My brain felt fuzzy and my tongue was as dry as sandpaper. I sipped some of the water Radu had poured. “Not in so many words, no. But that was the idea.”

“But do you not think it is significant that he did not focus his attention on Claire? She was a double threat. Her null abilities allowed her to destroy the wards that made the constructs possible, and her Dark Fey heritage made her a formidable opponent, particularly when protecting her child.”

“Maybe he knew she’d never give up her son’s location and believed I’d be an easier target.”

“Perhaps. But he had fought you before and had not managed to break you. In his situation, I would have concentrated on killing Claire, then you, and then searched at my leisure for the child.”

Claire stared at him, horrified. “You would what?”

“I am merely telling you proper military procedure,” he told her patiently. “And subrand was trained as I was, to be logical in the choice of adversaries. Yet his actions here were not—if Aiden was his target.”

“You don’t think the Svarestri want him dead?” I demanded.

“Oh, they wish that, certainly. But I do not think they feel a sense of urgency. It will be decades, probably centuries, before he is powerful enough to pose a real threat.”

“They tried to kill him before,” Claire said angrily.

“Yes, but as a postscript, if you will, to an attempt to kill me. He became a priority only once they believed I was dead. Then he was the only thing standing between subrand and the throne. As long as I live, that is not the case.”

“Then you think the attack at the castle had nothing to do with subrand?” Claire asked skeptically.

“Yes and no. I do not think he ordered it, but the main conspirator was the father of Ölvir, one of the traitors I was forced to execute after his recent coup attempt. The man committed suicide before we could lay our hands on him, but he left a letter. He said that as I had deprived him of a son, he would deprive me of a grandson.”

Claire shivered.

“subrand has been preoccupied with the search for Naudiz, in any case. Having an invincible commander could sway many to his cause, and it is a powerful symbol. It is only given to the heir to the throne.”

“But you just said he was after me,” I pointed out.

“Yes.”

It took me a second, but it finally clicked. “I don’t have it, Caedmon!”

“Not anymore,” he agreed, holding something up. It was a crudely cut stone, off-white in color and about the size of my thumb. A few scratches on one side formed a crude glyph.

I pounced on it. “Where did you get this?”

“That vampire found it.”

“Louis-Cesare?”

“Yes. I knew it was some ridiculous hyphenated name.”

“It was discovered under your body when he pulled you out of the wreckage,” Radu said, shooting Caedmon a less than friendly look.

“What was it doing there?” I asked, bewildered.

Caedmon shrugged. “It fell off your skin after its energy was expended, deflecting the blast.”

“Off my skin?”

“Naudiz is meant to be worn into battle. When cast, it melts into the skin so that it cannot be dislodged.”

“Like a tattoo?”

“No. The magical tattoos your mages wear are visible on the body. One of the advantages of Naudiz is that it is not. An enemy can therefore never be certain when the wearer is protected, and must assume that any attack made upon him will be very risky.”

“That is why everyone wanted it for the challenges,” Radu said. “Most magical aids would be detected. But Naudiz was specifically designed not to be.”

I stared down at the small thing on my palm, my head reeling. “I had it? The whole time I was running all over the city, going crazy searching for it, it was on my damn skin?”

“And fortunately so. Had it not been, you would most certainly be dead.”

“But… how did it get there?”

“We got a theory about that,” a familiar voice said. It took me a second to recognize the guy who stood in the doorway. Because, for once, all his parts were where they were supposed to be.

“Ray. They put you back together already?”

“Good as new.” He walked over and bent down to show me his scar. “Better, really,” he said in a low voice. “The Senate’s got some good bokors on their payroll. When they finished with my neck, I had them look at… other stuff.”

“So no more Mr. Lumpy?”

“Naw. I’m a stallion, baby!”

“I’ll take your word for it,” I told him as he settled off to the side, well out of the sun.

I looked at Caedmon. “How did I end up with Naudiz? I wasn’t at the auction and I never met Jókell.”

“But I did,” Ray said.

“What difference does that make?”

Ray leaned back against the wall, getting comfortable. “We think it went down something like this. Jókell’s in the office, waiting on the luduan to authenticate the stone so he can get his money. The door opens, but he doesn’t sense anything dangerous, just some human looking for the john or something.”

“Because Christine’s power signature was deceptive,” I said. “She was one of those rare vampires able to hide her true strength.”

“Right. So he’s not worried. No human is gonna be a problem for him. So he gets caught flat-footed and she guts him.”

“That’s not speculation,” I said. “I talked to the luduan yesterday, and that’s what happened.”

“Yeah, we talked to him, too, this morning. He said Jókell had the rune in his hand and was about to hand it to him to verify when Christine showed up.”

I nodded. “He told me that, too.”

“Okay, so there’s Christine, who must have heard about the rune from eavesdropping on Elyas. She knows he’s coming to do his own snatch and grab any minute, so she doesn’t have much time. She checks Jókell’s clothes, turns out his pockets, but doesn’t find the rune. And then she senses Elyas approaching and has to leave or blow her cover too early.”

“Following you so far.”

“Then Elyas comes in. He sees Jókell lying there, all but dead, with the carrier he’d seen at the auction around his neck. He grabs the carrier, assuming it has the stone, and hurries off before anyone spots him. Leaving Jókell behind with the rune still in his hand.”

“But if he had it at that point, why didn’t he cast it?” I asked. “He had to know how it worked or he wouldn’t have been able to sell it. Any buyer was going to need that information.”

“He did cast it.”

“Then why is he dead?”

“Because he made a mistake. Naudiz takes a few seconds to activate once the incantation is said. He was half unconscious with blood loss and in a lot of pain. When I came back, all he could think about was getting my attention, to let me know he needed help.”

Light dawned. “H grabbed your ankle.” I remembered Ray mentioning that, but it hadn’t seemed important.

“With the hand holding Naudiz,” Ray agreed. “It transferred to me and the next second, Jókell was dead.”

“That still doesn’t explain how I got it.”

“Naudiz is designed to sustain life,” Caedmon said. “It cannot function properly on a creature that, by its definition of the term, is already dead. It lent him some additional energy while it searched for a living body to fulfill its function, but it could do no more.”

“The bokors said that’s why I came through the whole dismemberment thing so good,” Ray added. “According to them, I should have been pretty out of it.”

Come to think of it, Ray had seemed remarkably… resilient. “But why transfer to me?”

“No reason other than you were the first living body with which Raymond had extensive contact,” Caedmon explained.

“Yeah, your hands were all over me,” Ray said with a cheerful leer. “And at some point—boom! It transferred. Probably during that crazy pursuit. I mean, who would notice, right?”

“But I’ve been hurt since,” I protested. “subrand broke my wrist!”

“Naudiz isn’t a shield, Dorina,” Caedmon told me. “It does not protect you against all injuries. It does ensure that those injuries are not life-threatening.”

I nodded and started to ask something else when a huge yawn interrupted me. “She’s tired,” Claire said, getting up. “We should go.”

“I’m okay,” I protested, only to have her look at me severely.

“The healers said you’ll need lots of rest, probably for the next week. The rune may have kept you alive, but you took a beating down there.”