n the bed, pretending to sleep, letting his eyes harden around what he felt under his skin. The thread hummed there like a wire under tension. Ly

w told him she meant it like a greeting. He answered

m the yard ask to speak with you." He looked at Lyra and swa

d." Brian kept his voice flat. H

ects you." The name hit him like a stone thrown throug

ike a wound. Smoke curled from chimneys. Men moved with the b

and servants who loved to watch a show. When Brian stepped into the open, the mu

to hear. "Keeping the Mantle's princess warm?" He jerked his chin

. "She'll be under my guard," h

He stepped close enough that Brian felt the heat of him. "You forget y

e saw trouble cross the older man's face, but Lucius kept his mouth shut a

y, soft like a promise that could be broken. "We'll show

l the grain of fear under Asher's words. If he agreed, Lyra would be par

His voice came out thin. "Sh

e?" His hand brushed the dagger at h

the kind that made men steady their knees. "We will no

held its breath, like someone had put a lid over

Asher said. "You'll

ut duty. He had swallowed the taste of loyalty until it coated his tongue. But the syllable from Lyra-Sera-was

ard him with a rolled scrap of paper. "A note from Ash

-slick and neat. It said little, as if to say ev

. Lyra met him at the top, hands washed, hair smoothed, loo

n. He wanted to see how she would react. She only smile

o the yard and seen the way men looked at her; that he had felt

," he said. "They wa

ngers used to war, she wrapped the strip around a dull stone and began to hammer at it like a smith practicing. The noise

hummed, and in his mind a picture unrolled like a scrap of woven cloth-images, not words: a ring of stones, a moon like a

pped his hand. The touch was quick and c

aked. "Do you know what happened that nigh

all as if she was showing him a place where something had been hidden. Her eyes said more than th

k. Brian stood so fast his chair toppled. He went to the door and opene

," Asher said. "Keep them

their shadows, his mouth thin as wire. He should have known Asher would not be

her down to the yard now," he said. "Or

ashes that kept surfacing. He thought of the way Lyra had wrapped the strip of cloth around the s

rised him, blunted and rough as a new sword. He stepp

l be the death of us, brother," he said, and his

boots soft on the flagsto

the silence between them-an oath, a warning, a thing said without voice. Remember Sera, it said again, and then,

n reached fo

f gave a long, low cry. It so