was gray, sickly.”
No one said anything for several seconds. Then Dugan said, “He—whoever he was—did not meet with Lunabella again while I was watching her. He trailed her at times, but sporadically. I wasn’t following him, so I’m not sure where he went or to whom he spoke when he wasn’t trailing Lunabella. I have no clue where he went after you fainted.”
“But I saw him right before I passed out. Him and that stone that flashed light no one else saw . . .” I paused. “Ryese was—is—an alchemist. If he was able to resurrect and weaponize basmoarte, could that flash of light have triggered it to activate?” I held up a hand when Dugan began to disagree and continued by saying, “I know I didn’t contract the basmoarte from that magic, but you keep saying this strain is much more aggressive than in previous outbreaks. I walked around with it for far longer than the king before mine began spreading. What if it lies dormant until triggered?”
Both men looked contemplative. It was a guess, but it felt right. Of course, I had no way to prove it. Not until we found Ryese—if the gold-cloaked figure was in fact the Winter Queen’s nephew.
“When I returned the bodies to the winter court, I sought out the healer who examined Kordon,” Falin said after a long moment. “She recalled feeling some discomfort when she used her magic to examine him, but she appears mostly fine. There is a small discoloration on her palm—unnoticeable unless one is looking for it—that is likely the basmoarte wound she received from Kordon. I quarantined her, obviously. But her disease hasn’t spread at all, even though she was exposed before you, Alex.”
“That is consistent with historical cases. You questioned her extensively, didn’t you? Ensured she has had no magical contact with anyone since her exposure?” Dugan asked, the alarm on his face enough for me to raise an inquisitive eyebrow. He noticed and turned to me. “The last outbreak of basmoarte became an epidemic largely due to healers. They would contract it without realizing it because the symptoms appear slowly. So they spread it to other fae before anyone realized basmoarte had returned.”
Falin nodded. “I believe we contained the situation before an epidemic could occur in the winter halls. But her lack of symptoms does seem to confirm that Alex and the Shadow King were targeted specifically, and that this strain can be aggressively triggered.”
Well, no epidemic was definitely a good thing, but if the basmoarte was weaponized, could mine be triggered a second time? I doubted I’d survive a second aggressive wave of the disease. We had to find that cure, fast.
“Has anyone heard anything about Ryese since his banishment? I mean, is he even alive? We could be barking up the wrong tree.”
“Tree?” Dugan asked, looking confused.
“It’s an expression. ‘Looking in the wrong place,’ is that clearer?”
He nodded, then frowned. “I can ask some of the listeners specifically, but I have not heard what befell him.”
Now it was my turn to be confused. “Listeners? Like fae who sit around listening to the rumors the shadows carry?”
“More or less.”
Good to know.
I looked to Falin. He’d been the one to order Ryese removed from winter’s lands, right after he’d driven the iron dart Ryese had intended to assassinate the queen with into the other fae’s hand.
“I’ve heard nothing,” he said, mouth pinched. “Though it is rare to be accepted into another court after an attempt to kill your previous monarch. The queen banished him because she didn’t want to watch him die, but she was sentencing him to almost certain death.”
“Almost” being the key word?
“If it was Ryese, I wouldn’t be surprised that he laid that trap with me in mind. He knew what my abilities were and has seen me raise a shade before. Also, he hates me. Pretty sure he blames me for him not having the winter throne.”
Falin nodded, but his jaw clenched, anger thinning his lips. “You would definitely be a target. And if your guess is correct and he is behind this, he might have been targeting the entire winter court to punish the court for his banishment. But I think that was unintentional. Stiofan would have been the one infected if the target was the court.”
That was true. Lunabella could have infected both bodies as easily as she’d infected one. But why shadow? Was the goblin just an unfortunate but random victim? Or had Ryese found allies and they were