A Plague of Giants (Seven Kennings #1) - Kevin Hearne Page 0,151

imaginative scenario. Uncomfortable to contemplate.”

“As a fresh cob of corn shoved briskly up your anus.” His throat rumbled as he tried to clear it, but nothing came of it this time and he cursed before continuing. “I’m paid to imagine such things and prevent them from happening.” I suppressed a chill at his words. I’d heard Sarena speak them before, word for word. It didn’t matter if she’d heard them from him or the other way around: this man had most likely been her mysterious overseer who had supervised her operations and whom she had never named.

“So you admit that you have no factual basis for this Raelech conspiracy.”

“It is a fact that Clodagh has a militant mindset and is willing to send juggernauts abroad at the least provocation. It is a fact that we are still not sure how we’re crossing the ocean safely to strike back at the Bone Giants, so what use is sending an army here now? And it is a fact that Fintan knows things about the Nentian viceroy he shouldn’t know.”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“He’s a damned skilled spy. And he’s here looking for weaknesses.” He got excited at the end of that and raised his voice on “weaknesses,” and this inspired a juicy coughing fit. I waited until he’d recovered to answer him.

“Unless he’s here to tell the story like he claims.”

“Of course he’s here for that. But that’s not the only reason he’s here. He wants to take a peek at whatever he can in the palace.”

“But he can’t get in there. When he’s not with me, he’s under surveillance, is he not? You seem to have it covered.”

“Maybe. What we’d all like to know is how he knows the inner monologue of Melishev Lohmet. I can’t believe that Lohmet would volunteer such sentiments as we’ve heard so far. Contempt for his merchants, his army, and his citizens, suspicions that his king is spying on him, openly coveting the throne, and his outright murders—he’d never want that to be public. On the one hand it’s as entertaining to us as a frenetic marmot orgy in the springtime. On the other it’s frightening because it means the bard gained access he shouldn’t have. Which means we need to guard against the same thing happening here. Imagine him talking to some other crowd of people that way about Pelenaut Röllend.”

“Rölly isn’t a degenerate like Melishev.”

“No, he’s not. But you don’t get to spend more than a day being pelenaut without making a decision that will cast you in a bad light if presented at the wrong place and time. On election day it’s all cake and tits and you think it’s good to be pelenaut. After that it’s tough.”

“You’ve seen a few elections, then?”

“More than you. I’m an old man with a sharp mind and a soft, shitty body. I like cake too damn much. The point is that we don’t want people hearing about us someday the way we’re hearing about the Nentians. I want you to ask the bard straight how he found out all that shit about Melishev because this is something you can be openly curious about. Everyone’s curious.”

“You think he’ll answer honestly?”

“No. But I think he’ll give you a more thoughtful answer. Others have asked him, of course, and he laughs off the question or gives a flippant reply. I want to know what he says to you.”

“All right. Is that all?”

“No. We need to keep your manuscript secure. You’ve written some things about our open suspicion of Rael that will be harmless later, but we don’t want it to get out right now. We’ll send some people over to make some modifications to your home.”

“Wait…you’ve read it?”

“Of course I have. I’d be a bloody incompetent master of spies if I hadn’t.”

I gritted my teeth, trying to think how they could have read my manuscript without me knowing. It had to be while I slept or while I was out. I was out often enough to make it feasible. “Fine. What else?”

“Stay away from the palace from now on. If the pelenaut wants to see you, he will meet you elsewhere. That way if you show up at the palace, we’ll know it’s not you.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“We think it likely the bard will try to impersonate you to gain access to the palace. It’s all about security. Expect to be poked and prodded from now on to make sure you’re not the bard.”

“Understood, Master Butternuts.”

Silence