A Plague of Giants (Seven Kennings #1) - Kevin Hearne Page 0,42

on my old cot for the evening and let a mariner know why I’d returned and ask him to please inform Rölly. My friend the pelenaut had me join him for breakfast in the morning, sending a longshoreman to take me to a small private dining room. He had decided that morning that everything was orange, or at least he would be, dressed head to toe in varying shades of it. It wasn’t a traditional palette for Brynlön, and I wondered if Rölly had lost a wager.

We bade each other good morning and sat at the table, and a longshoreman promptly set glasses of orange juice in front of us. I wasn’t going to comment aloud on the overload of orange, but after that I couldn’t resist.

“Are we celebrating citrus today?”

Rölly looked down at his outfit and smirked. “A Kaurian ambassador arrived last night with a shipment and I’m meeting with him later today, so I suppose we are.” He plucked at his tunic and snorted. “Everything you see on me was a gift from him in the past few years.”

“No. He’s been giving you orange clothing every time he visits?”

“Yes, he has. I’m trying to visually communicate to him that perhaps it’s time to be a bit more thoughtful. You think it’s too subtle?”

Shaking my head and chuckling, I said, “I’m so glad I don’t have your problems.”

“Yes, you should be. But I understand you have your own. Your home was robbed?”

I let him know what happened and asked to resume my residence in the palace, but he surprised me by stating that he’d have some longshoremen bring me a cot and a chair for my writing desk instead. “I’d really rather you weren’t in the palace, Dervan. Föstyr tells me that—well, never mind. I am purposely sheltering you from what’s happening here.”

“I don’t understand why.”

“This bard is going to be trained in reading facial expressions. He’ll be able to tell when you’re hiding something. I need your reactions to be genuine and open.”

“Reactions to what?”

“Whatever he says. He will say some things just to see how you react.”

“Huh. That might explain yesterday. He brought up my marriage to Sarena as if she were still here.”

The same longshoreman as before arrived with plates for us, and after the pelenaut thanked him and he left, he ignored the food and leaned forward, eyes boring into mine. “Tell me exactly what he said as best as you can remember.” I told him, and he leaned back when I finished, wagging a finger at me. “You see? He has already begun.”

“Begun what?”

“He’s assuming you’re a trained spy because of your close ties to both Sarena and myself. He will be looking for tells that you are trained, and he mentioned Sarena entirely to gauge your reaction.”

“You mean he already knew about Sarena’s passing?”

“Of course he did, Dervan! The Raelech ambassador he mentioned visiting was at her funeral.”

I felt an ache bloom between my eyes. I’d been so foolish to think I could match wits with a trained bard. “I’m really not suited for this, Rölly.”

“You’re fine. Ask him something for me next time, will you? Pretend you know nothing about the Triune Council members—”

“I won’t have to pretend.”

“That’s good. Ask him who they are and what they are like. Listen but also watch his face as he describes them. Does he make small expressions of disgust when he thinks of any of them? Does he blink his eyes a lot or look elsewhere when talking of one of them? Notice everything.”

“Why? Is there something going on with one of the council members?”

“Maybe and maybe not. I don’t want to say anything because you can’t give away what you don’t know. Just be openly curious and clueless. And watchful.”

We didn’t say much after that, just fell to feeding our faces, but my mind whirled with so many questions that I didn’t even notice what we ate. Something fishy.

—

I spent the remaining hours of the morning back at my house, picking my clothes up off the floor and folding them into neat piles. I stacked them on top of my writing desk, having no other place to put them. Then I sorted through the papers that had been casually perused and tossed aside with little interest. I had to reorder my manuscript, but nothing was missing; in fact, I found something extra. It was a note from Elynea that she evidently had left on my writing desk, thinking I would have seen it there