they’d searched. The pilfering had been quick, and their findings slim. A few cloth bracelets had patterns Ishnah said she thought were Tukari clan writing.
After that Radiant checked with Pattern, but nothing unusual had happened while they were gone. Finally, as their supplies were being loaded onto the packhorses, Shallan took over and moved to check on Mraize’s communication cube out of habit. Shallan unlocked the trunk and popped it open, then gave a quick glance inside. She didn’t expect …
The powder had been disturbed.
Suppressing her immediate shock, Shallan took a Memory, then shut the trunk and clicked the lock closed. She moved by rote, letting one of the soldiers load it on a horse. Then she stood there, stunned. The powder had been brushed faintly by fingers; she could visualize it distinctly. It had been returned in the right orientation, but Veil’s trick with the powder revealed the truth.
How … She’d checked it earlier. Just before they’d all run off after Adolin. But then she’d left the camp under the watch of …
Of Pattern.
“Mmmm…” he said, making Shallan jump as she noticed him standing right behind her. “An eventful day with humans! Your lives are always so exciting. Mmm…”
“Pattern,” Veil said, “nothing happened here while we were gone. You are sure?”
“Yes, very sure. Ha ha. You had excitement, and I was bored. It is irony! Ha ha.”
Veil, this can’t … this can’t be possible, Shallan thought. We can’t be suspicious of Pattern of all people. It … I can’t …
Yet hadn’t he been standing nearby when she’d mentioned the secret to Beryl that had made its way to Mraize? And she’d told him about the orientation issue with the cube, so it was no wonder that this time—in using it—the spy had returned it exactly the right way.
Radiant wasn’t convinced. And … it was ridiculous, wasn’t it? To think Pattern could be spying on her for the Ghostbloods? He loved lies, but she doubted he could manage one himself. At least not one that would fool Veil.
Shallan took over, and tried to put the idea out of her mind as they began walking. But it wouldn’t leave her alone. Veil and even Radiant began to wonder. He’d had opportunity. He knew about the communication cube, and had been watching over it the night she’d been drunk.
Shallan’s father had belonged to the Ghostbloods; her family had been involved with them all the way back in her youth. Perhaps in her childhood, during those shadowy days she’d forgotten? Could the conspiracy go back that far?
Her association with Pattern stretched back to that time, for certain. She’d used him as a Blade to kill her mother. Shallan had suppressed many of those memories, but this fact was indisputable. Pattern and she had begun to bond nearly a decade ago.
Could Pattern have been working with them all along? Feeding them information about her progress? Leading her to contact them when she’d first come to the warcamps?
The implications of that shook her to the core. If her spren was a spy … could she trust anything?
Could she even keep going? This revelation was far, far worse than discovering Vathah or Ishnah had been the spy. This … this made her tremble. Made her legs weak.
Shallan, Radiant thought. Be strong. We don’t know all the facts yet.
No. No, she couldn’t be strong. Not in the face of this.
She crawled away, deep within, and started whimpering like a child. Something was odd about Pattern, about his interactions with her all along. The way he covered up what happened in the past. The timeline of her past … disregarding the holes in it … didn’t quite work. It never had worked.…
Strength, Shallan, Veil thought.
Take over, Shallan thought. You can face this. It’s why you were created.
Try to keep going, Veil thought, refusing to take over. Just keep walking. You can do this.
So Shallan reluctantly maintained control. When Adolin called a brief break two hours later, Shallan forced herself to make a quick sketch of the communication cube in its trunk. The Memory was perfect, and the details did not lie. The powder had been scuffed with finger marks. It was a very, very thin coating, almost invisible. But her Lightweaver ability allowed her to memorize such details.
Shallan tried hard to ignore the problem, instead focusing on their surroundings, which had grown more uneven and rocky. The glass trees here were beautiful, like they were molten liquid, and made sweeping curls reminiscent of crashing waves. Yes, focus on