Liora touched Samuel's arm. "Keep watch. I'll follow."
"You shouldn't go alone....."
"I won't be," she said, slipping the blade Lucien had given her into her boot. "Besides, I need to know what they're hiding."
She moved like a shadow, hugging the edges of stone and hay. The door was half-ajar, as though inviting her in. Inside, the scent of old dust and iron filled her nose. She descended the short steps to find rows of crates stacked high, most labeled as tools or grain. But in the corner, one crate was already open.
Inside lay rolls of parchment. She pulled one out carefully.
Not grain.
Orders. Movements. Maps. Messages sent from Minister Halric's office... to outposts that no longer existed.
And at the bottom, sealed with wax in the shape of a crescent moon, was a document dated a full month before Lucien's exile. Her heart hammered. The conspiracy hadn't started after Lucien's disgrace; it had begun before it.
