Vec proved to be a tricky quarry. An individual changeling was almost impossible to track down, of course. The fact that he was an agent of the Royal Eyes made the situation much more complicated. In theory, the Royal Eyes should have cooperated with a Sentinel Marshal trying to prevent the assassination of the queen. In practice, Mauren had met nothing but resistance. She and Ossa were at the Tower of Eyes now, still trying to arrange an interview with Thuel, but Aunn didn't expect a breakthrough after five days of stalling and posturing.
He sighed and swirled the wine in his glass, watching the light from the candle on his table filter through the golden liquid. It reminded him of the Eye of Siberys, which sent his thoughts back over all the events and plots of the past year. For just a moment, the whole room seemed bathed in the golden light, and he felt an inexpressible sense that there was a purpose at work in it all-not just Nara's sinister plot, whatever it was, but some contrary intention. He felt as though he were seeing his own path laid out in the swirls of golden light, his own part in the Prophecy. He smiled as peace washed over him.
A woman draped in blue appeared in the doorway, and Aunn watched as she scanned the crowded room. When her face turned toward him, his heart leapt-it was Ashara. He adjusted his hood just enough that she could see his gray face, and she hesitated. He waved and let his face suggest Kelas's features for an instant. Ashara smiled and made her way to his table.
"Aunn, thank the Fire and Forge," she said, collapsing into a chair across from him. "We've been looking for you for days."
"Where's Cart?"
"He's waiting in the square. If I don't come out in a moment, he'll come in. We've found it's best not to be seen together."
Aunn nodded. Separately, neither of them was distinctive-most people had a hard time telling one warforged from another. It was their obvious affection for each other that drew attention.
"What happened to you?" Ashara asked. "We agreed to meet back here for dinner, and you never came."
"My trip to the Tower of Eyes didn't go as I'd planned."
"And so you're not trying to be Kelas any more."
"Right. Oh, there's Cart."
The warforged stood in the doorway, scanning the room. He spotted the blue of Ashara's cloak and strode over to join them.
"Aunn?" he asked, staring at the unfamiliar blank face.
Aunn stood, smiling, and extended a hand to Cart. The warforged pulled him into a clumsy embrace that threatened to squeeze the breath from his lungs.
"We were concerned," Cart said. "Have you seen Gaven?"
It still came as a surprise to Aunn that anyone would be concerned for him. "Yes," he said, blinking. "He's on his way to Varna."
"Varna? Why?"
Aunn shrugged. "The Prophecy draws him on, as always. Listen, there's a Sentinel Marshal in town-"
"Yes, we've spoken with her," Ashara said. "And the Kundarak with her," Cart added. "You have? When?"
"A few days ago," Ashara said, looking to Cart for confirmation. "The morning after we saw you last," Cart said.
Aunn thought back over the last several days. He had first met Mauren and Ossa the same morning, and he'd been with them for most of that day. They must have met Cart and Ashara just before that. Aunn thought it strange that the Sentinel Marshal had never mentioned Ashara.
"You told them nothing about the Dragon Forge?" Aunn asked.
"I told them enough to get them off our backs," Ashara said. "I told them it was a catastrophic failure that led to my disgrace and excoriation."
A sick feeling clutched Aunn's gut. "You admitted that you were responsible for it."
"I suppose so. What of it?"
Suddenly Aunn understood much of what had been confusing him for days. He had wondered why the Sentinel Marshal seemed to be moving so slowly, unwilling to make any direct move on Jorlanna or House Cannith. He suspected now that she wanted to avoid causing too much alarm until she had Ashara in custody.
"Mauren knows what the Dragon Forge did," Aunn said.
"Mauren? The Sentinel Marshal is a friend of yours?"
"I've been working with her to stop Jorlanna. It would have been better if you had cooperated with her as well."
Ashara's eyes were wide with fear, and Cart rested his hand on top of hers.
"It's not too late," Aunn said. "I'll tell her you're willing to help-tell her all the ways you've already helped. I couldn't have undone the magic of the Dragon Forge without you."
Ashara shuddered and looked down at the table, seeming more vulnerable than Aunn had ever seen her before.
Cart squeezed her hand. "He's right," he said. "It's better this way."
"I should have listened to you," Ashara said, smiling at Cart. "But I was too afraid."
"Fear is a gateway for the Dark to enter the world," Cart said.
Aunn cocked his head at that-it didn't sound like anything he'd heard Cart say before. He glanced at the runic mark on Cart's forehead, reassuring himself that this was the right warforged. Imprinted at the creation forge, those marks were unique to each individual warforged. Satisfied, Aunn smiled to himself. Cart was proving himself more complex-more "many-layered"-with each passing week.
"So what about you?" Cart said. "You've been working with the Sentinel Marshal? What have you learned?"
"It's starting to come together-at least, I think it is." Aunn sipped his wine and gathered his thoughts. "Kelas sent me to the Demon Wastes to stir up the barbarians, to get them to strike eastward. I know that Nara was behind that mission, and I'm pretty sure the goal-or one goal-was to get Aundairian troops as far away from the capital as possible. Most of our army is either in the Reaches already or guarding our borders with Thrane and Breland. But rather than leave the capital entirely unguarded, the queen hired mercenaries, quite a lot of them. Now, normally, if you want to hire mercenaries you go to House Deneith or House Tharashk. But the queen's not in a position to deal with the dragonmarked houses right now, especially not Deneith."
"So she's hired mercenaries from Droaam," Cart said. "Led by the half-orc who was at Kelas's council."
"Exactly. A whole company of minotaurs, disciplined and ferocious, marched into the city today. As far as I know, Janna Tolden is still involved in the plot as well, and even though she's been discharged in disgrace, she still commands devout loyalty from some number of soldiers. So our working assumption is that the entire military forces of the city, with the possible exception of the palace guard, are more or less directly under Nara's control."
"So you think they're going to seize the palace?" Cart asked.
"I expect they'll try. And in the confusion of the skirmish the assassin will strike at the queen. The key question is when-and here's where I wish Gaven were still around. I figure there has to be a significant moment, something related to the Prophecy, that will signal the attack."
"Then, when the queen is dead," Ashara said, "the mercenary army installs Jorlanna on the throne?"
"I suppose. Jorlanna's involvement is still not clear to me."
"Jorlanna doesn't dare take part in the battle openly," Ashara said, "in case it doesn't go according to plan."
"But she can help covertly," Cart said. "We found out that the mercenaries are armed with weapons made and enchanted in Cannith forges."
"Which means Jorlanna spent a small fortune already," Ashara added. "And those weapons might be enough to tip the scales of the battle."