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“Via his father, to offer our assistance,” Jaromir answered, stepping forward and pulling two letters from inside the quilted shirt beneath his armor. “The first is a letter from Prince Lieven to my lord, and the second is a letter from my lord to you.”

He and Anton had decided to hold nothing back and allow Keegan full access to all pertinent information.

With a confused frown, Keegan took the letters from him and took his time reading them both. The first one was the same letter Leonides had carried from Prince Lieven, explaining the situation and clearly asking Anton to handle the matter. The second letter was from Anton, written directly to Keegan, explaining that Céline and Amelie were seers and healers from the court of Sèone, who were to be given full cooperation. Anton blatantly stated that if Keegan wished to have the heart of this problem rooted out and solved, he must grant Céline and Amelie’s every request.

Finally, Keegan looked up and handed both letters to Corporal Quinn. But the captain seemed on the edge of strained disbelief.

“Let me understand this . . . ,” he began. “So, instead of sending a replacement for me or even reinforcements from Pählen, my prince appealed to his youngest son . . . who in turn has sent two women who claim to be ‘seers.’” His voice was rising toward the end of this short speech.

“Your prince already sent reinforcements once,” Jaromir answered. “They were no help.”

“Please, Captain,” Céline said. “I know how this must seem, but Prince Anton had a similar, seemingly unsolvable . . . problem in the spring, and my sister and I were able to stop a series of unnatural deaths. We would not have been sent here unless your prince and mine believed we could help you.”

Corporal Quinn was listening to her with interest. He had the same haunted, exhausted look of everyone else Jaromir had encountered here so far, but the man’s light blue eyes were more alert. “Did you ride all this way with no escort?” he asked.

“No, of course not,” Jaromir answered. “We had a small contingent, but I sent them back.”

“Sent them back?” Keegan repeated. “Why?”

Again, Jaromir decided on honesty. “Because my lord thought you might feel challenged or that your authority was being threatened if I rode in with a contingent of men from Sèone under my command.”

When Keegan glanced away, it suggested that Anton’s instincts had been correct.

“My lord wishes you to understand that we are here to help,” Jaromir went on. “That is all we wish to do. And he wanted to show his confidence that he trusts you to keep these ladies safe.” The last part was a mere compliment. He would protect Amelie and Céline himself.

Keegan let out a long exhale. “If he wanted to keep them safe, he shouldn’t have sent them here at all.”

* * *

Céline listened as the men talked, but on the inside, she was trying not to panic over everything she’d seen and felt since riding in.

This was a place deserted by hope. She could see it in the faces of the men, in their shabby living conditions, in the fact that they’d long since ceased to wash or have a care for the proper manner of soldiers on duty.

Worse, the inside of this tent only increased her concerns, as it suggested their leader had cut himself off and lived apart with his thick furs and his red wine and tapestries. And still . . . the entire encampment felt so temporary, as if for years, none of the rotating groups of men stationed here had ever harbored any intention of staying long enough to put up wooden barracks.

So far, Amelie had remained silent, but Céline knew she must be just as troubled by what they’d walked into.

It was difficult to help men who appeared to view themselves as beyond help—and that’s what she was sensing.

“Forgive me,” Corporal Quinn said cautiously, looking at Céline. “But I don’t quite understand the word ‘seer.’ What is it exactly that you claim to be able to do?”

She studied him. While Captain Keegan appeared to be a man letting himself go to seed, Quinn was in his prime. He, too, had been under great strain, but unlike those of the men outside, his tabard and face were clean. He had a coiled energy about him, as if he was capable of quick action when necessary. Céline thought he might be useful if she could win his trust.

“We each have a different ability,” she answered. “I can read a person’s future, and Amelie can read their past.”

Gulping half a goblet of wine, Captain Keegan made a loud, derisive snort, and Céline realized it was too soon to ask him to allow her to start reading his men. He would first need to understand they were not charlatans. Besides, she needed a better idea of the situation, and it seemed she was going to have to fall back on the authority that Anton had provided by sending his letter.

“Your prince mentioned that some of the workers here have been killed, but . . . where do the workers live?” she asked. “Riding in, we saw only your own encampment.”

Quinn glanced at his captain, and Keegan pulled out a chair, sitting down himself. He pointed north. “There’s a path through the trees, toward the mines. The workers live in a cleared area over there. I’ve been posting guards for them at night.”

She nodded and then steeled herself. It was time for more difficult questions.

“Captain, can you tell us . . . what exactly did you mean by reporting that your men are ‘turning into beasts’? What sort of beasts?”

A short silence followed, and this time Quinn answered.

“Like wolves, only larger, with wide chests and red eyes. It seems to happen quickly, with no warning.”

“But this is only happening to your own men,” Jaromir broke in, “not to any of the miners or their families.”

“So far, yes,” Quinn responded. “But you can’t imagine . . . these things, these wolves are savage, mad, and they start killing anything in sight within moments of the change. Not long after this started, our workers began trying to escape, and we’ve had to actually ride some of them down and bring them back.”

“Ride them down?” Amelie spoke up for the first time. “They’re not allowed to leave?”

The question appeared to baffle both Keegan and Quinn.

“Well . . . of course they’ve signed contracts,” Keegan answered. “My only duty here is to ensure the silver continues to flow. I cannot do that without enough workers.”

Céline digested this quickly. What he was describing sounded a good deal like slavery, via these “contracts.”

“How many soldiers have you lost?” she asked.

“Ten have been infected,” Quinn answered, “including one officer, Lieutenant Sullian, and we lost the tenth man only three days ago. But we’ve also lost several more of our own men who were killed by the wolves, so the captain hasn’t been able to spare anyone to carry a report to our prince about this last case.”

“Infected?” she repeated.

“Well, what else could it be?” Keegan snapped, taking another swallow of wine. “And it’s intentional. At first, I thought that one of the men had somehow . . . contracted this and it was spreading at random. But only my men have been affected. There is someone behind this.”

Céline had been coming to this conclusion as well, but the captain seemed so certain. Did he know something he wasn’t sharing?

“Have you noticed any warning signs before the men begin to change? Or made any connections between them?”

Quinn shook his head. “I’ve only seen it happen twice, and it was sudden both times. One moment the man was fine, and then he began to retch, and then . . . we have to kill them as soon as possible.”