Page 211 of The Crown’s Temptation

Perhaps I was wrong.

I would keep watching, I decided.

"No human company this morning?" I said.

"No," he said. "I found it lacking."

I looked up. "Oh?"

"Yes." He held my eyes. "I am changing perhaps. Or perhaps my needs have been otherwise satisfied."

I looked at him and tried to work out what he meant by that. Perhaps our previous conversations had truly been that pleasing to him. Or perhaps the blood and the feeding and the recovery had been enough. I turned the words over and dismissed the other possibility that flickered briefly at the edge of the thought. That made no sense. I pushed it away.

We ate the rest of the meal in quiet.

When I set down my fork I said, "We should leave soon."

"Yes," he said. "I need to visit the archivist. A few other things." He paused. "I will meet you there."

I nodded.

He looked at me. "When do you leave?"

I stood. I pulled my leather cloak around my shoulders and fastened it and looked at him across the table. Then I reached out and took his hand.

I did not answer. I was learning that everyone else used information to gain the upper hand. Perhaps I should too.

"Do not disappoint me, Teorin," I said.

He stared at me. “Your eyes,” he said quietly.

“Yes, I have those,” I said lightly.

He did not laugh. Instead he nodded, as though confirming something that only he understood.

I turned and walked out of the dining hall and down the corridor and through the parts of the Darkway I had learned by walking them in the dark, past Fiersa's door and past the room where I had slept and past the place where the tunnels began, all the way to the mouth of Morrath.

I stepped through.

I had expected sunlight.

It was dark. The dark of a sky with no moon yet, heavy and close, the air carrying salt and cold and something alive in it that had nothing to do with anything inside.

I stood and let my eyes adjust.

Then I looked toward the docks and began walking.

The Courtyard

DALI

The sentinel at Teorin's door did not move when she approached.

Different from the others. Broader. The kind of creature that had been placed rather than stationed, which meant someone had thought about it.

"I wish to see Teorin," she said.

"No, Saren." He spat on the ground between them.