Page 45 of The Crown’s Temptation

"The Thren ships."

Colsar looked at him. He had almost forgotten that Teorin's original intent had been to take Veynar. "How many?"

"Eleven. Full complement." A pause. "They have not come ashore. They have not engaged. They are simply sitting there with no flag raised and no communication sent." He paused again. "Ship is clearly from Thrykis, but whether or not this was planned as an attack from King Fyris or from someone else is unclear."

The room was quiet.

Colsar set his jaw. "The deathmages were Yorali. I killed four of them myself. That is not something that happens by accident. Orsin sent them." He paused. "Avaneer was not acting alone either."

"You think Fyris was working with Orsin?” Uralish said.

"I think someone was." Colsar's voice was flat. "It was not Teorin." He hated saying it. "Whatever else he is, he was not behind this. I have never seen a man look less prepared for what he walked into that night."

"Teorin Rathmor," Enovar said from the wall. "Those ships are Thren. Fyris isn't stupid enough to attack Veynar with Asharin present. He would know she held an Avanki army and that much lightcraft is enough to destroy an army of Threns easily.” He looked at Colsar. "If it was Teorin, why would he bring soldiers here and then simply vanish?"

"Perhaps he was killed," Iavis said.

"Or fled," Uralish said. "When whatever he planned did not go the way he planned it."

"What did he plan, exactly?" Enovar said. "That is what none of us can answer."

Colsar said nothing.

He looked at the table and kept his face arranged into nothing and thought about Teorin lifting her from his arms. The way her arm had fallen. I will keep her safe, Teorin had said. He had believed it only because he had no other choice.

And yet he had not heard a word from Morrath.

"The Threns fear lightcraft," Uralish continued. "The Avanki presence at the dock will have surprised them. They would not have expected it and would not know how to account for it. They will either stay on those ships until they run out of provisions or they will turn around." A pause. "Either way they are not a threat right now."

"My sources tell me there were strange creatures flying overhead the Thren ships," Enovar said.

Uralish shook his head. "I heard the same, but there are none now. Not in the capital or the surrounding lands. Nothing since the night." He drew in a breath. "Since the night she was lost." He opened his flask finally and took a long drink. "When a feeder weakens, whatever creatures answer them weaken alongside. They fade or they follow." He said the last part plainly. "Whether that means he is dead or simply gone, I cannot say."

The room sat with that.

Colsar said nothing. He had a brief involuntary flash of something he did not want to examine. Teorin dead somewhere and Asharin with nothing between her and whatever lived in Morrath. He put it away and kept his face still.

"Trophi," he said.

"Yes," Uralish said.

"The Avanki were redirected the night of the dinner through too many channels to be organic," Colsar said. "Someone with access to the command structure pulled them away from her intentionally. The only person with that access and that motive⁠—"

"Is Trophi," Enovar said. "Or someone using Trophi." He finally sat down. "The why is what I cannot account for. Trophi has no obvious allegiance to anyone who gains from her death."

"Unless the allegiance is not obvious," Iavis said.

Everyone looked at him. He shrugged. "The people with the most to gain are not always the ones holding the knife."

Colsar looked at him. Then back at the table.

"Find Trophi," he said. "Quietly. I want to know where he has been since the night of the dinner and who he has spoken to." A pause. "And Rorin. His quarters were empty the morning after. His men cannot account for him."

Enovar turned briefly to look at Syle. Something passed between them. Then back at the room. "Two disappearances on the same night," he said. "Not coincidence."

Syle's hands were flat on the table and still.

Uralish drank again. Set the flask down. "There is something else."