Casket of Souls

and Thero went to let Valerius in.
    “You’ve found something?” the drysian asked, tossing his wet cloak over a bench.
    “Alec got this from a boy who traded for it with some beggars called the raven folk.” Thero handed him the yellow stone.
    Valerius held it up to the light, sniffed it, then licked it. Shaking his head, he handed it back. “What am I supposed to make of this?”
    “You don’t sense anything from it?”
    “Nothing. It’s not poisoned, if that’s what you were thinking. And I suppose if it were cursed or bespelled, I’d be hearing about it from you, Thero.”
    “I sense nothing on it, but this kind of stone doesn’t retain impressions.”
    “You mean we went through all that for nothing?” Alec exclaimed in dismay.
    “No, Alec,” said Seregil. “We just need to get something else, and now we know how.”
    Thero rested a hand on Alec’s shoulder. “This is getting desperate. I know what this means to you, but the two of you have made inroads in both cabals that can’t be taken over by anyone else.”
    “What about Micum Cavish?” asked Valerius. “Maybe he could look into this raven business for you. He’s very good with the lower classes.”
    Seregil arched a wry eyebrow. “Do
you
want to tell Kari Cavish that we intend to send her husband into the south Ring?”
    “You don’t think he can handle himself there?”
    “Of course he can. But not alone. Bilairy’s Balls, Valerius,
I
wouldn’t go in there alone, and I doubt you would, either.”
    “Micum wouldn’t have to,” said Alec. “We could take turns during the day, helping Micum.”
    “What about Malthus and his friends?” asked Thero. “And the reprisals?”
    Seregil sighed. “The two sides may do the job for us.”
    “Have they tried assassinating you lately?”
    “Nothing so far. Perhaps word got back to them somehow that we aren’t so easy to kill. Or it was only Laneus sending them. With two failed attempts, I suspect that if the others come after us again, it won’t be by way of an assassin. Given what we’ve seen of the methods on both sides, it’s more likely to be some form of blackmail.”
    Valerius snorted at that. “What could they do to you that way? It’s not like either of you has a pristine character.”
    “I expect it would be something along the lines of another incriminating letter, like the one found with Laneus’s body.”
    “At least Korathan knows the circumstances of that one,” said Thero.
    Seregil frowned. “If too many more of those sorts of things come to light, he might just start to doubt all of us. Now, as for Micum, will you send one of your little messengers out to Watermead? Just tell him we have a job we need help with.”
    Thero summoned a tiny spark of blue light into being and said softly, “Micum, we need you in Rhíminee. Watcher business.” With that, he flicked his finger and the little light flew across the room and disappeared through the wall by the door.
    “What will you do now?” Thero asked.
    “We’re close, I think. All we need to do is get our hands on something that will hold an impression for you to read and we’ll have them.”
    Just then a frantic knocking came at the door, and what sounded like a scuffle.
    “Let me in, Thero!” a woman’s ragged voice cried out over the softer sound of a man’s trying to reassure her. The lock rattled and the door banged wide, framing Thero’s servant Wethis supporting a rain-soaked woman. She wore no cloak over her mud-spattered gown, and her black hair was plastered to her face and shoulders. It wasn’t until she cried outand rushed to throw herself sobbing into Seregil’s arms that Alec realized it was Eirual. Seregil caught her and they swayed together a moment before sinking to the floor in each other’s arms.
    “Oh, no. No!” Alec gasped. Eirual was too hysterical to speak, but there was no doubt in anyone’s mind what had happened.
    “The lady arrived on horseback, insisting that she see you and Lord Valerius at once, my lord,” Wethis explained.
    “Fetch blankets and hot wine,” Thero told him. “Then find a nightdress and make up one of the guest beds.”
    Thero cast a fire in the workroom fireplace. They wrapped Eirual in blankets and Seregil held her in his arms before it. He coaxed a little of the wine into her, as well, and Valerius pressed his hand to her brow and murmured a healing. The hysterical weeping slowly subsided into sobs and then to tearful