Kestral Nightfeather's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Lycoris had marked her as the realm's best keeper of secrets. That meant more hunters would come. Kestral now had an alliance with Emberlin, her one true shield. Emberlin had warned her about the hunters. Emberlin knew the queen. If a new hunter traced the secret of the dying queen back to its source, they would find Emberlin too. Her safety now rested on a man who could be ruined by her reputation. Emberlin sat at his corner table, the one with the knives driven into the wood and the faded crow runner. He did not drink. He watched the door. When Kestral set a cup down beside him, he moved the knife nearest his hand half an inch. "Your hunter did his job," he said. "Now everyone knows your name. Mine sits too close to it." "I know," she said. "That's why I need to break the trail." The door opened. A tall young human stepped in, lanky, brackish hair, a quiver on his back. He did not drink like a traveler. He stood and read the room. His blue eyes moved table to table, counting, like he was looking for a gap in a fence. "That's one of them," Emberlin said, low. "Not capital. He works alone. He chases patterns." The young hunter came to the bar. "Waylon Aster," he said. "I hear you keep the realm's secrets." He laid two coins down. "I want the one about the queen. Where it started. Who told you." Kestral felt Emberlin go still in the corner. The name Waylon wanted led straight to him. "I keep secrets," she said. "I don't sell their roots. Only their worth." "Roots are the only part I buy," Waylon said. "A secret is useless if you can't trace it." Here was her test. If she named her source, she proved her stock and kept the hunters happy. But she would hand Emberlin to a man who dug until he hit bone. "Then you've got the wrong keeper," Kestral said. "I sell what's true. Never who carried it. Ask Lycoris. He paid me gold for exactly that, and left happy." Waylon studied her. "You turn down coin to protect a name." "I turn down coin to stay a keeper," she said. "A keeper who gives up sources is just a snitch with a reputation. You want a snitch, there's cheaper ones down the road." Waylon was quiet. Then he took back one coin and left the other. "Fair," he said. "I'll remember you don't crack. That's worth more than the name, maybe." He walked out. Emberlin let out a slow breath. "You bought me cover," he said. "But you did it loud." He was right. She had protected him by proving, in front of a hunter, that she would protect anyone. The trail to Emberlin was broken. But now every hunter in the realm had one reason to trust her and one reason to test her harder. Her shield was safe. Her secrets had just become a prize worth cracking by force.