Page 184 of Sunsplitter

Fionamara laughed like grating nails. “Yme told me Avroz came home from that trip. Alone.Injured. He had glyphs carved onto his antler tip.”

“Glyphs?”

“Golden glyphs. She said they smelled like aedari.”

“Impossible. Syvr and Ixli were traveling with him. They would have mentioned…” The memories were foggy, a night on a rooftop in Thomaskweld, a bottle of wine to share. “Syvr said they were separated. They found Avroz back at home, with his antler tip missing.”

Fionamara’s glare cut him to pieces.

Antal shook his head again. “Why would he—”

“Avroz fought an aedari,” she said. “But helost. He got away, ran home to lick his wounds, but you daeyari can’t see the backs of your own damn antlers. He didn’t know the aedari had smacked those glyphs onto him until Yme saw it. Some kind ofmarkerglyphs.”

Antal had never seen such magic in person, but he knew of it—aedari carved marker glyphs onto landmarks throughout the Shards they explored, beacons to navigate back to. If a marker was placed on a person, the aedari would take time to track it down, honing to the beacon, but eventually…

“It would have led the aedari back to Avroz,” Fionamara said. “Back to the Twilit Plane. He cut off the antler tip. Left to get rid of it, told Yme never to speak of what happened.”

Antal couldn’t make sense of what Fionamara was saying. A daeyari would never cut a piece of antler off, not unless there’d been dire need. But Avroz had told the story without qualm. He’d laughed it off.

He’d not boasted of the victory. He’d changed the subject as swiftly as he could.

“Antal, what if Avroz fucked up?” Fionamara gripped his shirt. “Even if that fucker hurled that marked antler into the Void, who knows how close the aedari got before he realized he was being tracked? Obviously, they didn’t make it all the way to the Twilit Plane. But the Season-Locked Planes? What if the aedari found their way herebecause of him?”

“No. Avroz wouldn’t do this.”

The words slipped out like oil on Antal’s tongue. Fionamara pulled back, blinking.

“Excuse me,” she said. “Have youmethim? BecauseI’vemet him. And five seconds in his presence was enough to assure me he’d do anything to benefit his own ass.”

Antal’s insides were ice. He’d learned, over the centuries, that there were many things Avroz would do. He’d call his son every name short of a disappointment. He’d cut open a man Antal loved, just to make a point. He’d banish his only heir and not speak to him for five decades. Endless flavors of torment, for the son who’d never lived up to expectations. Despite all that…

“Avroz has dedicated his life to the Daey Celva,” Antal tried to reason. “He wouldn’t lead an aedari here, even by accident. He wouldn’t endanger the Twilit Plane by telling no one. He wouldn’t…”

“Antal, listen to yourself. Listen tome.”

Antal was trying, past the buzzing in his ears. He…

Understood what she’d been saying before. This could ruin everything. Avroz was his route to the Daey Celva, his ally in codifying a new system in Thomaskweld.

So Avrozcouldn’thave done this.

“He’s hurt you,” Fionamara said. “I’ve seen him hurt you, and I only know a fraction of what happened before me. It’s ok to be angry, afraid, but you have to admit”—she cupped his cheeks—“hewoulddo something like this. You know what he’s capable of. Especially if it meant protecting himself?”

Anything. Avroz would doanythingto serve his interests.

“So he got cocky,” Fionamara pressed. “Got his ass handed to him by an aedari, then refused to fess up. He’s a coward.”

“No…” Antal said slowly, the realization like a knife to his gut. “Avroz is anopportunist. If he’d returned in defeat, an antler missing, it would have meant disgrace. But if he claimed to have killed that aedari, then let others assume a different scout found the Season-Locked Planes, volunteered to lead a hunt…”

Instead of shame, Avroz would earn more glory. Instead of a setback, he’d used the hunt as a chance for Antal to become a Sunsplitter.

“We have to tell the Dusk Council,” Fionamara said.

A numb sensation had been settling into Antal’s ether—jolted now into panic. “Tell the council?Why?”

“Because Avroz lied?” Fionamara glared in exasperation. “Because he led theimmortal foes of all daeyarihere, then kept it secret? Don’t you have laws against that?”

Treason, the council would call it. That wasn’t the biggest problem.