Her heart sped. How could they think that, when to her vision the pattern grew clearer every moment, colors beginning to show through the stone’s own pale gray. “Interesting,” she managed to say. Kieri had been very specific: if the pattern existed in the Tsaian palace, the king must be told—but discreetly. She thought back to that conversation. This man was a Konhalt and supposedly loyal to the Crown, but some Konhalts had not been. She would have to tell the king when they were alone.

The king led her back to the corridor off which her suite opened and bowed to her there. “As we are to meet early at the salle, I will leave you now. You must surely be fatigued.” He bowed again.

“Sir king,” Arian said before he could turn away. “I have a message from Kieri that I must give you now.”

“Now?” His brows went up.

“Yes.” She looked up and down the corridor. Only her own Squires and two of his palace guard. “It is of utmost importance.”

“Well, then…” He looked around him and motioned his guards to move away. “Can you tell me here?”

“Yes.” In courtesy, she gestured for her Squires to move away, and when they had retreated to the same distance as the king’s guards, she spoke. “That pattern in the Bells’ hall—that your Knight-Commander thinks is natural to the stone—is instead a pattern of elven devising, permitting those who know its use to travel from one pattern to another. Have you heard how such patterns were used for the Girdish to travel from Fin Panir to the far west and back?”

“It cannot—are you certain?”

“Yes. It is by such patterns that elves traveled to our palace in Chaya, and the iynisin who attacked and killed the Lady came through one in Kieri’s own office. He suspected one might be here and asked me to look for one and tell you—but privily—if I found it.”

“And humans can use them,” the king said, scowling.

“Yes, if they know how. But more dangerous, the iynisin use them—the kuaknomi,” she added, since he did not react to the elven term.

“Could there be more than one?”

“There were in our palace, sir king. They can be blocked, the elves told us, with a reversal pattern that prevents entry. I brought a drawing of such a design with me, for your use.”

“Does my uncle know about this?”

“That such patterns exist, yes, and can be used by kuaknomi, yes. But not more than that.”

“You could have waited until tomorrow—”

“No one knows when another attack might come,” Arian said.

His lips tightened for a moment. Then he bowed again. “You are right, milady queen. Thank you. I will have a guard set this night, and we will speak more of this another time.”