“The monastery he says he comes from – I asked after it,” Lin said. “Unta sank, yes, but before that no one had been seen from that monastery in almost a year. The monks are reclusive, but they aren’t that reclusive. Every so often, they send someone to the nearest town to pick up supplies. Why wouldn’t he mention that?”

I tried to see past my dislike of the man. “He might not know. He could have been out of contact with them for a while.”

“They’re practically his family – why wouldn’t he be in contact with them?”

I hadn’t been in contact with mine. Although, to be fair, that had been for nefarious reasons. “So what do you want to do about it? Should I set one of my guards to tail him? They’re not the best at that, but I’ve been teaching—”

“I have a better idea,” she said, kneeling by her crate. She lifted her engraving tool. “He was injured during the battle. I collected some of his blood on this. I used my father’s machine and some of Thrana’s blood. I think it worked, but I’m not sure. I’ve never tried this before. If it did, I can look at his memories. That might tell me if he’s being truthful.” She lifted a small box of corked flasks out of the crate, tapping the one closest to her.

My spine stiffened; I could feel the grooves on the handle of my staff digging into my skin. “You would do that?”

“What? Why not?” No hesitation, no hint of misgivings.

“Taking someone’s blood and then using it to glimpse into their mind? That’s something you father would have done. The action of a tyrant.” She recoiled at my words. It was the one thing she feared most, and I had used it against her. Because underneath my righteousness ran an undercurrent of terror: if she could do this to Ragan, she could do this to me. All it would take was my blood.

She could discover my connection to the Shardless Few.

“You don’t even like him; how could you say that?”

Had I been that obvious? “Does it matter whether or not you like a person? Or when you said you wanted to make life better for everyone, did you mean only the people you liked? How many times will you taste other people’s memories because you think you don’t have any other choice?”

“Jovis,” she said, her voice soft, and I hated the way my name on her lips made me feel, “he’s done everything right so far, but what if he’s just trying to get in my good graces so he can betray me?”