“They might try,” Acwellen agreed. “Me and my men are gonna be ready to put heel to horse when they do.”

Acwellen smiled, bowed, and left the room.

Kederic sank back into his chair, face haunted by the past. Padric had no time for him. He tried to give Svala a comforting look, failed, and walked out of the chamber. He made quickly for the end of the hall to the spiral stairs and took them two at a time, passing several galleries before finally coming to the upper most floor of the keep. Coming into a great antechamber, Padric approached a set of double doors flanked by half a dozen guards.

“See that we are not disturbed,” he told the goblins as they dragged the doors open to admit him. Within was a vast solar, tall, narrow windows set high on every wall. Torcan had told him this room once housed countless tomes, scrolls and other relics of the warlocks’ collected knowledge. All destroyed after the Rebellion. The room housed nothing now but dust and its new steward.

The husk stood in the center of the room, his head bowed, face hidden under the floppy brim of his hat, staring down at the iron crown grasped in his thin hands. As the doors closed behind him, Padric approached and the sound of his footsteps raised the husk’s head.

“Secrets,” Slouch Hat whispered. “She shares such secrets.”

“Time you shared some of your own,” Padric said.

Slouch Hat seemed to blink, the wrinkles of his sack face smoothing into awareness.

“Padric,” he said tonelessly.

“You killed Brogan.”

“What?” the husk said. “No.”

“No more lies, Slouch Hat. He betrayed Hog’s Wallow to the Red Caps and you killed him.”

“No,” the husk continued to protest. “I was not even there. Why is this suddenly important?”

“Acwellen is here,” Padric had to remember to keep his voice low. “He knows I am not the heir. He claims Brogan betrayed Kederic, and that you killed him.”

The husk held up a hand. “Padric listen to me. Had I known this, I would not have killed him, I would have exposed him to the village, taken him to the fort, warned them of the goblins. I would not have slain him and fled, leaving the village to its fate. Why would you listen to a man like Acwellen?”

“Because he could not have known about the heir! The man is a fool! But Brogan did know! He read your first master’s work...reasoned it out, somehow discovered the truth about Kederic’s wife.”

Slouch Hat looked away, thinking. “The histories were buried with my master in the barrows near Hog’s Wallow. I was away looking for them when Brogan was killed.”

“Looking for them? In the barrow…why?”