“Good,” Rua hedged. “Is there someone you want to ask me about in particular?”

“You’re cruel, Ru.” She knew Rua would be grinning on the other side of the flames.

“I don’t have any news,” Rua said. “Remy’s caravan has only just returned to Yexshire since they were going at such a slow pace.”

Because of Talhan’s injury. She knew that’s what Rua meant though she didn’t expressly say. She hated that Talhan was wounded; it made being at odds with him even more frustrating. She’d still not recovered from the shock of seeing his drawn, bloodless face, his eyes searching the skies as if the Gods were coming to claim him. She’d never felt horror like it, not even on that blood-soaked night many years ago in Falhampton.

“Any leads?”

She realized Rua and Carys were still talking but she hadn’t heard a single word, not as her own voice roared in her ears. Tal, come on! she’d screamed, shaking her brother as he held that mortal wound in his gut.

“Bri?” Carys’s voice snapped her attention back. “That purple dagger?”

“I’ve still got it.” Bri tapped her hip. “But I’m planning on giving it to Lina.” Carys arched her brow and Bri added, “It’s the only clue as to who killed her mother. I thought she should be the one in possession of it.”

“An amethyst dagger has Augustus Norwood written all over it,” Rua said.

“When did that little brat become the lord of the violet witches?” Bri gritted out. “His father hated the witches, was happy to treat them the same way the North did.”

“I doubt Augustus cares for them any more than his father,” Carys said. “But if building an alliance with the witches means building an army . . .”

“So there are violet witches still alive?” Rua asked. “Aneryn said the last known violet witch died over sixty years ago.”

“Who knows what he could be doing with that blue Witches’ Glass,” Carys muttered.

Bri frowned, thinking of the ancient blue witch stone still in the possession of the Norwood Prince. A flicker of an idea sparked in her. “Do you think the amethyst stones on the dagger we found are the same?” she wondered. “Just as the rubies in the Immortal Blade or the Witches’ Glass can be used to cast witch magic?”

“It would make sense,” Rua said. “All the covens seem to have magic talismans.”

“How are they? The cursed blue witches?” Bri asked tentatively, remembering the faces of the Forgotten Ones as the spell lifted from them, morphing them from feral beasts to frightened souls in an instant. The thought made Bri shudder. How awful to have someone controlling their minds like that. She wondered if they’d remembered all they’d done while under Balorn’s curse.