“I trusted Althy!” Zoya cried. “Shadi, Mykkie—everyone trusted you! How dare you? How could you?”

“Do you not believe my intentions?” the Faceless implored the Dark asha. “How could I be so strong as to steal shadowglass in the face of you all? I am powerless now, as I will be then, and I will choose to be so willingly.”

The Dark asha looked back at her, stared hard. She folded her hands behind her. “Where are the letters you stole?” Lady Tea asked. “The ones you took from the bard?”

Druj drew the papers from within her robes. “I had to take them, of course. I could not have my disguise revealed, not then. The dead Altaecia in your story would have turned suspicion against me. I could not learn of Kance’s plans while I was the oracle, so I had to adopt Altaecia’s—”

She broke off. The former oracle smiled, and a peculiar sleepiness overcame me.

“I do not know how you learned of the Blight rune, for the Gorvekai never told you,” the bone witch all but purred. “But they told me many things after I emerged from my second trial at Stranger’s Peak. They told me of more uses for runes that not even you know of and modifications to the runes you do. Did you know that the Scrying rune can be woven into common items, not only a person’s mind? In letters, for instance? Did you know that the spell can be modified to find one specific individual and not the others who touch it? Or that it could serve as a beacon for me to find you?”

A sharp gasp left the oracle.

“You knew you could hide your mind from me. You were clever. I would not have thought of using Althy’s face for your disguise, to strut about like she was still alive. You wove wards around Kion to prevent me access, convinced Alyx it was necessary. Even with the daeva, I could not find your thoughts, and so I relied on other means. Did you not realize the uselessness of your camouflage the moment you abandoned the Hollows and sailed to Drycht? That I knew who you were hiding as, where you were, the instant your hand touched the parchment?”

The papers fluttered out of the Faceless’s grasp and drifted to the ground.

Immediately, a foreign presence pushed into my mind, frantic, seeking leverage. But the bone witch’s presence was already there, forcing her out—though not without some effort. Lord Kalen moved, the Wind he conjured holding the Faceless motionless. Lady Zoya lifted her hands, no doubt adding to his strength.

But the Faceless attacked again, with both her mind and another weapon. A roar thundered behind me.