I set the trap knowing it might cost me Kairos’s trust all over again.
Varen met me in the lower corridor just after the second bell. His face was grim.
“He took the bait,” he said. “General Rhelan left the eastern barracks twenty minutes ago. He is heading for the old wine cellars exactly like the message promised.”
“You are sure no one followed him?”
“I am sure. My men are watching the other exits. If this goes wrong we both burn for it.”
“Then it will not go wrong.”
We moved quickly through the servant passages. The cellars smelled of damp stone and old oak. A single oil lamp burned near the far wall. General Rhelan stood there with his back to us, speaking in a low voice to a shadow that was not a person.
“She is getting harder to reach,” he said. “The emperor keeps her too clos
