Chapter 34 · Spend His Own Name

"Letter's blank." Sona turned the paper over twice. "Blank, Rhys. He ran three miles with a knife in his back for a blank page."

The runner sat tied to the well post, wrists lashed, blood crusting under his nose where Sona had put him down. He wasn't talking. Didn't need to. Rhys already knew what the blank page meant.

Worse than words.

"It's not the message," Rhys said. "It's the decoy."

"Meaning."

"Meaning whatever Vittal's actually sending, it's already inside the tower. This kid just ran so we'd chase the wrong thing." He crouched in front of the runner, gripped his jaw, tilted his face into the torchlight. Sixteen, maybe. Scared, not stupid. "Who gave you this."

"Man in a captain's coat." The kid's voice cracked. "Didn't see his face. Said if I ran fast enough nobody'd open it till it didn't matter."

Sona's knife was already back in her hand. Point down. Casual the way it never actually was. "Vittal."

"We don't know that."

"We do know that." She crouched next to him, close enough he smelled steel and cold air off her collar. "You told me yourself. Kid or keep. He already picked the kid."

Rhys stood.