I was falling for Simon.
"All right," I said. "We'll agree to trust each other."
It was a lie. I no longer even trusted myself.
Once the three of us began talking again, the question turned to the necessity of finding the Olden Blade as quickly as possible.
Simon began, "Even if the carving is a clue to the dagger, it isn't the dagger itself."
"If Risha's servant gave us this one clue, then she gave us others," Trina insisted. "We have to find them in the next two days before we meet Tenger."
"No, before tomorrow's wedding," Simon put in.
"One day might not be enough time," Trina said.
"She'll be killed if she goes through with that wedding!" Simon said.
"And Tenger will kill me if I don't give him the Olden Blade." I tilted my head at him. "Remind me again how Coracks are better than Dallisors?"
Simon glared at me, though it wasn't in anger this time. My words had stung him.
Trina either hadn't heard me, or she didn't care. "First, you need to get out of this dungeon. Send word up to your father, agreeing to the wedding tomorrow night. It's the only way he'll let you leave. That gives us one more day to find the Olden Blade."
Simon kicked at the ground again. "She's right," he muttered. "What choice do we have?"
He banged on the cell door until the guard released him to allow Trina some privacy with me. After he was gone, I began unlacing the servant's dress, eager to be out of it.
"I know what you believe," Trina said. "That I'm not important to this plan. That it would end the same whether Simon finds the Olden Blade, or you do."
"That's not my belief. It's just a fact." I turned away from the closed cell door. Somehow, without Simon here, the cell had become smaller than before. "What's the truth, then?"
She sat beside me, placing the new dress on her lap. "If I tell you, will you keep it a secret?"
"Of course." Unless I decided otherwise. That all depended on what she was about to say.
Trina cocked her head toward the wall. "My father had a theory, one he never shared except in his journals. He believed your mother knew what happened to the Olden Blade, but the focus was always on Risha, and then your mother died and any chance to find out what she knew died with her."
I slipped the servant's dress off my shoulders, grateful that Trina had also remembered to bring a shift, which she passed up to me. "Why would my mother have known about the Blade?"
"That's why we need her diary, to get answers. That's my secret, Kestra. I thought if I told you whose diary we wanted, you wouldn't help us find it."
No, I wouldn't. Especially not now that I had read it.
"Don't disturb my moth
er's memories," I said. "Don't bring her into this."
"I have to, Kestra. I wish I didn't, but it's my future at stake." She paused, biting on her lip, trying to hold something back, I thought. Finally, she gave up trying. "If I don't get the Olden Blade for Tenger, I promised to leave the Coracks."
Again, I glanced at her over my shoulder, somehow managing not to throw any insults when I did. "Where would you go then?"
Trina shrugged. "I have nowhere to go. You know as well as I do how much one's blood matters in Antora. With my father's past, no Antoran will ever trust me. The Coracks offer more than just a place to belong, they're my protection. But if I can get the Blade, all of that will change."
"You believe if you find the Blade, the people of Antora will accept you?"
Now she smiled, and even stood to begin helping me into the blue dress. "It's much more than that! Tenger has quietly sent word to the Halderians all throughout Antora to gather in the Hiplands, where they've been slowly rebuilding their numbers. When we find the Blade, Tenger and I will take it to them. They'll hold a ceremony and someone will step forward to claim the Blade. It will light up for the Infidante, binding the dagger and its master together for life. Then we'll go after Endrick, finally able to win!"
My laugh spilled out as coarse as the rock walls. "You believe every part of the mythology, then? I wouldn't have thought you were so naive. It's an inanimate piece of sharp metal, nothing more."