Osha wrapped the blue memory stone back in its lamb’s wool and closed the wooden box before she spoke of Edris’s offer.
“There are three more stones from the early vaults,” she said, resting her hands on the buckled satchel. “They record how Theru died at the river crossing, how the first tunnel bond was formed when the roof fell on the sappers, and what happened before the generals brought the war bells to the southern border. Precentor Edris has authorized me to offer you a full week of observation at the chapter house archive in the pass. No iron rings, no cages, and no guards inside the reading room.”
Chaska let out a short, dry snort from the top of the bank. “Just forty guards outside the reading room door.”
“Twelve,” Osha said honestly. “And a heavy oak gate with a winter bar. I am not going to sit in the dirt and tell you the chapter house is an open meadow, Mistress Fen.”
“Then why bring the offer?” Ysabet asked.
Osha looked down at the ink stain on her middle finger. “Because my father spent twenty years in that archive before he vanished on the northern expedition, and the one thing he taught me that Precentor Edris has never forgiven is that you cannot refuse a pattern you are not allowed to read. Right now Pip only meets Azhrak’s past when a weapon hits it or when it eats bad metal in the dark. Every time that happens…
