Once again, everyone (except the Council... and the Black Swan... and Grady and Alden and Della... and Ro, wonder where she is) has gathered in Havenfield's living room, Glimmer sitting in the middle with every armed goblin/ogre/gnome glaring at her as she nervously accepts the cup of tea Edaline gives her.
"I just don't want to start judging her," she explained to me before I rushed to rally the troops. "I want to hear her story."
Which is why the Council isn't here.
"So? Spill the beans," Fitz says. "Why'd you poison Kendric's wonderling?"
"How'd you escape Solreef in the first place?"
"What do you know about Elysium?"
"How do you know about Elysium?"
I put my hands up. "Ok, that's enough." Annoyance and irritation must be as clear as black and white on my face. "Let's let Glimmer tell her story."
"Starting with how you managed to get out of Solreef," Bo yells from his corner.
"Starting with how you managed to get out of Solreef," I concede. "Don't even think about leaving anything out."
Track her thoughts, I transmit to Fitz. I want to know everything that goes through her mind while she's telling this story.
Yes ma'am.
So Glimmer started. She told us she didn't know how she'd escaped from Solreef, and she didn't know who helped her, only that she'd found a note in some mysterious handwriting, saying, you owe us - we'll collect the favor. When I asked her to show me the note, I vaguely remembered the handwriting, and grimly showed it to Fitz next to me, who peered over and shook his head - no, he didn't recognize it. Glimmer went on to say she'd been living in abandoned Neverseen warehouses, never staying in one longer than a week - until one day she'd found that same mysterious handwriting telling her to come here - and that she had to tell them everything she knew about Elysium and Lady Gisela - apparently, Glimmer knew something they didn't.
"That's it," Glimmer said, her voice shaking. "I don't know where any of this talk about poisoning Kenric's Wanderling came from - I didn't do that."
I cast a subtle glance at Fitz. Is she lying?
No, actually. I can't find anything in here about her poisoning the Wanderling.
"But we watched the footage from the tracker I put in her hood," Tam said. "How-"
"First of all, thanks a lot for violating my privacy like that," Glimmer glared, "and second, when I woke up outside Solreef, it was the middle of the night, so no one could have seen me, but... I didn't have my Neverseen cloak with me."
"But you're wearing one right now," Linh points out.
"Oh, I stole this one from my last warehouse," she said nonchalantly, the way someone might have said oh, I got a 90 on the math quiz.
"So what are you saying?" Wylie asks. "How did you contaminate Councillor Kenric's Wanderling if it wasn't you?"
"It was Lady Gisela," Glimmer says. "She's a polyglot - she mimicked my voice." She looked around to survey everyone's facial expressions before settling on Tam. "You didn't see me in the tracker's view, correct? You only heard me and saw what I was doing."
Tam nods.
"That makes sense," Stina snaps her fingers. "If we combine what we know with what you've just told us... that plays out perfectly."
YOU ARE READING
Keeper of The Lost Cities: Book 9: Showdown
FantasyKeefe and Sophie are lost. In completely different worlds, they fight their own battles, but they both need each other to win. Two of Sophie's friends are taken hostage, and she will stop at nothing to get them back. But coming for them means goin...
