None of the books appeared new, the covers worn as if they had been read many times over. I moved one aside and found an amulet on a thong. It looked like carved crystal—an intricately wrought Dragon.
I carried it and the knife over to Matt’s bed and pushed aside clothes to clear a place to sit. “The sword. Those books—and this amulet. This stuff looks important to him. It doesn’t make sense that he’d leave it all behind.”
“No. It doesn’t.” He stared at me. “But he isn’t us. Angel, what if we find him, and we don’t like the answers that come with it?”
I took a deep breath. “I say we cross that bridge when we get there.”
He glanced down at the books before he nodded to himself and shifted position, twisting to remove the scabbard from the wall.
“If I’m right about this sword—it might give us some answers. And I think there’s someone here who can help us.” He glanced at me. “How tired are you after your dream?”
It was a direct attempt to nail me to the wall, and I ducked it. “Never too tired to see a man about a sword,” I said, waving the knife. He handed me the sheath. I slid it smoothly home and raised my eyes to see his own gleaming softly at me.
“Be best for you to put on some clothes,” I suggested.
He snorted, and we switched positions. After a moment’s thought, I slipped the amulet over my head. It hung low between my breasts. But it was the safest place for it.
“He might want that back,” Matt noted as he sifted through the clothes on his bed, selecting a pair of black academy sweats.
As I checked out the stacks of books, he pushed the cloak aside to pull them on, slowly enough that I caught a good glimpse of the family jewels and—
Geez. I’d seen it all before. But geez.
“Leave the cloak,” I suggested. My voice came out rather hoarse. “It’s got bloodstains.”
“Things I do for a sheila,” he grumped, yanking it over his head. Which left him standing nude from the hips up.
I swallowed. “Shirt. Now.”
He grinned at me and pulled a non-regulation tee shirt from the mess. It had “G’day Mate” written across the front and was wrinkled, but serviceable. I glanced pointedly at his feet, and he slid on a pair of old boots, minus socks.
“Okay.” He picked up the weapons. “Enough. My awesome Aussie bod is covered. Now let’s go see the weapons bloke.”
* * *
Matt surveyed my armload as we left his room. “What ya doin’ with those?”
“Gonna read them, of course,” I said, opening the door to my room and setting them on the floor. I added the knife in its sheath on top of them. Mari snored on, and poor Trix didn’t even twitch.
“She’ll be cursing when she trips over those,” Matt pointed out as I eased the door closed again.
“She’s more sure-footed than she looks,” I countered, following him down the hall.
Not until Matt got off the stairs at the third floor and headed for the staff quarters did I put it all together. “The weapons bloke” was Ryan.
“They’ve got to be exhausted,” I protested. “We should leave them alone.”
Matt fastened his gaze upon me. “What if Talakai’s in trouble?”
I stared at him. My gut twisted painfully, but it had to be said. “And he just happened to vanish at the same time as the twins? How likely is that?”
Matt shrugged. “It would be one hell of a coincidence,” he agreed. “But if my hunch about this sword is correct, we need to know sooner rather than later.”
My reluctance had a lot to do with discovering the truth. I dragged my feet as he took us through the door to the staff quarters. But he was right—if something had happened to Talakai, we needed to figure it out as soon as possible.
Still, I winced as he rapped on the Sabre’s door.
It opened so fast that someone was still awake—it turned out to be Cody.