"That's right. The Ratfolk have contaminated this grain, and caravans are carrying it to every corner of the Kingdom."
In that moment, Annan felt Shadow Song's grief.
No wonder an assassin from the Shadow Brotherhood wanted to be a good person... She was trying to save her home.
"You know this is no laughing matter," Annan told Shadow Song gravely.
"I can guarantee all the grain here is contaminated."
Annan turned and walked down Mountain. "I need to confirm it."
The coachmen had already loaded a cart with grain. Annan walked over, took the bat-wing-shaped dagger Shadow Song handed him, and slit open a sack.
Wheat grains spilled from the bulging sack. Annan had Illymoyas cast detection and purification spells... but neither revealed anything.
"There's nothing wrong with this wheat." Annan looked at Shadow Song.
"If it were that easy to detect, the Ratfolk's plot would have been exposed long ago."
Shadow Song looked far too earnest to be playing a trick on him. "You need evidence to make an accusation like that," Annan said patiently. "How do you know? I need specifics."
Shadow Song recounted what had happened to her:
About five days earlier, on her way back from a Brotherhood assignment, Shadow Song had encountered a priest being hunted by a group of Ratfolk.
"He's the one who told me the grain was contaminated. He asked me to take the message back to Valley City, then led the Ratfolk away himself."
Shadow Song was not much of a storyteller. What had happened was probably far more dangerous than she made it sound. In any case, while the priest drew the Ratfolk's attention, she returned to Valley City.
But she did not dare tell City Hall. The nobles here were arrogant and hidebound. They could not even stomach being