Warrior's Mind (Book 2 of The Warrior Chronicles)

Chapter 51

By Tevvuk"s Beard. She had underestimated Raphael's senses once again. Why was she constantly doing that and getting herself into trouble? Since it had come to this, Leyla figured she might as well brazen it out and satisfy her curiosity about the spy.

Pushing the door the rest of the way open, she walked into the room and took a good look at the woman.

"Katuna?" Leyla blinked at the flat-nosed blonde who was the head of the Princess' guard. "But it can't be - your voice was different..."

"She is a face changer," Raphael said from the couch. Then he motioned for Leyla to take the seat beside him.

"A face changer?" Leyla saw the surprised look on the defence minister's face, but decided to ignore it. Whether he was appalled at her dishevelled appearance or surprised that she had been standing at the door, Leyla wasn't planning on giving explanations for either. "What is that?"

"I'll explain it to you later, but at the moment we need your thoughts on what the Warrior King is up to." Raphael turned towards her, his eyes taking in the sight of her in his shirt without comment.

Leyla noticed that he had managed to get a new shirt and looked his usual impeccable self. Holding her head a notch higher she took the seat he offered, "Explain what a face changer is, then I will give you my opinion."

The corner of Raphael's lips curled in amusement, but the defence minister was quick to protest: "Prorex, divulging classified information before the wedding ceremony is against protocol-"

"Show her." Raphael cut him off with a command addressed to the spy.

"Yes, Prorex." The woman raised her hands to her face without hesitation, then pushed and prodded at several spots in her hairline. Leyla watched, somewhere between amazement and horror, as the spy pulled slowly and a thick layer of what looked exactly like skin came off of her face. Beneath the flat nosed, large foreheaded visage lay a sharp featured face with a thin, upturned nose.

"You were pretending to be Katuna?"

Katuna's likeness dangling from her fingers, the spy gave Leyla a nodded. "Yes, Consort. Though not for long. We often change faces to make sure the double existence of a single face does not get discovered."

"I see." So this was how the Land of Light spies went undiscovered. They had been using a method which was beyond everyone else's imagination. "What about your voice? How does it not give you away?"

The girl gave a soft smile, then rubbed her throat. When she spoke next, she sounded just like the Warrior guard, "We are trained in imitation."

"Are you satisfied?" Raphael asked from beside her.

How was she meant to be satisfied when Leyla just realised she had probably been duped by a face changer countless times? "What exactly do you want to know?"

"I'm sure you've already heard the Warrior King has left his castle with a group of fifty elite Warriors," Raphael said. "What do you think he set out to do?"

The defence minister shifted in his seat, now watching her with interest.

"I can't claim to know what Alec - what the Warrior King is thinking, but he has never been a proponent of War." She thought back to the night when Alec had explained why he had to marry the Warrior Princess and how not going to war had been one of his primary reasons. "Since that is the case, I can only imagine that he is using the troop as a show of force."

"Show of force?" The defence minister scoffed. "Fifty elite Warriors can take the Healing Lands by force in a single day. They could even pose a serious threat to the Greenlands if they wanted to!"