Excerpt from A Stolen Heart by Kayelle Allen
In this scene, when Luc is asked to find a missing child, he's sure he's misunderstood something. After all, this is the master of misdirection he's talking to: Pietas, who wants him to find a kid? Sure he does. Meanwhile, the king has brought out his panther and is petting the animal. It's far from tame, but Luc is quite familiar with it.
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"Locate the girl." Pietas stroked the panther. "Once you tell me where she is, you'll be free. I don't need you to rescue her. Just inform me."
"I see." Luc did not. "Find this ten year-old girl. Tell you where she is. That's it."
"Yes. Then after your Deshai graduates, you can move to Tarth and start that building you've been planning."
"Hmm." This was far too easy. Obviously, he'd missed something. Mentally, Luc walked back through the last bits of conversation. "To clarify, you don't want me to bring her to you. You want me to find her and tell you where she is."
"Asked and answered." Pietas studied him. "Why is this so hard for you? Find her. Tell me. Not difficult. But it is urgent."
"What's so important about her?"
Pietas kissed the panther on the nose. "It's not her so much as her parents. If we find her and then take her to them, we'll have more influence."
Now they were getting somewhere. "And who are they?"
"My sister told you about the FTA, didn't she?"
"FTA." Acronyms filled his world, but this one? New to him. Why did that earlier dread raise its ugly head again? He'd probably be better off not knowing, but Pietas seemed to be waiting for an answer. "Not a word. What is it?"
"She didn't?" Pietas frowned. "Oh, I thought... Never mind." He tugged the panther's ears. "The FTA is the Forgotten Technologies Arena."
"Forgotten by whom?"
"The ancients. It's secret tech. Forbidden."
"Forbidden." The headache he'd faced over the last hour spiked through his brain. He rubbed his temples. Why him? Why now? "Pietas..."
"Oh, will you stop worrying?" The man looked over at him. "No one's going to get sucked into a wormhole this time."
Luc forced himself to take a deep breath and let it all the way out. "That's what you said the last time."
