What Freely Means

“Void it,” Casimir said.

He said it on the eleventh day, in the library, which was the only room in the keep besides the kitchen with a fire, and the only room where a Reader and a Warden could argue without Wenna taking notes. He had come in while Ilse was on page nine of the cipher and closed the door and stood with his back to it, the way he had in the tower room, and said it as if he had been rehearsing it on the stair.

“I can’t.”

“You’re the holder. You can declare it defective. No origin, no date. You told the council yourself it was incomplete.”

“It was incomplete. It isn’t now.” Ilse put her pen down. “It has a witness. I’ve matched the hand. A witnessed page can’t be voided by its holder. That’s not me being difficult. That’s the whole point of a…