Flashback ( PDFDrive )

“I know!” Umber’s laugh was verging on a cackle when she told
Sophie, “The caches you have are fake.”
“Fintan knew Keefe would be dumb enough to go after them,” Ruy
added, “so he had our Technopath make a couple of replicas.”
Sophie opened her mouth to call them liars, but . . .
It would explain why Fintan hadn’t been able to retrieve any of the
secrets from his cache. And why all of Dex’s efforts had been thwarted
—even when she was enhancing him.
“Yes, Sophie,” Gethen told her, “you should feel shaken. We really
are that many steps ahead. Any victories you think you’ve had are only
because we’ve let you believe. And lest you forget, we haven’t yet
brought our ogre allies into play. Or our dwarves. And we have so
many other plans in the works—things you can’t even begin to
imagine. That’s why I came here to deliver a message. It’s time for you
to understand that the fact that you’re alive at this moment and
generally free to do as you wish has nothing to do with your sloppy
abilities, or the Council’s paltry protection, or the Black Swan and
their ridiculous methods, or your absurdly loyal bodyguard, or your
father’s tedious Mesmer tricks, or your obnoxious friends. We can find
you anytime we want, anywhere we want, and if we wanted you dead—
or in our custody—you would be. The only reason we haven’t taken
you out is because Lady Gisela is still clinging to her hope that you’ll
prove yourself useful—especially with her son. But her patience will
only last so much longer. In fact, she’s already preparing your
replacement.”
Bile turned Sophie’s mouth sour, but she swallowed it down and
asked, “Is that supposed to scare me?”
“No,” Umber told her. “This is.”