While Maray was hoping Corey could help, Laura had gone completely white.
“He isn’t actually choking,” Laura mumbled. “This is poison.” She turned to the room, finger-pointing at the plate in front of her husband, and yelled, “Everyone, don’t eat the dumplings.”
Exclamations of shock coming from the room followed her words
Gerwin’s face was now all purple, but not like it would be from lack of oxygen; an unhealthy purple that couldn’t possibly be natural. Was her mother right? Why didn’t she do anything? Why was no one calling an ambulance…? And then Maray remembered that an ambulance and medicine were things from the other world, a Band-Aid for the lack of magic. But an ambulance wasn’t what she needed if she could repeat what she had done with Goran.
Maray unfroze. She had helped Goran with his heart attack. She might be able to help her father. Gingerly, Maray stepped around the rest of the people who were now hovering over Gerwin and reached out her hand to grab his. His eyes darted to find hers.
“My girl,” he coughed, “you’ll need to be brave.” He gasped for air, hand clutching Maray’s.
Maray didn’t want to think that. She needed him. Even if she was of age in Allinan, there was so much she still needed to learn. And so many places they had wanted to travel together… She needed an ally in this cruel court who knew about her other life, someone she could trust.
“I will try to help you, Dad,” she whispered and focused on the strength in her magic, clinging to the possibility that it might work like to a straw. She felt the power flow through her body, but even when it seeped into Gerwin the way it had with Goran’s heart attack, Gerwin didn’t seem to respond. His condition didn’t get any better, or worse, just stayed the same, scary purple accompanied by his desperate coughing and gasping for air. She closed her eyes, blocking out the image and focusing on her father as he looked when he was healthy—maybe visualizing helped—and tried harder. It was definitely there. She felt it passing through her own skin and into his, and to her relief, there was a change in the coughing and choking. Maray reopened her eyes, hoping to see her magic had shown some effect but instead found her mother’s horrified eyes watching a fading Gerwin, who was struggling to fight whatever was going on in his system as he became weaker by the second. Until his eyes finally rolled in their sockets, and he fell silent.
Maray swallowed a lump in her throat, unable to tell if it was from the tears she was holding back or from the air that seemed to tighten as people drew closer, curious to see her father as he slumped into his chair.
“Whatever you’re doing,” Heck hissed, glancing at the crowd. “Stop it. It’s not working.”
Maray eyed him without understanding. She couldn’t give up, could she? This was her father.
“People don’t know how strong of a warlock you actually are—and it’s not having any effect on the Ambassador. You might want to keep your power a secret… just in case.”
Maray shook her head even though she knew Heck was right. She knew that what she was doing should be working. Her mother had to be right; the poison was magical. And despite Maray’s magic, all she could do was watch her father fade.
As Gerwin slowly became quiet, the murmurs in the room ceased as well, until there were only the quiet sobs of Maray’s mother left to break the silence. Maray stood there, her fingers on her father’s wrist, searching for a pulse, but there was nothing there. No heartbeat, no breathing.
“What is happening?” someone asked in the crowd.
“Is he dead?” another voice answered.
“He’s not moving.”
“Where is the court warlock?” a deep, male voice demanded. “Where is Feris?”
“Didn’t you know?” another person muttered. “He bolted after Rhia’s capture…”
Maray blocked out the guessing and focused on her mother instead. She laid her free hand on Laura’s shoulder and was surprised as Laura looked up.
“This can’t be happening.” Laura denied what was going on right before her own eyes. “He can’t be dead.”
Maray’s heart felt a stabbing pain, and she was grateful for Heck’s consoling hand on her arm. But her mother needed her, so she slipped out from under his fingers and laid her arm around her mother.
“Corey might be able to help…” Maray offered, but her mother’s reaction wasn’t another sob; it was fierce anger that made Maray want to take a step back.
“No one leaves the room,” she ordered, and a new wave of murmuring went through the rows of spectators. “Guards! Check everyone. No one leaves before they are searched.”
Men in armor, swords drawn, stepped forward, but Maray spotted Goran and Pete as they snuck through the nobles, checking for suspicious activity, whispers, anything that could help identify whoever had poisoned the dumpling. But Heck didn’t leave their side.
“I’d be surprised if they didn’t already leave,” he commented with a sour edge. “They probably never even set a foot inside the dining hall.”
Laura nodded beside him, but her focus was back on Gerwin. She was holding his hand, and Maray was left standing in between Heck and her parents, unable to decide how she felt… if she even felt. Everything was a dull soup of colors and sounds at the moment.
“Who would do something like this?” Laura’s voice pierced through Maray’s veil of shock. “Who would kill Gerwin? He hasn’t harmed anyone.”
Maray noticed the dark shadows clouding Laura’s eyes as she spoke her thoughts. But she couldn’t find the strength to say a word herself. This couldn’t be real. It just couldn’t be.
It took a while until Pia’s swift footsteps appeared behind her.
“I’m here.” Corey’s voice was right there, next to Maray’s ear. Pia had actually found Corey and brought her back, sending Maray’s heart into a short leap of hope.
Corey placed her bag of supplies on the table next to Gerwin, who hung lifeless in his chair, the purple retreating from his skin.
“Your Royal Highness,” Heck called for Laura’s attention. “I need to lay him down on the floor.”
Laura let go of her husband and moved aside so Heck could lift his torso while Maray rushed to Gerwin’s other side to help. Together, they pulled her father out of his chair and down to the herringbone parquet floor. She couldn’t give up. Not now that Corey was here to help. Even if Gerwin was dead, Corey might know a way…
“I tried,” she whispered into Corey’s ear as Corey joined them on the floor. “My magic didn’t work… or I did the wrong thing.”
Corey shook her head. “If anything, I know a magic poison when I see it. I can practically smell the lingering remains of magic on this one.”
In the background, Heck’s voice was telling the crowd to step back, and there were whispers and mutters filling the air. When Maray glanced over her shoulder, Goran and Pete were helping Heck to get people to give them some space, and more guards had formed a circle around them to shield the royal family.
Maray returned her focus onto her father. “Is he really dead, Corey?” She reached for Gerwin’s wrist again and searched for his pulse. “There are no vitals.”
Corey was busy pulling out vials and flasks and mixing something in a small bowl.
“He isn’t breathing, for sure,” Corey confirmed, “and his heart stopped beating. Does that mean he is dead? I am not certain.”
Maray turned her head, examining Gerwin’s paling skin. He most certainly looked dead.
“I am analyzing the poison, and hopefully there is an antidote…”
“You mean you can bring him back?”
“If he’s not dead yet…”
“He is dead,” Laura said, all of a sudden breaking into the conversation.
When Maray looked up, something in the look on her mother’s face told her that this wasn’t the first time she had seen someone die in this particularly gruesome way. A shudder worked its way up her back as she approached her mother, not at all ready to ask what was really going
on.
While Corey kept restlessly trying to figure out if there was a way to save Gerwin, Maray straightened up and took her mother’s hand. “What happened, Mom?”
Laura looked right through her, the veil of history covering her sight on the scene and her grief shrouding her tear-glazed eyes. But there was something else there. Fear. “We need to be careful,” she said under her breath. “The same thing happened to your grandfather.”
Maray froze. She had never heard her mother speak a single word about him until now. And these clearly weren’t the words she’d been expecting when she finally learned about him—the former King of Allinan.
“Someone poisoned Grandpa?” Maray said, almost too loud for Corey, who was still bustling over Gerwin, to ignore. Maray tried to focus on her mother. There was nothing she could do for her father right now, other than learning anything that might help her find out what was going on and who had served him with a poisoned dumpling. She ground her teeth and waited for Laura’s answer.
“He was the first one in her way on her strive for power.”
Laura didn’t need to say anything else. Maray understood it was Rhia who Laura was talking about.
“The same symptoms—probably the same poison. A painful death.” Laura choked on her own words before she took a deep breath and added, “At least a fast death.”
Both Laura and Maray glanced down at Gerwin, who hadn’t changed in appearance other than looking less purple and more dead. While Corey moved restlessly around the body, Laura seemed to have given up on her husband, and Maray was about to give up on her father. Her own magic hadn’t worked on him, and she noticed how Corey tried to heal him by touch and got the same non-existent effect as Maray herself had. And while Maray’s heart throbbed over the fact that her father seemed beyond saving, Laura’s face was set into stone, eyes flaring with a hatred Maray had yet to understand. Had life at court and being held by her own mother made Laura such a hard-bitten woman that she seemed to care more about her husband’s way of dying than that he was dead?
“I am so sorry, Mom.” Maray heard herself speak to console Laura, but her own chest was numb. Now that the initial shock was fading, there wasn’t a single emotion in there. For now, she was empty.
And the longer they stood, observing Corey’s efforts, the greater number of nobles came to the same conclusion. The background noise had reduced to a hectic whisper where only single words crossed Maray’s threshold of attention. ‘Dead’, ‘assassination’, and ‘again’.
Jemin
Jemin’s footsteps crunched in the freshly-fallen snow as he stepped out of the portal. He cursed under his breath at the biting wind that greeted them and wished he had brought more than a thin cloak. The tracks had led him and Neelis far away from the palace to a more southern region, and they had taken one of the magic-fueled travel mechanisms that were connecting bigger distances in Allinan. He remembered this region from his childhood. His parents had brought him here on occasion. The lakes were warmer here than in the north, and there were mountains, less flat-land than around the capital. Now, they had been wandering south from the portal, following the traces of whatever they were hunting.
“What does it want down here?” Neelis wondered and sniffed into the icy air. It was windy, and the ground was frozen, with tiny crystals of frost on twigs where the snow hadn’t settled yet.
“Maybe getting a Christmas tree,” Jemin suggested bitterly as he screened the evergreens before them.
“You really are into this other world stuff, aren’t you?” Neelis noted.
“Not really.” Jemin was aware that Neelis wasn’t referring to the strange and colorful traditions such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, but to one particular person. “When you travel the borders all the time, you simply ‘pick up things’.” Including Maray. He didn’t say it, but he knew Neelis got it. “Besides, it’s a nice tradition. Brings together families…supposedly.” In his mind, he was considering bringing back a small tree to the palace and surprising Maray and Gerwin with it. They would surely miss it. Their first Christmas away from the world they grew up in. Even Laura would appreciate it. She’d spent enough years there to miss something like the colorful lights and cozy foods and music.
“Anyway, we should get going before we lose it.” Neelis led the way. With him, it was way easier to follow the almost invisible, snow-blown tracks, and Jemin, for once, was grateful Heck had stayed behind. He was safer at the palace, and he was by far not as good a tracker. But more than that, Jemin was grateful that Heck had taken on the guard duties for Maray this morning. Jemin had wanted to be there. It was the day of the choosing of the handmaiden, and he’d have loved to see her step into her role as Allinan Princess through an entire day. As much as she despised court protocol, that was how much Jemin had it ingrained in his DNA. He still couldn’t believe that a royal had fallen in love with him and that their love was tolerated… even if it was just until she had to choose a suitor. More likely, her parents would choose. He shook his head to get the dreadful thought out and be able to focus on his task.
“When Scott came to me and told me that there was a crimson-eyed shifter out there, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought about it earlier.” Neelis crouched on the ground and ran his fingers over a bare area of frozen gravel and needles. “I’d seen a red-eyed Yutu before in the forests around Allinan.”
Jemin turned his head and listened to the voice of the wind as it whispered in the naked branches.
“This way.” Neelis jumped up and followed the tracks without waiting for Jemin, who had trouble keeping up with the shifter’s pace.
“Red-eyed Yutu aren’t very common,” Jemin commented. His gaze kept screening the area for danger, but the trees were inconspicuous with nothing but white snowflakes.
“True,” Neelis agreed, “but if you’re a shifter on the run from the Queen’s court warlock, attempting to overthrow their rule, you don’t exactly walk up to them and warn them about an eye-color anomaly in a local species—especially not if they think you’re dead.”
Jemin understood Neelis’ point too well. His whole childhood, he’d been flying under people’s radar, spying and gathering intelligence. He knew the plus side of being invisible. But it was only since he’d started stepping up for what he believed in, and since he had become visible to Maray, that his life had truly begun.
“Well, we were lucky to pick up the tracks in the eastern forest,” Jemin noted. He had spent days asking around the city for a red-eyed stranger, but people hadn’t been exactly helpful. They were scared. Rhia’s betrayal had caused insecurity in the Allinans, and they were even less helpful than usual. So, it was a real surprise when someone had pointed them toward the eastern forest with a cautious hint that a red-eyed man lived there in a cottage.
At first, Jemin had thought of Pen’s hut where the Gurnyak protected the secret passageways into the castle. But then, Neelis had picked up a familiar scent in the outer rims of the forest, and they had followed it to a small wooden cottage which was more naturally-grown trees than boarded walls, almost impossible to be spied from a distance unless by a trained eye. When they had entered, it had been empty except for a wall of ingredients that would have made Feris pale with envy. Jemin still believed they might have found Feris’ hideout, but then, Feris wasn’t a shifter… or was he? And his eyes weren’t red…
“Anything I can help you with?” A new voice tore him from his thoughts. He turned and found himself staring into Seri’s eyes.
“What are you doing here?” It was Neelis who asked harshly. If he hadn’t, Jemin would have.
“I thought you might need some girl-power,” Seri informed them with a raised eyebrow and a smile that reminded Jemin of the training sessions they’d had together.
While Neelis was telling off his daughter for following them on the mission, Jemin knew better than to try to tell Seri what to do. She had never listened to him—not once. He continued walking in the direction Neelis had led them, and S
eri soon caught up with him.
“Actually, it was Scott who pointed me toward you. He said you might need a little extra help,” she said with a frown.
“Scott doesn’t believe we can do this on our own?” Jemin asked for clarification.
Seri shrugged. “He knows I am the fiercest of the guards he ever trained. Besides that, I now have the strength of a Yutu, and if that’s what we’re facing…” A smug expression spread across her pretty face. “Plus, I like fighting with you, Jemin. We haven’t done that in so long.”
Jemin thought that they hadn’t done other things in so long, too, and he hadn’t missed it. He kept his mouth shut and checked for new signs of paw prints or footprints along the path.
“Did you hear that?” Neelis hissed at the two of them, obviously having accepted that his daughter was tagging along.
Jemin’s hand instinctively flew to his sword. It was almost like a reflex to danger. As he listened intently, his own feet became inaudible on the frozen ground. There was something… a scratching noise that didn’t belong in the forest. He tried to remember more of the surroundings. There were a settlement and a river north, right where the portal was, and a lake south of where they were standing. It couldn’t be far.
Neelis signaled to split up and circle the noise. If it was the shifter, it was better to distract him and surprise him. Especially when their goal was to capture, not kill. They wanted to know who the crimson-eyed riddle was and why it was after Maray so they could improve their protection strategies for the palace.
Jemin continued straight ahead, sword in his gloved hand, while Seri threw back her bob and soundlessly sprinted off to the right, and Neelis disappeared to the left into the trees. Circling the creature was the best idea, but if it came to a fight, Neelis and Seri would stand a better chance of defeating it. With every step Jemin took, he imagined himself grabbing the shifter’s hood and pulling it back to expose his identity. Who could it be? It had to be someone who knew the palace or he would have never attacked Maray in the yard—especially not while she had still been a secret. He had to have access to insider information.
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