by Rachel Aaron
“You know what?” Josef said. “I don’t even want to know. All I care about is where you’ve been.”
This last bit was leveled at Nico, and she flinched appropriately.
“Doesn’t matter,” she said quietly. “I’m here now.”
“Doesn’t matter?” Josef was surprised at his own anger. “Doesn’t matter? Of course it matters! Do you even know how… how…”
“Worried?” Eli supplied.
“You keep out of this,” Josef snapped. Eli held up his hands, and Josef locked his eyes back on Nico. “I didn’t even know where you were! How can we be a team when you’re not here?”
“I’m sorry,” Nico said, fiddling with her coat. “It’s done now, anyway. Won’t happen again.”
Josef clenched his fists. She wasn’t giving him an answer, but he didn’t know if he was ready to press for one. He was fighting battles on all fronts right now, and forcing Nico to tell him the truth would open up another. A close, dangerous fight that he wasn’t sure he could win. Worse, he was still mad, furiously mad, though he couldn’t say exactly what he was mad at. But he couldn’t deal with this now. He needed his wits about him, so he took a deep swordsman’s breath and made himself let it go.
“So long as we’re all on the same front going forward, everything is well enough for now,” he said. “We’ve got other problems. Something happened last night.”
Eli leaned back with an infuriating smile. “Things tend to happen on wedding knights, Josef.”
“Shut up and listen,” Josef said, ignoring the murderous look that Nico shot at the thief. “I just woke up with no memory of the night before. I don’t remember Adela getting up or the servant coming in. I don’t even remember going to bed.”
“Well,” Eli said, standing up. “It isn’t unheard of for humans to lose consciousness for six, sometimes eight hours a night. I know this may come as a surprise—”
“Can you stop being a smart-ass for five seconds and listen?” Josef snapped. “This is serious. I think I was drugged.”
“Nonsense,” Eli said. “Who would drug you?”
“I don’t know,” Josef said. “That’s why I have you. Figure it out.”
Eli scratched his chin. “Someone who doesn’t want an heir for Osera?” he guessed.
“The duke,” Josef said. “An heir by me would keep Finley’s children from inheriting.”
“Seems a little shortsighted,” Eli said. “He can’t expect to drug you every night. And how did he do it without drugging the princess as well? I can only assume that the drug was in your food, unless you were cut in the night?” He paused until Josef shook his head. “Food or drink then, for certain. But you ate with Adela, right? So unless you had something she didn’t, she’d be down too. But she was up bright and early this morning. I saw her ride out myself.”
“We ate from the same plates,” Josef said. “Whatever I had, she had. Poison isn’t the Oseran way, though. If the duke wanted me dead, he could challenge me to a duel at any time.”
“Well, we still haven’t established it was him,” Eli said. “And you were drugged to sleep, not to death. Anyway, no one in their right mind is going to challenge you to a duel, especially not after your performance yesterday. You’re the greatest swordsman in the world, remember?”
“Not yet,” Josef said. “We need to find out what happened last night and why. We also need a who. Eli, I want you to go to my room and see what you can find. Nico, I’ll need you to stake out the duke. I want to know what he’s planning. Meanwhile, I’m going to go down to the kitchen and get the truth out of whoever cooked my food last night.”
“Josef,” Eli said cautiously, taking off his wig so he could look at the swordsman without hair getting in his eyes. “I know you don’t generally listen to these, but the first rule of thievery is never jump without knowing where you’re going to land. You’re making a lot of assumptions here. We’re not even sure you were poisoned.”
“Of course I’m sure,” Josef said. “I can tell when I’ve been poisoned.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Eli said. “But try to consider this objectively. So far, all we have is that you slept until noon without waking and missed some people entering and leaving your room. Now, I can’t remember you ever sleeping late, but it’s not exactly enough proof to justify going down to the kitchens and scaring the daylights out of the servants. Especially considering the rumors going around.”
Josef glowered. “What rumors?”
“That you’re a killer, a bounty hunter gone bad, and a thief,” Eli said with a shrug. “Of course, since all of that is true, they’re less rumors and more facts-in-a-bad-light.”
“How did they get to you?” Josef said.
“You hear things when you spend all night bribing servants to fill your room with junk,” Eli said, flashing him a grin. “Seriously, though, is it really so unexpected that people think poorly of you? You haven’t exactly been the storybook icon of the long-lost prince.”
“Good thing I gave up being a prince, then.”
“But you are,” Eli said, rubbing his temples. “So long as you insist on staying here and playing along, you are a prince, like it or not, and people are going to judge you as one.”
“Then they’ll just have to get over it,” Josef said, crossing his arms. “I’m here only to help my mother.”
“Well,” Eli said, crossing his arms as well. “You’re not helping her by acting like a thug. You can’t have it both ways, Josef. I’m not asking you to embroil yourself in politics. I’m not even saying we shouldn’t investigate what happened last night, but if we’re going to stay here, you’re going to have to learn some tact.”
Josef tilted his head back, bumping it soundly against the door. Leave it to the thief to make everything more complicated. “Fine,” he said at last. “What do you suggest I do?”
“Leave it to me,” Eli said, standing up. “We’ll go to your room and see what we can find. Since no one knew in advance that you were coming back, whoever poisoned you had to set things up fairly quickly. Haste leaves clues.” He paused. “I don’t actually think that’s a rule of thievery. I should make it one.”
“Whatever,” Josef said, pushing himself off the door. “Let’s get this done. It’s nearly noon already, and I want to be able to go to sleep tonight knowing I’ll wake up.”
“Fair enough,” Eli said, setting the wig on his head again. “After you, Prince Thereson.”
Josef rolled his eyes and tugged the door open, stepping into the hall with Nico right behind him and Eli on her heels.
His room was empty when they reached it. Josef let them in before entering himself. He closed the ancient door carefully, and then took the Heart of War from his back and leaned it against the door. The blade leaned heavy against the wood, blocking it from opening inward.
Eli’s eyes widened in horror. “You’re using the greatest awakened blade in existence as a door stop?”
“Why not?” Josef said. “I don’t want servants disturbing your work, and it’s not like anyone besides me can move it.”
Eli sighed loudly and turned back to the task at hand. “I suggest you get comfortable. This may take a while.”
Nico and Josef exchanged a look and sat down together on the couch. As soon as they were settled, Eli got down on his knees and started waking up the room.
“There,” Eli said, straightening up. “That should do it.”
Josef folded his arms and gave the thief a skeptical look. So far as he could tell, Eli had just spent the last hour crawling around on his hands and knees and muttering to himself. The thief had always been a little odd when he was doing his wizard nonsense, but this had been downright strange and a little embarrassing. He was doubly glad he’d thought to put the Heart in front of the door now. Forget keeping their investigation secret, he was more concerned that no one would barge in and see Eli acting like a lunatic.
“All right,” Eli said, clapping his hands together as he loo
ked around the room like a mayor about to give a speech. “Listen up! There’s a lot at stake here. Someone has been poisoning the prince.” He pointed at Josef. “We need to know how.”
Eli looked over his shoulder and motioned for Josef to stand. After a moment of hesitation, Josef got off the couch and stood beside Eli, feeling uncomfortably stupid. But, as soon as he was in place, the room began to rattle like it was the epicenter of a tiny earthquake.
“One at a time,” Eli said, holding up his hands.
The rattling stopped except for the fireplace. Eli turned and knelt down, nodding as the stone mantel began to creak. Occasionally, another piece of furniture would rattle. When that happened, the stone mantel would rock violently until every other sound stopped. Eli listened patiently, nodding the whole time. Back on the couch, Nico kept very still, her eyes as wide as saucers.
When the mantel’s movements finally stilled, Eli stood up with a long sigh. “How many wizards have been in your family?”
“Are you talking to me?” Josef said.
Eli rolled his eyes. “Who else?”
Josef gestured at the rattling room. Eli just gave him a sharp look.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had a wizard,” Josef said. “Maybe a cousin or something, but no one I can think of.”
Eli frowned. “And how long has this room been like this? With this furniture?”
“Like this?” Josef said. “Forever. This has always been the prince’s room, or princess’s, in mother’s case. Everything in here’s a family heirloom.”
“Well,” Eli said. “At least that explains it.”
“Explains what?” Josef said.
“Them.” Eli pointed at the room. “They seem to have you confused with another prince. Several other princes, actually. Which one started a fire?”
“That would be my great-grandfather,” Josef said. “Knocked over a lamp twice when he was ten, starting fires both times. Earned him the name Wallace the Clumsy for a while, until he became Wallace the Black Scourge.”
Eli winced. “That hardly sounds like an improvement.”
“It was fitting,” Josef said. “He sank a lot of ships. Don’t forget, Osera was a nation of pirates before the war made us part of the Council.”
“How fascinating,” Eli said. “But if we can leave the history lesson aside for a moment, I’m afraid we’re in a bit of a bind. I don’t think a wizard other than myself has entered this room in a century. The whole place was dead asleep before I came in, which was why this took so long. If they had been awake, it would still have been tricky since you, Adela, and the servants all seem to be spirit deaf, but I could have found out something. As it stands, they just want to tell me stories of grievous abuse at the hands of your violent ancestry.”
“So,” Josef said. “No wizard solution?”
“No wizard solution,” Eli said, shaking his head. “But while I was waking things up, I did find this.”
He held up a plain porcelain medicine bowl filled with a dull yellow powder that smelled vaguely bitter, like walnut shells. Josef looked at Eli skeptically. “Is that poison?”
“No,” Eli said, pulling his hand back. “It’s called orobin, and it’s a perfectly normal stimulant. I’ve taken it myself on long jobs where I couldn’t afford to be dozing off.”
“If it’s perfectly normal, why are you showing it to me?”
“Because this is a very large amount of orobin,” Eli said, hefting the bowl pointedly. “A pinch dissolved in tea is plenty for any normal person. This is enough to stock a reasonably sized shop.”
“So?” Josef said, crossing his arms.
“So,” Eli said. “I found it tucked away in a cabinet full of lady’s supplies, which means, unless you’ve taken to washing your hair with essence of rose water, that this bowl belongs to your lovely wife. Who, I might add, eats and drinks the same as you, but does not seem to suffer from involuntary deep sleep.”
“Wait,” Josef said. “You think Adela’s behind this? That she’s drugging both of us but is taking the stimulant to counteract the effect?”
“That would be where I’m going,” Eli said, placing the bowl on the table.
“But why would she drug me?” Josef said. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe your pillow talk needs some work,” Eli said with a smug smile.
“Shut up and listen,” Josef growled. “I’m not saying I trust Adela, but she owes the queen everything. Even if she didn’t, why would she knock me out? She needs this baby to secure her position or Finley’s going to send her and her mother packing the second the crown is on his head.”
“I don’t know the whats and whys,” Eli said. “I’m not even saying for sure that she’s the one drugging you, but I think we can safely assume she knows what’s happening and how to counteract it. That alone is proof enough that thing’s aren’t what they seem. If Adela was pregnant, this would be more damning. But with you being, well, you, and totally uninterested in the throne, a baby’s her only shot at keeping her position. That leaves us with circumstantial evidence but no motive, which isn’t much better than where we started.”
“Well, I intend to find out,” Josef said, crossing his arms. “Next time I see Adela, she’s not leaving until I have an answer.”
Eli frowned. “I’m not sure direct threats are going to—”
He was interrupted by the soft clatter of someone trying to open the door. Nico, Eli, and Josef froze as the door’s handle turned down. But the person on the other side didn’t get much farther. The moment the door hit the Heart of War, it stopped cold. The person cursed and tried again, harder this time. The sword didn’t even wobble.
Silence fell again as the person stepped back, and then there was a soft, almost embarrassed knock.
Josef walked over and pulled the Heart out of the way, opening the door to reveal an elderly man in a somber suit. He looked shocked and a little bewildered by the sudden opening, but his face quickly arranged itself into an expression of bored politeness the second he recognized Josef.
“My lord prince,” he said with a perfunctory bow. “I was sent to find you.”
“So I gathered,” Josef said, sliding the Heart back into place on his back. “Get on with it.”
The man’s eyes widened, but he gathered himself again. “My master, the excellent Duke Finley, requests your presence this afternoon.”
“Oh yeah?” Josef said. “What’s Finley want?”
“Only your company, my lord,” the man said.
Josef looked back at Eli, who shrugged. “Company, huh? When?”
“At your earliest convenience, sire,” the servant said. “Though I have been led to believe it is a matter of some urgency.”
Josef glared at the servant, who just smiled politely. Shaking his head, Josef looked over his shoulder. “I’m going to see what this is about,” he said. “You two stay here and keep working on what we were working on.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Eli said with a salute. But Nico met Josef’s eyes as she nodded. Josef smiled. She at least could be trusted to stay on target. That would be enough. He checked his blades one last time before he followed the servant into the hall, closing the door solidly behind him.
CHAPTER
12
As many times as she’d seen the white walls of Zarin rising in the distance, Miranda had never been so glad to be home. Gin’s time chained in the mountain seemed to have left him ready to run. Even with two passengers, he’d raced down the mountains in record time, though Miranda wasn’t sure if that was because of the urgency of the situation or if he just wanted Sparrow off his back. For his part, Sparrow hadn’t changed a bit. He still took up every bit of breathable air.
“Finally,” he cried as Zarin came into view. “Civilization. Powers, it’s been too long. I can’t wait to eat something that hasn’t had dog slobber all over it.”
Miranda sniffed indignantly. “You’re free to catch your own food, you know.”
&nbs
p; “Hardly matters now,” Sparrow said. “We’ll be at the gates in an hour if your little puppy keeps up the pace.”
Miranda winced and glanced down at Gin. He’d threatened to eat Sparrow if the man called him a puppy one more time, but the ghosthound kept running as though nothing had happened. She sighed. Sparrow had no idea how lucky he was that spirits had a hard time hearing him. Of course, Miranda could hear him just fine, and that was enough to make her consider letting Gin eat him anyway.
As their road joined the main highway connecting Zarin to the northern Council Kingdoms, Miranda was astonished by the volume of traffic. Loaded carts filled the paved highway, forcing people on foot and horseback to spill over onto the fields beside the road. Since a ghosthound isn’t the sort of thing you want in the middle of a crowd of horses and ox-drawn carts, Gin had to turn out farther still, beyond the hard-beaten grass that lined the road and into the mud of the freshly plowed fields.
“Lovely,” Sparrow said, lifting his boots as high as he could.
Miranda ignored him. “What’s all this?” she said, nodding at the packed roar. “It’s months too early for the new year’s market, unless I am drastically wrong about how long we were under that mountain.”
“Those aren’t farm carts, either,” Gin added. “I smell steel.”
“You’re right,” Miranda said, straightening her knees so that she was almost standing on his back. “And they’re marked, look.”
Every cart was marked with a flag or seal. The traffic went on farther than she could see in both directions. Hundreds of carts from more countries than she could name hauling what had to be thousands of tons’ worth of goods into Zarin. But for what?
“They’re supply wagons,” Sparrow said, yawning. “You know, for the war.”
Miranda stopped Gin right there, nearly throwing Sparrow off. “War?” she yelled, whirling around. “What war?”
“The upcoming war with the Immortal Empress,” Sparrow said, resettling himself.
Miranda was staring at him like he’d just grown a second head. “The Immortal Empress?”