“I don’t think so,” Kevin said. “My source seems fairly reliable. As to why, basically to test the poison on someone of mixed blood before coming after me.”
“But why would anyone want to poison you?” Danyelle asked.
Kevin shrugged.
Shadron frowned. “Is it you or your chair?”
“Does it matter?” Dayed asked. “End result is the same.”
“But poison?” Allisandra asked. “No one uses poison.” Then she shook her head. “Do you know who’s behind this supposed threat?”
Before he could answer, Kyle spoke up. “You know, in order to poison one of us, they’d have to know where to find us. Who would know where we live? The only one in Milhaven is Laryn. Maybe she needs to stay with one of us until this threat’s over.”
Chris shook his head. “If the purpose is to test the poison, wouldn’t they want someone who also has magic in their blood?”
“He has a point,” Danyelle said, “but the rest of us are scattered all over the place. How would someone even know where to find us? And are they planning to poison our families or just us?”
“How could someone poison us and not the rest of our family?” Shadron asked. “We all eat whatever Kayla cooks at my house.”
“Do you think this is connected to that man, that Gildan?” Dayed asked.
“I still don’t believe it,” Allisandra said, shaking her head. “Someone’s trying to distract you. While you worry about this, they’re doing something else.”
“I suppose that’s possible,” Kevin said slowly, “but there’s no way to be sure. I don’t think we can ignore the warning.”
So what do you want us to do?” Danyelle asked. “How do you propose we protect against this?”
“Well, for one thing, know where everything you eat or drink comes from. Put wards over the food in your kitchens, things like teas, coffee, bread, everything. And don’t accept anything from anyone, no matter how well you know them.”
Allisandra shook her head. “There’s no way I’m going to insult someone who brings us a gift.” Then she bit her lips for a moment. “But after today, I won’t feel safe letting Lysette eat it. And that’s going to be a problem when someone offers her a treat and I don’t let her have it.”
“I thought you didn’t think there was anything to this,” Shadron said.
“I don’t, but if there’s even the smallest chance this might be real, I’m not taking any chances with my daughter.”
Danyelle nodded. “I can manage what Teron and Norrie eat, but what about the ones who are fostered? Do we warn their foster parents that their families might be in danger, too?”
Laryn shook her head. “There’s no way anyone would know where they are.”
“Why not? If they know where we are, they could have found them, too.” Danyelle sighed. “I’m not saying I believe someone’s really planning to poison some of us, but if we think there’s even a slim chance that someone is, we have to believe our fostered children are in as much danger as we are and that means those families are, too. We have to warn them. And what about all the people at the castle? What are you going to do about them? If this person is going after you, everyone around you is at risk. Are you going to warn all of them?”
Kevin hesitated. If he said yes, his aunts and uncles would feel free to discuss it with their friends at the castle. If he said no, they’d wonder why he wasn’t warning them, or worse yet, decide to warn them themselves. There was no way to win, so he went with the truth. “I think this will be very targeted, and I think the only ones at risk are sitting right here in this room, and I don’t mean Chris.”
“What makes you say that?” Shadron asked. “You must know more than you’re telling us. Now I’ll accept that you’re in position to know a lot of things the rest of us will never know, but not when our families are at risk. If you know more than you’re saying, you need to tell us now.”
“Was that guy Gildan involved in this?” Dayed asked again.
“At least that would explain why he made the rounds,” Kyle said.
Allisandra frowned. “If it was him…he’s one of Rolan’s men. Does that mean Rolan’s behind this?”
“But why would Rolan want to poison Myron? It’s not like that would make him Master Sorcerer,” Dayed said. “What purpose would it serve?”
“It would make it easier to get to Landis,” Kyle said. “That’s the only thing that makes sense to me.”
“What aren’t you telling us?” Danyelle asked.
Kevin looked at Laryn, who shook her head.
“Laryn?” Shadron asked. “What do you know?”
“Laryn knows I got a message from someone who found out what Rolan has in mind,” Kevin admitted. “Rolan likes to brag, and he’s not careful about who hears him. I can’t tell you who told me because Rolan would kill him without a second thought. But I believe him, and I’m asking all of you to be careful, very careful. I don’t want to have to go to another funeral.”
“Do you really think Rolan would poison someone?” Kyle asked. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just throw a bolt?”
Kevin nodded. “To be honest, it probably would with any of you. You wouldn’t be expecting it, wouldn’t be ready for it. But it’s different with me, as I’m sure it was for my father or any other Master Sorcerer. I’m constantly expecting a sneak attack. And whenever I’m doing something that requires me to focus, there are people around me who watch for one. Rolan won’t risk that with me. If he were willing to do that, he’d challenge me outright. But he’d have no problem killing me if he could do it without risking his own life. The only reason he’s planning to go after any of you is to test the poison before coming after me.”
“But why poison?” Allisandra asked.
Kevin shrugged. “Poison’s easy. Put it in something someone will eat or drink and then wait for them to die. Nothing to it, and no way to trace it back to the source. It’s his weapon of choice.”
For a moment no one spoke. Then Danyelle asked, “How do you know that? Has he poisoned someone before?”
Kevin hesitated. “Actually yes, but since I can’t prove it, I can’t give you any details. But yes, he has.”
“I heard he killed Tsareth,” Shadron said, “but with an energy bolt. He didn’t poison him.”
“I know,” Kevin said, “but he’s killed quite a few people that I know of, and there’s no telling how many I don’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Different sources. He’s not shy about having witnesses. I think he likes the idea that everyone knows he won’t hesitate to kill. Makes them work that much harder at keeping him happy.”
“All right,” Kyle said, “just for the sake of argument, let’s say Rolan really is going to try to poison you. What are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t plan to ignore it if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Why don’t you challenge him and be done with it?” Allisandra asked. “I’m sure you’d beat him.”
“I can’t, not without resigning as Master Sorcerer.”
“And he can’t do that,” Chris interjected. “He tried. Glendymere wouldn’t let him.”
“You talked to Glendymere about this?” Shadron asked.
Kevin nodded. “As soon as I heard he was planning to test out his poison on one of you.”
“So you really do believe he’s going to try to poison one of us,” Dayed said. “All right. How do I protect Jasyn? And Dara? And all those people she has over?”
“I can’t guarantee it, but I think if he tries to poison you, he’ll do it in such a way that it’s just you. Maybe sneak something into your workshop, have someone give you some tea, or maybe a pastry, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a woman. He’s used women before to do that type of thing.”
“So beware of strangers bearing gifts,” Kyle said.
“Or even friends. Remember those spies we found? One of them was doing it because he had he
r parents and threatened to kill them if she didn’t do what he said. You can’t trust anyone right now.”
“All right,” Allisandra said. “We’ll be careful, but you need to watch out, too. You don’t have as much control over what you eat or drink as we do. What precautions are you taking?”
“In a way it’s to my advantage that I eat what everyone else eats. He won’t risk poisoning half the castle because everyone would know it was murder and it wouldn’t be too big a jump for someone to figure out I was the target. He hasn’t made his feelings towards me a secret so I’m sure there are sorcerers on the council who would look into it.”
“So would Glendymere,” Chris added, “and Rolan knows it. He’ll want it to look like a natural death, an accident, or lead to someone else. He’s not all that smart, but he is sneaky.”
Kevin looked at Kyle. “I’m mainly worried about you right now. You’re an easy target. All he’d have to do is wait for you to leave, use his key to pop into your kitchen, mix the poison in your coffee, tea, or flour, and be gone before you got back. That key gives him an advantage.” Then he looked at Dayed. “Next to Kyle, you’re the most vulnerable. You spend most of your days in your workshop. He could show up at your door asking to see some of your stuff, and since you have no idea what he looks like, you’d let him in. Then, while you find whatever he’s interested in, he could slip a bit of poison into your tea cup which is always sitting on your desk.”
Laryn nodded. “I’ll draw a sketch of him when I get back home and have Myron bring you a copy. In fact, I’ll make one for all of you.”
“But keep in mind he’s sneaky,” Chris added. “He’ll disguise himself if there’s any chance you might see him, but it’s more likely that he’ll send someone else, probably a young woman.”
When no one said anything else, Kevin asked if anyone had any questions. When no one did, he nodded to Laryn. “Then we’ll take you back home. Just be careful and stay safe. I really don’t want anything happening to any of you.”
~~~~
It took nearly an hour to get everyone back where they belonged, including Chris and the food. By the time they returned to the office, work had piled up on both their desks. When they stopped for dinner, Kevin said, “I’ve had enough for one day. After we get something to eat, I’m going to find Nikki and go for a walk and see if I can clear my head.”
“Think I’ll head down to Fenway’s after dinner,” Chris said. “Want me to shut the office down before I go?”
Kevin nodded as they went in the dining room. “Tell Petri to take the evening off. Any mail that comes in can wait until tomorrow. And tell whoever’s on duty at the door not to look for us for anything short of a life or death emergency.”
“Want me to tell Darwyn he’s on call?”
Kevin shook his head. “I imagine he’ll be in town, so if anything happens around here he’ll know about it. Anywhere else, they’ll have to find me anyway. I’m the one with the key.”
After dinner, Kevin picked up Nikki and the two of them set off for a walk in the woods. It was the first chance since reading Gildan’s letter that Kevin had time to think back over everything that had happened. Hard to believe it was just that morning that Sister Agnes had given it to him. Seemed like it had been a week ago. The only part of the day that had gone relatively well was the meeting with his aunts and uncles, and even that had been touchy at times.
The idea of not doing anything about Rolan really rankled. And what about those visions Glendymere had mentioned? Had people been manipulating him all his life to suit some fanciful dreams of an elf? How much in his life was real and how much was fabricated to fit the story?
As Kevin headed back to the castle, he was more agitated than he’d been when he set out. What he needed was a good dose of Rhianna. Or was she part of the plan, too?
When Kevin got upstairs, Chris took one look at him and knew something was eating at him. “What?”
Kevin frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Something’s bothering you. What is it?”
Kevin sat down. “You know those prophecies Glendymere was talking about? I can’t help but wonder how much of what’s happened has been because of them. Is that the real reason Rhianna came to Milhaven?”
Chris shook his head. “You’re reading too much into it. I can personally vouch for the fact she was caught off guard by the whole thing and hated the idea of pretending to be a couple just to get Rolan to back off North Amden. She talked to me before you knew anything about it, remember?”
“I’ll buy that she hated the ruse. I can even believe she didn’t have any choice in the matter, but why did they come up with it? Was it really to get Rolan’s men out of North Amden? Or was that just a convenient excuse to plant her here? After all, that seer was an elf. What if the elves know about her prophecies and are in cahoots with Glendymere to try to make them come true?”
“Then why would they summon her before the Council of Elders? Why would they drill Theresa like they did about Landis? They made it clear they wanted to find Landis and give her to Rolan to get his men out of North Amden.”
Kevin shrugged. “I don’t know why they’d do that, and that’s the thing. I don’t know. How can I be sure of anything? Even if Rhianna’s completely in the dark, what about Hayden? Did he push this idea because of the prophecies?”
“Well, for one thing, Xantha’s the one who came up with the idea. Hayden just latched on to it and called it his.”
“Maybe Xantha knows about the prophecies. Even if no one told him, he’s a telepath.”
“Who has a mind link with you. He knows how you feel about her, how you’ve felt about her from the first time you set eyes on her, and he’s never hidden the fact that he wants you married and producing heirs. He’s even volunteered to line up what he called ‘suitable mates’ for you so you could choose one. I really don’t think anything between you and Rhianna is related to the prophecies.”
“But you have to admit if she and I were married it would show the whole world I have nothing against elves. Didn’t Glendymere say one of the prophecies was that I was supposed to bring peace between the races? What better way to have peace between humans and elves than for me to marry one? Isn’t that what the royals did back on Earth long ago when they wanted peace between two countries, or two tribes? Marry off a couple of the kids? Even in the US, at least in the movies, organized crime families would marry off the next generation to unite two families. Is that why we’ve been pushed together every time we turn around? To unite humans and elves?”
Chris snorted. “Yeah, that worked really well for your great-grandfather, didn’t it? How many people, including your Aunt Dara, still hate the fact that there’s elven blood in your veins? Kalen warned you about that before we ever left the Gate House.”
Kevin exhaled a long breath. “Okay, you have a point.”
“Seems to me, way back at the beginning, one of your arguments for not getting involved with her was the danger you’d put her in if you did, danger from all the little minds out there who believe other races are beneath them, and humans aren’t the only ones who feel that way. What about Dougan? Some of the elves and dwarves are every bit as prejudiced as some of the humans are.”
“All right. I said you had a point. And yes, it bothers me that just by being around me she’s in danger. She’s already been attacked once because of it.”
“So do you honestly think either Hayden or Xantha purposely put her in the position to draw attacks?”
Kevin hesitated and then shook his head. “No, I don’t. So maybe they weren’t thinking about the prophecy when they came up with that plan, but what about the people around here? What about my family? What about Warren? Do they know about the prophecies? Are they expecting me to be some kind of miracle worker? If so, I need to get out of here. I’m not that guy. I don’t have any superpowers. I am not Superman!”
Chris chuckled. “Well, that’s debatable. Seems to me you’re doing a lot of
the things Superman could do. You can leap tall buildings in a single bound, and although I’m not sure you’re faster than a speeding bullet, you can fly. You’re stronger than any locomotive. You can blast your way through solid rock. You can pick up anything you can get a force field around, and nothing can get past your shields. So yeah, you are superman.”
Kevin cut his eyes at Chris. “Right.”
“But in answer to your question, I have no idea who knows and who doesn’t. No one’s ever mentioned anything about it to me, so if anyone around here does know, they aren’t talking about it.” Chris frowned. “But it might not hurt to find out. Want to go back to Willow Canyon and ask a few questions?”
“Now?”
Chris shrugged. “Why not? We can take Nikki to Neiven’s and leave her with Marshall, or we could leave her with the guards.” Chris nodded towards the couch where Nikki was curled up sound asleep.
Kevin gave a quick nod. “Let’s do it.”
~~~~
Glendymere was sleeping in his chamber when he heard the gong in front of his cave. Without opening his eyes, he used his seeing eye to see who was there. “Was I expecting you?”
“No, but I need to talk to you,” Kevin answered.
“Then come on back.”
Kevin and Chris were already headed down the tunnel connecting Glendymere’s front reception area with his sleeping quarters. As they came out of the tunnel, they were hit with a blast of hot air from one of Glendymere’s yawns.
“What can I do for you?”
“Who knows about these prophecies?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Those prophecies you told me about this morning, the visions that elf had. You kept saying ‘we’ knew. Who knows about them?”
“When I said ‘we,’ I was referring to the dragons, but the Keepers of the Keys to the Gate Between the Worlds were given a few of the prophecies to pass on to those who follow so Paladin and Pallor know a few of them. And Kalen knows since he cares for the original key, the stones. And I imagine most of the telepaths know. There’s no such thing as keeping a secret from them, but they’re the world’s best at keeping things to themselves.”
The Rambling Spy Page 77