my shirt. I promise.”
“I’m glad my problems are keeping you entertained,” I said with some sarcasm. “I’m searching for my…ah, for the Tree King and his Queen. We’re going to plan our attack against the evil Tree Varmints who have assembled an invisible army in the Keep.”
Dax’s eyes lit up. “I heard about the Tree Queen’s adventures this morning.”
The game soured. I didn’t want to hear the students’ gossip about my mother. Before Dax could elaborate, I invited him to tag along.
I found my parents in the dining hall and we joined them. While we ate, Dax’s presence worked to my advantage. The topic of conversation stayed on school and horses and mundane matters, giving my parents no chance to question me about the Council session. And when my mother offered to distill a special cologne for Dax, I knew she was glad I had found a Sitian friend.
After saying goodbye to Dax, I went to the guest quarters with my parents. As Perl brewed some tea in the small kitchen, I asked Esau about the Curare. Irys had told him about the drug when she feared Ferde had kidnapped me.
He ran a calloused hand over his face. “I never thought it would be used like that,” he said, shaking his head. “When I discover something new, I always experiment with it until I know all the side effects and know how the substance could be used or abused. Then I weigh the good against the bad. Some discoveries never see the light of day, but for others, even though they might not be perfect, the benefits outweigh the risks.”
Esau stopped speaking when Perl entered the room carrying a tray of tea. The warning in my father’s eyes told me that my mother didn’t know about Ferde’s gruesome use of the Curare.
She served the tea and sat close to me on the couch. She had worn her cloak during lunch, but had removed it when we entered their suite.
“What happened at the Council’s session?” she asked me.
I gave them a watered-down version of Cahil’s accusations against Adviser Ilom. Perl’s hand flew to her neck when I mentioned Valek’s name, but she relaxed when I told her Cahil had been proven wrong. Neglecting to mention Cahil’s claims about my involvement with Valek, I informed them about Goel’s murder.
“Good,” Perl said. “Saves me the effort of cursing him.”
“Mother!” I was astonished. “Can you do that?”
“Perfumes and scents are not the only things I can concoct.”
I looked at Esau. He nodded his head. “Good thing Reyad and Mogkan were already dead. Your mother has quite the imagination when she’s angry.”
I wondered what other surprises I would discover about my parents. Changing the subject, I asked about their journey to the Keep and about the Zaltana family, spending the day with them as promised.
When the hour had grown late, Esau offered to escort me to my rooms. At first I declined. I hadn’t been assigned guards since the episode with Goel. When he insisted and when Perl frowned, I remembered her comment about curses and not wanting to be a target of her ire, I agreed.
The campus atmosphere hung silent and empty. Moonlight glistened off the ice-coated trees. Only four more days until the full moon. My hand found Valek’s snake and I twisted the bracelet around my arm.
When we were halfway to my rooms Esau said, “I need to tell you another thing about Curare.”
“There’s more?”
He nodded. “The stinging nettle plant was the reason I sent the shipment of Curare to the Sandseeds before I finished all my experiments on the drug. The plant grows in the Avibian Plains and the sting causes unbearable pain for many days. It’s usually the children who wander into a patch without realizing it. In low doses, Curare is excellent for numbing the wound. It had never occurred to me that someone would use high doses of Curare to paralyze the entire body.” Esau frowned, running a hand through his shoulder length gray hair. “Later I discovered another side effect that seemed minor at the time. But now…” Esau stopped and turned to me. “At high doses the Curare will also paralyze a person’s magical abilities.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. That meant Curare could render even a Master Magician completely helpless. Tomorrow night was the time of the secret exchange. Since I had taken over Goel’s body with my magic, I planned to take over Ferde’s, believing that, even if I was incapacitated by the drug, I could still use my magic. It now seemed imperative that I avoid getting shot with Curare.
My father must have seen the horror in my eyes. “There is an antidote of sorts,” he said.
“Antidote?”
“Not a complete reversal, but it does free the magic and return some feeling, although it creates some new problems.” Esau shook his head in frustration. “I haven’t been able to experiment with it fully.”
“What is it?”
“Theobroma.”
That explained the new problem. Eating the brown sweet would open my mind to magical influences. My mental defenses would not work against another magician, even one weaker than me.
“How much Theobroma would I need?” I asked my father.
“A lot. Though, I could concentrate it,” he mused.
A chill wind blew through me, shivering I pulled my cloak tighter as we continued our walk.
“It wouldn’t taste as good, but it would be a smaller quantity,” Esau said.
“Can you do it by tomorrow afternoon?” I asked.
He stared at me. A worried concern filled his kind eyes.
“Are you going to do something that I shouldn’t tell your mother about?”
“Yes.”
“Important?”
“Very.”
My father considered my request. When we arrived at my rooms, he gave me a hug. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
“I have a plan.”
“Yelena, you managed to find your way home despite the odds. I’ll trust that you’ll prevail again. You’ll have the antidote by tomorrow noon.”
He stood in my doorway like a protective bear while I searched inside. Satisfied that I was safe, he said good-night and headed back to the guest quarters.
I lay in bed and mulled over the information Esau had given me. When my shutters swung wide, I sat up, grabbing my switchblade from under the pillow. Valek climbed through the window with a lithe grace, dropping without a sound onto my bed. He locked the shutters then joined me.
“You need to leave. Too many people know you’re here,” I said.
“Not until we find the killer. And besides, the Commander ordered me to protect the Ambassador. I would be remiss in my duties if I left.”
“What if she ordered you home?” I turned so I could see his face.
“The Commander’s orders overrule all others.”
“Valek, did you—”
He stopped my question with a kiss. I needed to discuss many things with him. Goel’s death and the Commander’s offer. But once his body molded to mine and his musky scent reached my nose all thoughts of murder and intrigue evaporated. I pulled at his shirt. He smiled with delight. Our time together was limited and I didn’t want to waste the night on words.
When I woke in the semidarkness of sunrise, Valek was gone. But I felt energized. My rendezvous with Ferde was scheduled for midnight so I reviewed the plan as I went through my day.
Irys had wanted me to try to move objects again with my magic for my morning lesson. I had yet to manage that skill. But I asked if we could work on strengthening my mental defenses. If I had to resort to using Esau’s antidote, I wanted to be able to produce a strong enough barrier that might block his magic even while under the influence of the Theobroma.
Before dismissing me for the day, Irys asked, “Are you still feeling tired from your encounter with Goel?”
“A little. Why?”
She gave me an ironic smile. “You’ve been pestering me about the search for Opal every day for the last week. Yet no questions today.”
