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 looked 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
