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.”
“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?”
“Yes,” Sparrow said. “You know, terrible lady? Comes from across the sea with thousands of ships to kill us all? Don’t they teach you any history in that little social club of yours?”
“I know who the Immortal Empress is!” Miranda shouted. “What I want to know is what is she doing back? I thought she was defeated at Osera two decades ago?”
