“What did you mean when you said you’re not like us?” I asked.
“Because I’m cursed.”
“How so?”
He paced the room, clenching and unclenching his hands in a nervous gesture. “If I tell you, you must all give me your word that you will not repeat what I say.”
“You are in the company of Wults,” Kull said. “You know we will keep our word. And you have them. That goes for all of us.”
“Very well,” Maveryck exhaled. “I should start from the beginning. My grandmother was elven but fell in love with a Wult man. Unfortunately, he didn’t care for a courtship with an elven woman, and so she thought it best to bewitch him, which resulted in the birth of my mother. The child was an embarrassment and cast away from the elves for a time to be raised by Wults. Although eventually, she was again accepted by her mother, though that is a long story. Needless to say, I was born to a Wult father and half-elven mother. They were killed before I was old enough to remember, and then I was adopted by a rather noble elven family. Relatives, actually. They took good care of me, but it seemed my lot in life was to be surrounded by death. Both my elven parents died of the lung sickness when I was thirteen, leaving me in the care of my elder brother. He was not so kind. In fact, Navarre was insane.”
“Insane?” I asked. “How so?”
“For one thing, he had a fascination for setting things on fire. Waking at night to find the furniture or tapestries ablaze became commonplace. Our servants made it a habit to sleep with buckets of water at their side.”
“Yes,” Kull said, “that doesn’t sound normal.”
“Navarre was also obsessed with prolonging his life. He traveled to the northlands to study goblin potions, leaving me alone for several months. When he didn’t return, I assumed he was dead. But then, one evening, he returned. He was horribly disfigured, but he’d found what he was looking for. He returned with two potions, one of which he gave to me, and the other he kept for himself. He instructed me in its use, an elaborate ritual that involved drinking it under the new moon.
“We each took our turns drinking from the vials, but only one worked. Mine.”
Silence filled the room.
“So how old are you?” I asked.
“Five hundred years, give or take. For an elf, my age wouldn’t be so unusual.”
“Yes, but for a human, it’s unheard of,” Kull said.
“Perhaps, but the potion did more than prolong my life. It also gave me perfect health, including making it impossible for my memories to fade. I do not consider this to be a gift. As I’ve had many loved ones die during my lifetime, this, to me, is a curse.”
“Heidel, did you know this?” Kull asked.
“He told me in Earth Kingdom, but I’d forgotten until Olive did the spellcasting. Even after that, some of the memories are vague.” She narrowed her eyes at Maveryck. “What does that crystal do?”
“It’s an heirloom of my elven royal house, and at one time it was used as a memory charm.”
“How did you get it? Did you steal it?” I asked.
“No. As I said, it was a gift from my elven grandmother, the former queen of the elves.”
We stared at Maveryck without speaking. At least now I knew why the man acted like elven royalty.
Maveryck tucked the crystal under his shirt. “Now you know my secrets,” he said. “Will you still insist on accusing me of stealing the staff?”
“How could I possibly reconsider? You have only made yourself look guiltier,” Kull said. “You’ve admitted to being kin to elven royalty, and as they are the ones who have taken the staff, and as you are also a professional thief, I can only conclude that you must have been involved in some way. I have no other choice but to ask that you leave our lands.”
“And that is your final decision?”
“Yes, unless you can tell us who took the staff or where it is now, you must leave for the safety of our kingdom.”
His face fell. “I cannot.”
“Very well. As you have helped us in the past, I will do this as quietly as possible. I shall personally escort you out the gates and into the forest, and then you are to leave our lands and never return, at least, not until the staff has been recovered and I am satisfied that you are not the one who took it. Do you understand?”
“Brother,” Heidel said, “this is unjust. You cannot force him—”
“Heidel,” Maveryck interjected, “it’s all right. I will leave.”
“But it’s unjust!”
“No, he has every right to protect his kingdom. I will go.”
“Good. Follow me.”
Heidel and I followed the two men out of the room and into the hallway. As we made our way to the main floor, I pondered Maveryck’s words. To be honest, I wasn’t sure he had taken the staff, but if he hadn’t taken it, then who had?
Heaviness weighed on me at the prospect of losing the staff. The elves were even closer to being able to perform the ritual, and we were no closer to stopping them. Worse, if the elves were successful, what would happen to the piece of Theht existing within me?
As we exited the castle, Kull found a torch and carried it aloft through the courtyard and down a narrow trail leading into the forest.
The bobbing lights of nobbinflies and maywelters lit our path in bursts of purple and blue. Leaves crunched beneath our feet, accompanied by the sounds of chirping night insects. The brisk fall air made my skin bristle from the chill and turned my exhalations to white cloud puffs.
We reached a clearing where we found a wide path leading toward the rails. As we stopped in the clearing, moonlight shone overhead, casting its glow over the leaves and sticks strewn
