I stepped closer and eyed the stack of books in the guest chair. She whipped her wand out of her back pocket, and with a flick of her wrist the books slid onto the floor. She murmured another spell as I settled into the cracked leather seat.
She grinned. “Silencing spell.”
I leaned forward, my lips twitching toward a matching grin. “Does that mean you found something good?”
She shrugged a slim shoulder. “You’ll have to be the judge of that.” She winked. “But, yeah.”
She came around to my side of the desk and perched on it, one leg hiked up. “So you and Officer Hot Stuff asked me to look into Carclaustra, which I already had a lot of information on—did I mention all the awards I won for that piece?”
I shot her a flat look. “Maybe once or twice.”
She grinned wider. “Have I told you about all the connections to Prince Harry I have? He personally thanked me for that.”
I rolled my eyes.
She quirked her lips to the side. “Though Princess Imogen doesn’t seem to be a fan of all those Is She Pregnant or Just Bad at Fashion? spreads I do on her.”
I shook my head at her. “Yeah. So weird.”
She winked, then clapped her hands. “Alright, bad news first—while I have no doubt that Señor Caterwaul is taking out his enemies, none of them seem to have ended up in Carclaustra.”
I frowned. “Wait—what do you mean?”
She waved a hand. “King Roch—may the sea slug rot in a deep ocean crevice—”
I nodded my agreement.
“—might have used the prison system to hide his enemies, political dissidents—basically anyone inconvenient, but Ludolf’s not doing the same.”
I frowned. “Okay. So what’s the good news?”
Her dark eyes lit up. “I did find some other stuff I think is pretty juicy. And I’m a good judge of juicy.” She talked with her hands. “I found a bunch of old records, dug into the lengthy King Roch depositions that he gave pre-trial and during it, and found that near the end of the Monster Wars, Roch started his propaganda against shifters—likening them to being part monster.”
I frowned. “Why?”
She shot me a flat look. “Why else? The spineless coward wanted scapegoats—something to shift the public’s attention away from all the atrocities he’d committed.”
I crossed my arms, anger brewing in my chest. “You mean atrocities like siccing monsters on a bunch of innocent people, which invited retaliation from other kingdoms?”
She snapped her fingers and pointed at me. “Right! Those. Anyway, before that, shifters were respected members of society, by all accounts. But by likening shifters to monsters, since they can turn into animals, spy on you, infiltrate your family as the household pet, etcetera—” She held up a finger. “—his words, not mine—he was able to shift all the post-war fear and anger to a minority population and deflect it from himself. Took a lot of propaganda, but he got it done.”
I’d need Peter to massage out the massive knot that was forming in my neck later. “Did people not stand up to him? How could this happen?”
She splayed her hands. “Fear, especially in desperate times, can be a powerful weapon in the wrong hands.” She held up a finger. “I did find some information that a bunch of prominent shifter rights activists rose up.” She grew grim. “There was a secret meeting among all of them—someone ratted them out, and Roch raided the meeting and they ‘disappeared.’” She made air quotes.
My stomach clenched. “You mean?”
She shrugged. “I couldn’t find any information on any of them after that. I don’t know what happened to them.”
I clenched my hands into fists. I wanted to simultaneously punch something and cry.
“Guess who that someone was?”
I jerked my head up. “Don’t tell me—”
She nodded. “Mr. Ludolf Caterwaul himself.”
I scoffed. “How did you find that out?”
She sniffed. “I’d like to pretend it’s my amazing journalistic skills, but it was actually pretty easy. There’s a bunch of letters between the former King Roch and Ludolf. Ludolf actually brags about it—tries to leverage the fact that he gave up the location of the secret meeting to gain favor with the king.”
I shook my head. “That’s despicable. He betrayed his own people.”
“Well, that’s only the half of it. I dug into Ludolf a little more.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice, despite the fact that she’d put a spell around her cubicle to avoid being heard. I found myself leaning in too.
“Get this—he failed out of architecture school, then worked as a low-level clerk for one of the activists. I assume that’s when he saw an opportunity to sell the activist leaders out for his own benefit.” She scoffed. “Real stand-up guy. After that, Ludolf shows up in a bunch of records of meetings and official decrees—Roch set him up as a sort of ambassador to shifters initially. I found a bunch of applications—Ludolf applying for positions in Roch’s cabinet—all denied.”
I smirked— Ludolf being denied anything was slightly consoling. “What happened there?”
Madeline tipped her head side to side. “Ludolf’s ambitious, I’ll give him that.” She shook her head, and her glasses fell down so that she had to push them back up. “Reading between the lines of some of Roch’s replies to his denied applications, I’m guessing the former king had a very specific use for Ludolf and wouldn’t let him rise any higher than underground shifter mob boss, despite Ludolf’s attempts to move up the hierarchy.”
I unclenched my jaw and drummed my fingers on the wooden arm of the chair. “So… Roch basically set Ludolf up as mob boss of the shifters. But even though Ludolf rules the shifters… he was still under the thumb of Roch.”
She nodded. “And from the tone of the letters I saw… I doubt Ludolf’s satisfied with that. He had grander aspirations than king of the sewers.” She shot an arm out. “No offense… you know, I’m sure the
