Chapter 18
18
I woke up in a strange room, totally disoriented, face stuck to the pillow with drool. I didn’t even remember falling asleep, let alone in my clothes. It took a few seconds for the events of the previous night to come back to me. When they did, I groaned out loud. I was locked in a guest suite with the most annoying guy I knew. Speaking of, I wondered what he was doing, so I got out of bed, crept over to the door, and cracked it open. There was no sound, and I didn’t see him anywhere. I opened it more but still didn’t spot him. My heart soared. We must have been cleared to leave while I was still asleep. I walked out and went to open the main door.
It was locked. I knocked on it, then called out, “Hello?”
“It’s a bit early for all that shouting,” a groggy voice mumbled behind me.
I spun around. “Oh my god. I thought you were gone.” Lucas was sprawled on the big chair where he’d been sitting the night before, his arm thrown over his eyes. I must have missed him when I walked by.
He sat up slowly, cringing while rubbing his neck. “Remind me to ask for a pillow tonight.” His hair was tousled, and of course it made him look even more charming and boyish.
“Oh, don’t worry. That won’t be necessary. Not a chance I’m staying in here another whole night.”
He looked up at me, his eyes still not fully awake, and smiled. “Then I guess you better hope they capture the killer.”
I didn’t have anything to say to that. I stood there for a few seconds, arms crossed, a million thoughts running through my head at once. I wanted out of there, first of all. Then I wanted something to eat. And I wanted to know who killed the page.
For lack of anything else to do, I went and sat in the chair across from him. “They think Althea, the healer, did it,” I said. Might as well address the one issue I could at the moment. “What do you think?”
He shrugged. “Maybe she did.”
“Do you really think so?” I couldn’t believe he thought she’d be a suspect.
“No, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t.”
He had a point. “I don’t know much about healers,” I said. Or anything at all. “Do they...” I cleared my throat. I wasn’t sure I should go there, but I’d already started, so might as well. “Do they use bugs? Like beetles?”
Lucas leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands. “Hmmm. Healers might use leeches, but bugs aren’t usually a healer’s choice of murder weapon.”
“What is?”
“Poison, usually. Beetles require magic. Healers don’t have that.”
“Why not?”
He regarded me with what seemed like curiosity. “You’re really new to Biringan, aren’t you?”
I didn’t answer, which was answer enough.
He sighed. “Healers are always human.”
I was confused. “What do you mean? Althea’s human?”
“Yeah. They aren’t diwata like you. They aren’t even hapcanto. They’re entirely human.”
I didn’t like what that insinuated. “So she’s a prisoner here?” Then what was said in class about Biringan trapping humans to remain here was true. I felt a little sick.
“In a sense,” he conceded. “Like the others, she came here willingly. At least at first. And then, though she was forbidden, she gave in to temptation and ate the black rice.”
“Right,” I said, remembering that conversation in Professor Borromeo’s class.
Lucas nodded.
“Why healers?”
“For a time, healers were recruited from the human world because they had knowledge we did not. Their illnesses had contaminated our world, and we were powerless against them. We needed their healers. After a while, we learned their ways and didn’t need them anymore. Some of them returned, and some of them stayed—by choice or because the rules dictated it.”
Althea said she had known my mother. My mom was a nurse back home. I wondered if Althea had been one, too, and if she’d bonded over this with my mother. Somehow, I struggled to believe that Althea would deliberately hurt anyone. I had seen firsthand how kind she was to her patients, and she had been there for Nix when she needed someone. Although if she was trapped here, maybe she was driven mad and initiated a killing spree. “But you said healers don’t use beetles.”
“They don’t. It’s not their way. They aren’t mambabarangs.”
I must have looked confused, because then he said, “You don’t know what that is either?”
“I mean, I’ve heard of them, but I haven’t met one.” I recalled that Elias had asked that of the patianaks when they brought me to him. If there had been a mambabarang among them.
“Hope you never do. A mambabarang is a dark witch. One who deals in the black arts. Evil magic. They were expelled from Biringan when their coven was discovered. They’d been using dolls to curse their enemies or anyone they considered an enemy—mostly innocent people who were unfortunate enough to cross their path. Their mistake was going after a lady of the Court of Tikbalang. That sparked an investigation across the realm, until they were rooted out.”
“Could Althea be one, and we just don’t know?”
“Highly unlikely, as humans don’t have any magical powers.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that.” I wasn’t sure what to think. “And what about you? Do you know any dark magic?”
Lucas laughed, so loudly I felt a little insulted. “No, Princess, I don’t work with dark magic. My talent lies elsewhere.” He waggled his eyebrows, and I wanted to hit him, except he looked so silly I laughed.
He beamed. “So she does have a sense of humor after all.”
I chortled. “Shut up.”
For a moment I wished I knew what my talent was as clearly as he knew his. But I got back to the issue directly at hand. “Then what about the beetles in the king’s chamber?”
“What about them?”
So he was going to be difficult. “I told you. I know you were there,” I said. “I saw you.”
“Then that means you were there, too. How do I know the beetles weren’t your doing?” He sounded serious, but the smile on the edges of his mouth told another story.
“Because I wasn’t even here when my father died! And this is my palace. You seem to forget that.” Whether he was teasing me or not, I didn’t like it. This wasn’t a joke to me.
He put his hands up in front of him. “Whoa. Point taken.”
“Are you going to explain yourself? Or keep messing with me? I want to know what you were doing in the king’s rooms. And what were you really doing outside my room?”
Lucas took a deep breath. “Investigating.”
“Investigating? You expect me to believe that?”
“You can believe it or not believe it. It’s the only truth I have, however.”
“Investigating what, then?”
He hesitated, as if he was unsure of whether to trust me. The irony. At last, he said, “The beetles. I suspect your father was the victim of some long-forgotten curse.” He sighed, and for a moment I saw something in his face—something real, like grief and fear, behind his cocky facade. Something vulnerable. Lucas was scared.
A curse. It was the same thing I’d overheard the maids saying in the garden, that the king had been cursed by dark magic. But I wanted to know what he knew. “What kind of curse?”
Lucas shrugged. “I’m not sure. That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
I didn’t want to believe him, yet I did. I felt he was being truthful. One thing still didn’t make sense to me, though. “Why were you creeping around outside my room, then?”
“Same reason. I had been trying to find the source of the bugs. That led me up to the queen’s wing. I had to get the guards away so they wouldn’t catch on to what I was doing. I didn’t want anyone to know, in case any one of them may be the culprit. I lured them away with a tray of treats from the Court of Sigbin. They absolutely love the coconut pandan cake our chef makes—”
“Okay, but what did you find?” I was anxious to get as much information as I could now that we were finally laying it all out on the table.
“Not much. I found the beetles, of course. But not their origin. It appears they’re not in your rooms—at least not yet. I’m glad we’re having this conversation, actually, even if it isn’t under ideal circumstances. I was trying to think of a way to let you know, but it’s kind of hard when...”
“When we hate each other?” I finished for him.
“Ouch. I didn’t know you had such strong feelings for me.” His face lit up with a rakish grin.
I couldn’t help but laugh once more, but I was also blushing. God, why did he have to be so attractive? Was I so basic I was falling for him, too, like every starry-eyed first-year at BANA?
Neither of us spoke for a minute after that. I was trying to process everything and figure out where to go from there. Lucas was just as lost in his thoughts as I was.
“Penny for your thoughts,” I offered.
This time it was his turn to blush. Huh. Was he thinking about me? And if he was, how would I feel about it? Somehow, I knew I wouldn’t be as dismissive of it as I had been just the other day. I think I would maybe even welcome it? It was strange to think that last night I still considered him my enemy, but by this morning we were almost friends.
The silence was getting awkward, so I thought it was a good time to ask him more questions. “By the way,” I said, “who were the two men you were talking to in town?”
That one genuinely surprised him. “How’d you know about that?”
“Let’s just say I have my sources. Aren’t they smugglers?”
He looked down at the ground and clasped his hands together. I knew I had him this time. “I didn’t realize I was being spied on,” he said, as if he had any right to be upset about that after the discussion we just had.
“Then we’re even,” I pointed out.
He raised an eyebrow. “Yes, they were smugglers,” he admitted.
“I knew it.” Vindication. “How can you work with them? They bring humans into Biringan to be enslaved!”
Lucas’s eyes blazed. “For your information, I have personally tracked down and imprisoned anyone who would hurt or harm humans.”
It was exactly as the shady man had said—Lucas cared about the humans in Biringan. He wasn’t involved in exploiting them. I was mollified and grateful for the confirmation. But I still needed to know his reasons.
“Why, then? Are you trying to make some extra money on the side? Or what?”
“No. Those guys I talked to don’t deal with human trafficking. They mostly run a black market of stolen goods from the human world—some encantos can’t live without their iPhones. You’d be surprised how many here love them. Oh, yes, I know all about ‘technology.’ Anyway, I was trying to get some information about the beetles. Smugglers tend to know about things that are illegal or illicit in the kingdom. But all they could tell me was that they originate in the Sombra Woods. Look, the fact is, we’re on the same side, Princess,” Lucas insisted. “Neither of us wants to see anyone else get hurt. Especially if we’re dealing with regicide here. The page’s murder was probably a threat. A warning to the future queen.” He looked straight at me.
“So how do we find out who’s behind it? We need a plan. Elias’s investigation hasn’t been very fruitful.”
Lucas leaned forward and clapped his hands together. “All right, finally something I’m good at. Okay, here’s the deal. We need to know for sure what happened to the page. How did she die? Was she poisoned? Was she strangled? Stabbed? It makes a difference. Then we find out who had a chance to do it. A list of suspects.”
“It’s not Althea. It’s too easy. I think she’s being framed. Like you said, healers don’t have magic. And the beetles—whatever they are—they’re definitely dark magic, right?”
Lucas nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I think. So, if we want to prove Althea isn’t guilty, we need to figure out who is.”
“I could ask around, but what if the killer is in with the guards? It happens. I mean, what better way to control the investigation?”
Lucas agreed. “That’s why we’re not even going to ask them. As soon as they let us out of here, we’re going down to the morgue.”