The Prince’s Heart

23. Chapter 23

Chapter twenty-three

“D arien, do you have a moment?”

I look up from the report I’m reading, my eyes bleary and my mind half-asleep, to see Emma. She’s holding a rather large book and is clearly wide awake despite the late hour. I’m sure she’s come to deliver bad news—that seems to be the only kind of news people deliver to me these days—but at least whatever it is will occupy my attention for a little while. It’s been about ten hours since I almost got caught snooping through Arbois’s desk, and that sense of malaise still hasn’t gone away completely. “I suppose I do. What is it?”

She comes over to my desk, her steps almost bouncing with energy. Now that she’s closer, I can see the complex mixture of emotions in her expression: excitement and fear and relief and anxiety among others; just seeing her this way makes me feel more alert.

“Sorry for bothering you so late,” she says, “but I’m pretty sure I just found what I’ve been looking for.”

Some of my fatigue drops away, and I blink a few times. “You mean…”

She nods. “Yes. I think I know which poison was used to kill Father and Samis.”

As soon as the words are out of her mouth, I feel like I’m falling, like I’m tumbling untethered through the night air. “Well? What did you find?”

She plonks the book down on my desk in front of me and opens it to a page marked with a small piece of cloth. “Here. Take a look for yourself.”

I do. The page is mostly covered with dense, tiny text, although there are a few spaces where the text is interrupted by drawings of what appears to be a rather ordinary-looking mushroom. The words are so small and close to each other that I can barely read it even if I squint, and it doesn’t take long before I give up on trying to read it and turn back to Emma. “I think you’re just going to have to tell me what it says.”

She sighs and points to one of the drawings. “It’s called a death cap,” she says, her tone as serious as I’ve ever heard it. “As you can probably guess from the name, it’s extremely deadly—maybe as little as half of one could kill a person, and the antidote is extremely rare. Plus, it tastes perfectly fine—if it were mixed into a soup or something and you ate it, you wouldn’t even notice that something was wrong. Plus, it takes a few days for the poison to do its work, so most people who eat it don’t even make the connection between the innocuous mushroom they ate with dinner last week and their symptoms.” She runs a hand through her hair. “Speaking of which, assuming that book is right, then the symptoms of death cap poisoning match up exactly with what Father and Samis had—the jaundice, the fever, the vomiting, all of it. I thought it would be obvious once I found it, but this…” She taps the page lightly with a knuckle. “It’s like it was staring me in the face. I’m almost angry at myself for not figuring it out earlier.”

“You would have said that even if you found it ten minutes after you started your research,” I tell her. “Is it rare? If it is, and we know where it grows, that could be a clue as to who might have done it.”

She shakes her head. “They’re not exactly common, but I wouldn’t say they’re rare either. I think there might even be a few growing in the palace garden, but I’m not sure. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if there were.”

Well, that doesn’t narrow it down much. In fact … “Wait a moment. If they grow around here, could it just have been an accident?”

“I suppose it’s possible, but it seems unlikely given both of their deaths. I assume most of the farmers who supply the palace kitchens know enough to avoid them. If for whatever reason they did make a mistake, I can’t see how only Father and Samis would have gotten sick, and no one else. No, it has to have been intentional.”

“Alright, I’ll take your word for it.” I lean back. “What’s the next step, then?”

“I’m … not sure.” Emma frowns deeply; I know her well enough to tell that she’s not upset with me so much as the situation. “Has Ivy found anything?”

“Not really.” I briefly summarize Ivy’s investigation so far, and, after a moment’s hesitation, add in the letter I found on Arbois’s desk. Maybe she’ll see something that I didn’t. “I’m not sure whether any of it’s connected,” I conclude. “If it is, I can’t see how.”

She ponders it for a moment, her analytical mind presumably working through all the evidence we’ve gathered. “Have you considered that Rolsteg or whoever might be trying to frame Arbois?” she finally asks. “The letter could have been about anything. Plus, it’s not like it’s that difficult to get Jirenian coins, especially since the one Ivy found might have been planted. Maybe Rolsteg, or even Raktos or Verreene, wants to prevent an alliance between us and Jirena Sadai for some reason.”

“Do you really think they’d want to stop us so much that they’d be willing to assassinate three members of the royal family? There have to be less extreme ways to stop a marriage and why would they kill Father and Samis too, not just me?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know, Darien. It’s not very much to go on, but I promise you I’ll keep thinking about it.”

I close my eyes and let out a breath. “I know you will,” I say, my voice quiet. I open my eyes again. “You did a good job figuring out what the poison was, and I know that if anyone can make sense of this whole mess, it’s you.”

“Thank you,” she says, a faint smile creasing her face for a brief moment. “We’ll figure it out together.” She takes the book from my desk, carefully marking the page with the piece of cloth that was there before. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to tell Mother what I found.”

She leaves me sitting alone in my study, more than exhausted, even though I know I won’t be sleeping anytime soon.

The following days pass slowly, each one seeming to last a week, as I wait for a response from Zeikas. In the meantime, negotiations with Arbois continue. Just as I told Arbois, I don’t attend them personally—instead, Lord Kerion acts as my representative. He gives me updates every so often and continues to perform much the same role he did for Father. His experience is a great help, and I trust him completely when it comes to handling matters of state.

Although in truth, when it comes to the negotiations with Arbois, he hasn’t had much to update me on recently. From what he tells me, Arbois doesn’t seem too keen on making a deal that doesn’t include a marriage. Which isn’t entirely surprising, considering he came here specifically to marry me. Still, it seems he’s still at least willing to entertain the idea, so that’s something.

The problem is that as the days pass, the fact that Arbois is still willing to humor me feels like the only thing that’s even remotely going my way. Despite their best efforts, Ivy and Emma don’t make any further progress on their respective investigations, and the guards that surround me for nearly all my waking hours are a constant reminder that I’m no longer safe in my own home.

The stress builds and builds until finally, one morning a few days after Emma’s discovery, as I’m reviewing an extremely dry routine report from Colonel Belling on the state of the city’s garrison, something in me snaps, and I decide that I need to take a break if I want to stop myself from going insane, even if it’s just for a few hours. I lean back in my chair and rub my eyes as I try to think of something that will take my mind off my work.

As I’m idly thinking, I look out one of the study windows, with a view of the city and the fields beyond. My gaze falls on a cliff not far outside the city walls, covered in green, and in a flash I realize that I know exactly what I want to do. I get up without a second thought and walk out of my study, more than ready to leave my worries behind for a few hours.

I head toward the suite the Learas are occupying, my steps already feeling lighter than they were before. Two guards follow me, close enough to intervene should anything happen but far enough away to be unobtrusive. Well, mostly unobtrusive. It occurs to me that I’m going to have to convince them to stay back once Tag and I have reached our destination; I’m very glad that they’re taking their jobs seriously, but if I’m going to take a break from everything, I want it to be just me and Tag, without anyone else intruding. Fortunately, the place where we’re going isn’t exactly dangerous, and I expect we’ll be the only people there, so hopefully the guards will relax a bit and leave us alone.

I’m so caught up in my thoughts that I almost walk past the Learas’ rooms. Shaking my head a bit, I go to knock on the wide wooden door.

But before I can touch the wood, I hear a familiar voice coming from farther down the hall. What is Arbois doing around here ? I can’t see him, and he’s far enough away that I can’t make out what he’s saying, but I’m sure it’s him. I lower my hand and walk toward his voice, letting my feet guide me rather than my mind. As I get closer, I hear someone else talking—whoever it is, their voice sounds familiar, but I don’t recognize it off the top of my head. Neither voice sounds particularly angry, although it’s hard to tell from this far away.

The voices get louder as I walk down the hallway, away from the Learas’ rooms, but I still can’t make out what they’re saying. At first, I’m not quite sure where the voices are coming from, but as I approach an intersection, they get louder, so I stop walking and peek around the corner. There, about fifteen feet down the corridor, is Arbois, his back turned to me; facing him is Rolsteg. They’re speaking quietly enough that I still can’t quite make out what they’re saying, but seeing Rolsteg only increases my curiosity. What in the world could they be talking about?

I pull my head back for the moment so they can’t see me snooping, debating whether I want to try to get closer and find out. There’s a chance that it’s innocuous—as far as I know, Rolsteg’s family does quite a bit of business in Jirena Sadai—but no matter what Mother says, I still don’t trust her. She can’t be the woman who’s trying to stop him, can she ? Or is she trying to draw him into her plot? Either way, I have to know what they’re saying. It seems like it would be difficult to get much closer to them without being seen, but maybe I could circle around and try to listen from the other end of the corridor they’re standing. Or maybe I could have one of the guards walk by and hope they ignore her. Or I could—

Someone touches my arm, interrupting my train of thought, and I almost jump out of my skin. I turn to see Riella standing there with a concerned expression.

“Are you alright?” she asks. “You looked like you were a thousand miles away. Is something wrong?”

Presumably the others heard her, because Arbois’s voice cuts off as soon as Riella speaks. “I’m fine,” I tell Riella. “I heard someone talking and I thought I recognized the voice. I just wanted to see who it was.” Almost involuntarily, I peek around the corner again, only to see Arbois and Rolsteg both walking down the corridor, away from me and Riella.

I turn back to Riella, feeling absurdly disappointed. I’ll have to figure out what she’s up to some other way . “Actually, I was coming to see if Tag is available. Do you know if he’s around?”

“He is, in fact. He’s in the drawing room reading some enormously book. Or at least, that’s what he was doing when I left a minute ago. Why, did you want to ask him something?” She points back down the hallway, in the direction that I came from. “Also, you do know our rooms are that way, right?”

“Yes, I am aware of that,” I reply, rolling my eyes at her, while at the same time hoping she doesn’t notice that something’s off. “And to answer your question, I was planning on asking him if he wants to go riding with me. I need to take a break from the paperwork that’s piling up on my desk, and I figured it would be nice to have someone to talk to.”

Her eyes light up. “Oh, how nice of you!” she exclaims. “I’m glad you thought of him. Although, I guess you two have been spending a lot of time together lately, haven’t you? See, I knew you two would be good friends.”

I honestly can’t tell if she’s implying that she knows about us, or if I should just take her words at face value, so I err on the side of caution. “We have been. It’s nice to have someone to talk to about things other than work. Besides you and Ivy, I mean.”

She nods. I think her smile might be a bit wider than it was before, but I can’t be certain. “That’s understandable. Well, I hope you two have fun. You’re going riding, huh? Give Laya a treat for me. I assume she’s still your favorite?”

“Yes, she is,” I say, a bit defensively. “Just because she’s deaf doesn’t mean she’s not a good horse, or whatever it is people think. You know I love her anyway.”

She pats me on the arm. “I’m sure you do. It’s just nice to know that some things haven’t changed. Now, come on. Let’s go find my brother and see if he’s available.”

Although Tag seems a bit surprised to see me in the middle of the day, he readily accepts my offer to go riding. After bidding Riella goodbye, we head to the stables. While the grooms are saddling Kemi and Laya, as well as two horses for my guards, a servant arrives from the kitchen with a basket of food. Once the horses are ready to go, we’re off. Tag doesn’t ask where we’re going, but I think he can probably guess.

When we reach our destination half an hour or so later, a pang of nostalgia hits me, even though it hasn’t been very long since last we were here. The sea of flowers looks much the same as it did back then, which feels strange, considering everything else about my life has changed. After we dismount, I ask the guards to give us some privacy. It only requires a little bit of convincing; the four of us are the only ones in sight, and nobody other than me knew we were coming here.

Tag and I take a blanket and the food to the rock where we sat last time, atop the cliff overlooking the city. The weather is beautiful, as is the company, and I can already feel some of my stress melting away. We talk as we eat, about upcoming balls, our favorite books, his home in Zeteyon—nothing of consequence, but it doesn’t need to be. All I want right now is to spend some time with him and forget the burden of being king.

To my surprise, it works. Not completely—I don’t think that burden, that weight on my shoulders, will ever be fully gone—but somewhat. I needed this .

But as I look at Tag, his face alight with laughter as I tell him just how many times Ivy has beaten me at knife throwing, I realize that I need him, too. Not too long ago, he told me that he didn’t know what he’d do without me, and I know that the reverse is true too. If I can’t convince Arbois to make a deal, if I can’t convince the council that Tag is acceptable, then I’ll—

I shake my head. Not now , I think to myself. Worry about all that later. For now, just enjoy being with the man you love .

If only it were that easy.

By the time Tag and I return to the palace a couple hours later, I feel surprisingly refreshed. When we part ways, I don’t kiss him or anything—not in the palace, where someone might see us—but as he turns to go, for a moment all I can think about is how much I love him, and how lucky I am to have found him. Even the possibility of an arranged marriage seems more distant, less scary. I doubt this feeling will last very long, but I’m going to enjoy it while it does.

I walk back into my rooms feeling much better than I did when I left, my guards taking their usual post outside the door. I head to my study, ready to make some headway on the mountain of papers on my desk.

I’ve only been here for a couple minutes when Joram enters and bows to me. “Forgive me for interrupting, Your Majesty,” he says. “A messenger arrived shortly after Your Majesty left and dropped off a message.” He holds a bone-white scroll, sealed in red wax with an imprint of a fox, shorter than my forearm.

I take it from him, my heart already pounding in my chest. That’s the royal seal of Zeteyon—it must be a response from Zeikas ! “Thank you, Joram,” I say, my voice shaking a bit as I break open the seal. I have to marvel at the perfect timing—if this message says what I hope it says, it’ll be the icing on the cake. Please, let it say he’ll renew the alliance .

It takes a while to open the scroll since my hands shaking in anticipation, but once it’s open, I immediately start reading.

It’s a short message, but I read it once, then reread it twice more, just to make sure I didn’t completely misread it the first time. My heart sinks further and further each time I do. “Joram, please go find my mother and tell her I need to see her.” Unlike before, my voice is perfectly flat, without even a hint of a tremor. “ Now .”