Chapter 18
18
“ Saskia! ”
Not ten minutes before, Felix had been lying in bed when Oskar had abruptly gone wild, battering at the door and cawing loudly enough to wake the dead. Felix hadn’t been asleep, though; he’d been lying awake with every muscle tensed, imagining every possible reaction Saskia might have to the gift he’d left in the library for her tonight, from delight to excoriating scorn.
He had never imagined this.
As she crumpled against him, he caught her automatically, hands slipping from her upper arms to lock into place around her waist and back while her agitated crows swarmed the air around them, flapping and cawing desperately. Her body was warm, but she was shivering; dread sank through him as he pressed his cheek against her forehead and felt the too-familiar touch of burning skin.
“No, no, no!” He scarcely heard his own desperate words as he gathered her up, pressing her as close as if he could absorb the fever from her body. “Not again!”
Emmeline’s fever had raged for days, resisting every medical treatment from leeches to healing chants. The Count had thrown every possible resource into saving her, and Felix had prayed to every god and goddess in the Imperial pantheon as he’d sat beside her. Even so, less than a full week later…
“ No! ” Felix snarled, and the crows jerked back in shock at the ferocity of his tone. “Get Morlokk and Mrs. Haglitz,” he told them as he lifted Saskia in his arms and strode towards the library door. “ Now. ”
Later, he would work to soothe hurt feelings among the flock. Right now, he had a queen to save.
He had to haphazardly kick and shove piles of books and papers off the closest couch in the library to make space for Saskia’s prone body, but for once, he didn’t hesitate to mishandle documents. When something rustled against his left arm, though, as he lowered her onto the couch, he paused. Had one of those papers somehow fallen inside her gown?
His eyebrows rose as he recognized the bouquet of herbs he’d left for her that morning, now sticking out from the back of her collar. She’d been carrying his offerings with her.
Emotion welled through him at the sight, threatening to erupt, but he couldn’t stop to absorb it— or leave the herbs in their current position. She might not know, in this state, that they were scratching her back, but he absolutely would, and he couldn’t bear it. Still, the moment he’d removed the herbs and carefully arranged her body atop the couch, he lunged to turn on a gas lamp and then run for one of the bookshelves he’d already begun to refill. He was tearing through the first volume on that shelf when the door crashed open and Morlokk burst into the room.
“Sinistro! What’s happ—are you standing there reading while she suffers?!” The ogre’s voice rose to a ferocious bellow that shook the library.
Felix wasn’t even tempted to glance up from his book. “I am trying to find the right spell of healing,” he gritted.
There had to be at least one option that could be successfully performed by a nonmagical human… but so far, he hadn’t found any.
Every single book in this section included at least one healing spell—but every single author surrounded that spell with pages of long-winded warnings about how dangerous the spell might be if applied without exact knowledge of the illness being treated. The wrong spell might not only exacerbate the problem but even kill the patient—and as some of the most powerful and sophisticated workings in existence, they all required extreme levels of magical strength from the wizard who cast them.
“Damn it!” Panting, he dropped the first volume to the floor and scooped up the second with hands that trembled uncontrollably.
“So you didn’t do this to her yourself?”
“ What? ” Felix finally swung around to stare at Morlokk, his jaw dropping open in disbelief.
“Never mind.” The ogre closed his eyes, big shoulders sagging. The majordomo looked shockingly disheveled without a cravat or a jacket over his massive chest and crumpled shirt. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
“I don’t know!” Felix darted a glance at Saskia’s shivering figure, and his jaw tightened. “Oskar brought me here just as she arrived. She fell into my arms.”
Morlokk rubbed at his forehead with one fist. “And she didn’t say a word that might explain it?”
“Only my name.” Felix’s voice nearly cracked on that final word.
The way she’d said it, with such mingled yearning and relief…
The memory of Emmeline whispering it, just before her end…
Swallowing, he flipped open the spellbook in his hand to skim through it with all the focus he could summon. He would not stand by, helpless, again and lose another woman he loved.
In the corner of his vision, he saw Morlokk bend over the couch to scoop up the queen’s body with infinite care. She looked horribly weak and defenseless as she lay cradled in his arms. Their pose was almost a perfect copy of the hateful images circulated within the Empire, showing ogres menacing human women—but Felix could feel the other man’s agony almost as keenly as his own.
Saskia’s human parents might have been murdered long ago, but she was still a beloved daughter to more than one person in this castle.
The other one burst into the library as Morlokk straightened. “You’ve got her. Good.” Mrs. Haglitz’s words were as brisk as ever, but for the first time since Felix had met her, she was only wearing a single shawl around her shoulders. It lost its purchase as she strode towards Saskia, and she let it fall to the ground with an impatient shrug. “Now, what’s she done this time? Worked herself into dropping, or…?”
“She has a fever,” Felix reported tightly. He was still gripping the book in his hands, but his gaze fixed on Saskia’s lolling head as Mrs. Haglitz turned it back and forth for inspection. “She could barely keep her balance, even before she swooned.”
“ Swooned? ” Mrs. Haglitz’s eyes narrowed. “Something’s not right here.” Tipping Saskia’s head back, she pried open the queen’s mouth and took a long inhalation through her pointed green nose. “Faughh!” Gargling in the back of her throat, she stepped back so quickly that she nearly tripped over the closest stack of books… and then collapsed onto the couch as if she’d been pushed there.
“What is it?” Felix demanded. The troll’s green skin had faded to a sickly grey with what looked like horror. “If you can tell me which illness has struck her down—”
“That’s no mere illness, ” Mrs. Haglitz rasped. “She’s been poisoned.”
There was a long moment of pulsating silence before Morlokk spoke. “That’s not possible.”
Mrs. Haglitz had always riled at any disagreements with her pronouncements—but this time, alarmingly, her response sounded as weak and faded as if she’d given up already. “It shouldn’t be possible, but I can smell the poison on her. Moon forsake me, how could it have reached her? I’ve been in charge of all of her meals since Cook left. Could I have accidentally sent it to her?”
“ No. You would never hurt her. We all know that!” Setting down his book, Felix crossed the room in two swift strides. He dropped down to his knees on the floor before the housekeeper and took her weathered, mossy green hands in his own. He’d never touched troll skin before, but he was almost certain that hers was far too cold, regardless of her species. It had to be shock; he remembered all too well that sensation of freezing cold when he’d first realized that Emmeline was truly dying and there was nothing he could do to save her.
He had to swallow down that memory, hard, before he continued, rubbing her hands gently to impart as much warmth as possible. “You smelled the poison in her mouth just now. That means you would have smelled it in any food or drink you sent her.”
“Did anyone taste it first?” Morlokk rumbled.
“You think I’d send our queen a meal I hadn’t tasted myself, to be certain of its quality?” To Felix’s relief, the implied insult seemed to rouse Mrs. Haglitz a little. Her snort sounded weaker than usual, but her haunted gaze finally refocused on the men before her. “I sent three solid meals to her today, along with a good-sized snack to keep up her strength, since she will insist on being so stubborn and not looking after herself.”
“Who took them to her?” Felix asked.
She shrugged impatiently, her mossy hands still pliant in his hold. “Krakk, I think? It doesn’t matter. None of the kitchen staff would harm her.”
Thinking of the cheerful little goblins who’d welcomed him from the beginning, Felix wanted to believe it. All his years at the Estarian court, though, had taught him to ask the question: “Even if they were bribed? There were visitors here only a week ago who might have talked one of them into it.”
“With what ?” Her laugh was sharp-edged as she finally pulled her hands free. “You think goblins need human help to get hold of gold or diamonds? With our queen on the throne, we all have rights we’d never even dreamed of in this kingdom. The last thing any of us want is that uncle of hers back on the throne, determined to grind us all back down into what he sees as our proper place.”
“I believe you.” Felix let out a long sigh, sitting back on his heels. This castle wasn’t like any court he’d ever known; every servant here knew their queen, and she cared for every one of them. He’d seen her fierce protectiveness for himself.
And yet, someone had poisoned her.
Turning his head, he looked up at Morlokk. “How certain are you that every guest who came for Winter’s Turning really left?”
A low growl rumbled through the ogre’s chest, and his eyes flashed an inhuman gold. In that moment, he looked every bit as dangerous as the caricatures from the warning pamphlets. “ We’ll find out. ”
Outside the castle walls, a wild winter storm was raging, whipping snow and lightning into a lethal brew. No crow, no matter how brave, could fly into that night in search of a physician, nor could the queen herself be moved. Two goblins volunteered to go instead, following their own intricate maze of tunnels under the mountain in a quest that might well take a day or more.
The urgent notes they bore for Saskia’s allied queens would take even longer to arrive… and everyone in Kadaric Castle knew that time was running out.
While Mrs. Haglitz investigated Saskia’s laboratory for clues, Morlokk, the crows, and the other goblins searched the castle, hunting for the perpetrator. If they did find the poisoner and learn the type of poison used, they might find a remedy for it within Saskia’s laboratory… but it was difficult for Felix to hold much hope when even Mrs. Haglitz admitted she didn’t know at least half of the ingredients Saskia stored there.
It was time to finally take the risk he hadn’t even dared to imagine until now.
Fortunately, the others had left the queen lying on the couch of her library—with a soft blanket spread over her shivering body and the fire carefully built nearby—so that Felix could stand guard over her as he continued his own search through the medical texts. That was the official agreement.
Unofficially, he waited until the others had left the room… and then he took a deep breath before leaving that standard shelf behind and crossing to the side of the room where all of the late queen’s radical manuscripts were stored.
He had never been so conscious of his own beating pulse as he felt now, striding towards the moment of truth.
How much had he learned in the last few months? And was there any chance that his childhood examiners could have been wrong when they’d declared him free of magic?
Everyone knew that those exams were infallible—but then, everyone in the Empire also “knew” that trolls and ogres were evil, monstrous creatures. If only they were wrong about this, too… then Felix might have one option left after all.
The spell for leeching all types of poison was clearly recorded where he remembered it, written in the late queen’s elegant script, along with the story of how she’d acquired it in her youth from a solitary and unusual dark wizard in an isolated corner of Kitvaria. She had spent weeks proving herself to the cantankerous old woman, first through patient assistance in cleaning and washing up the wizard’s impossibly messy hut, and then by sharing a troll recipe for a magical liniment that would soothe the many aches and pains suffered by that hut’s ancient and withered pair of chicken-legs.
At last, the old wizard had rewarded the not-yet-queen with the gift of this astonishing spell… which required a strong reservoir of magical power in order to take effect.
On the couch, Saskia let out a low moan of pain. She shifted restlessly under her blanket, and Felix’s jaw tightened into rock.
Enough. He might have spent most of his life having the lesson of his own powerlessness ruthlessly ground into him, but he wasn’t in Estarion any longer. For months now, he had successfully played the part of a dark wizard.
Now, it was time to act like one.
The spell itself was short and simple enough to memorize. He knew, from close reading of the late queen’s primer, that focus and intent were both required. Divine Elva knew, he had all the intent that anyone could possibly ask for. The sound of Saskia’s increasingly labored breathing grated against his senses like a whip, lashing him on. But when it came to focus…
Closing his eyes, he focused all his willpower on finding that quiet center in his mind where he was detached from all sensations and the world could no longer reach him. In his youth, it had helped him to endure the worst and most brutal of punishments. Now, he breathed deeply and evenly until he found himself safely enclosed there once more, far away from the fear and the grief that he felt.
Alone in that space, he began to chant the words of the spell, with the intent behind it ringing through them:
Just heal her. Heal her. Heal her.
He spoke the words of the spell in his head, but he pushed them out through his body, distantly aware of his moving lips and the push of air through his chest. Of course, it was reckless to attempt his first spellcasting in a not-yet-catalogued library of magic—but he knew how much this whole castle loved its queen. He couldn’t imagine that anything in this room would lash out at his attempt to heal her.
There was heat somewhere nearby—and pain, too—but both of those were distant realities that couldn’t touch him now.
He recited the spell again and again. Heal her. Heal her. Heal…
How many times had he cast the spell, now? His focus wavered with the question.
Had it been nine times now, or ten?
Felix slid back into full awareness… and stiffened with the impact of his sudden pain and shock. His left ear—! Was it on fire?
Forcing his eyes open, he scrambled upright and found himself on the carpet just beside the couch. Ah. He must have knocked the left side of his head against the arm of the couch on his way down. The only real fire in the room was safely contained in the hearth.
It couldn’t warm the chill in his chest when he saw Saskia’s unaltered expression.
Her eyes were still closed. Her fever hadn’t broken.
Felix had failed her.