Chapter 22 #2
Elowen stood as well, eager to be gone before Bertrand could learn of their intention.
She watched as Sophia stashed the bag in a pocket of her dress, then the two of them hurried from the manor.
Mercifully, they didn’t encounter Bertrand, and in a matter of minutes, they were riding for the castle, once again flanked by the princess’s guards.
Elowen made straight for the audience hall, Sophia hurrying by her side.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but it’s a closed meeting,” one of the guards told Elowen gruffly.
She drew herself up. “I need to speak to my father. It’s urgent.”
“The king is not to be disturbed,” the guard told her, not unkindly.
“It’s urgent,” Elowen repeated. “I need to speak to him now!”
The guards looked at each other, hesitating for a moment. Then one of them said, “I’ll inquire, Your Highness, but it’s not our orders.”
Elowen waited impatiently as the man slipped into the room. A minute passed, then he returned, taking his position without speaking.
She was about to demand an answer when another form followed him through the door. Not the one she’d wanted to see.
“Elowen, what is this ruckus?” Patrick hissed sternly. “Father can’t be spared right now because he’s trying to resolve the crisis your actions brought on.”
Elowen ignored the accusation, grabbing hold of his arm earnestly. “Patrick, I have to speak to him. It really is urgent! We have information—not just information but evidence—about Theo’s condition.”
Her brother’s brows drew together, and he shot a quick look between the several guards standing nearby. He shook off her hand, instead ushering her several paces away and lowering his voice.
“Elowen, enough with this! If you say the word poison one more time—”
“We have proof, Patrick!” Elowen insisted. “Sophia found these vials in Bertrand’s—”
“Enough.” Patrick’s voice was so forbidding, she fell silent. “When will you learn the responsibility that comes with your position, Elowen? You can’t throw around accusations in a public corridor.”
“Well then where can I throw them around?” Elowen said with spirit. “You wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to speak to you in Father’s study.”
“If you want to argue more with Father about the situation, you can do so after this meeting. The Siqualians made a choice to leave Toledda and seek medical care elsewhere. We must all abide by that decision, which means there’s no urgency to further discuss the cause of his illness.
Any information you have will have to wait until we’ve dealt with our own crisis.
” He jerked his head toward the audience hall, his voice grim.
“After all, if there’s no alliance, there’s not much need for us to intervene in Prince Theodore’s recovery, is there? ”
Elowen tried to protest, but he didn’t stay to hear her. He strode straight back into the meeting without a backward glance, leaving her fuming and more desperate than ever.
“Elowen.” Sophia’s voice was hesitant. “Am I right in thinking that the alliance has nothing to do with your need to intervene in Prince Theodore’s recovery?”
A hiccup that would have liked to be a sob escaped Elowen. “I love him, Sophia,” she murmured. “I didn’t realize it until I thought I might lose him. I’ve been a fool, creating barriers that ended up hurting us both. I want to marry him. More than anything else.”
“Maybe your father will listen to you, once the meeting is done,” Sophia said.
“Maybe.” Elowen didn’t feel hopeful. “But it might be too late.” Her face set. “We need to take the matter into our own hands in the meantime.” She glanced around. “Come on.”
Sophia followed her down several corridors, rapidly approaching the castle’s library. Elowen had dismissed her guards. She was safe enough in her own castle.
But Theo hadn’t been, she reminded herself miserably.
Her eyes flicked to the place near the library entrance where Theo had seen her speaking with Simeon and disapproved.
She wished she hadn’t let him get away with saying nothing and pretending he wasn’t bothered by it.
There were a lot of times where she wished she’d been more assertive and pushed him harder to open up to her.
But she hadn’t known him well enough then to be sure she’d like what she found if she got inside his head.
Now that she had no fear of seeing who he really was, it was easier to see that she’d been too passive.
“Elowen, I told you,” Sophia said in a murmur as they entered the library. “I checked in here, I couldn’t find any translation of those words.”
“You said you checked all the languages of the Peninsula,” Elowen said. Her mind went back over what Prince Cassius had said. The serious Carrackian prince had seemed very certain that someone on the continent wished harm on their Peninsula region.
Elowen swept through the sanctuary with steps too loud for the hushed space, ignoring the startled looks from the group of trainee scribes settled next to a large, arched window.
She didn’t have time to linger. She would have to be direct.
Scanning the large room, she saw a young man in the robes of a record-keeper replacing tomes on a shelf near the center of the space. She marched up to him.
“Good afternoon,” she said. “Do we have anyone in the castle trained in the languages of the continent?”
The man blinked at her, so taken aback that he almost forgot to bow.
“Your Highness.” He took a moment to collect himself, hugging his books to his torso as he thought. “Not as far as I’m aware. We have literature on the continent, but most of it is outdated, given we haven’t had diplomatic relations with any of those kingdoms since the war.”
“So if I wanted to translate something, there would be nothing here to help me?” Elowen asked, crestfallen.
“I don’t know about that.” He scratched his nose absently. “There’s always something in here that can help. This is the finest library in Torrens.”
Elowen smiled faintly at the pride in his voice. “Can you help me, then?”
“Yes, Your Highness.” He lovingly placed his books on a table, taking a moment to neaten the little stack before leading her down a few rows of shelves.
“We have a few books on the culture and ways of the continent kingdoms,” he said, pulling out the volumes in question.
“This is generally considered the best, as it was written by someone who’d actually spent time there. ”
“Usually helpful,” Sophia commented dryly.
The young record-keeper nodded sagely, apparently missing her tone. He flicked through the book in question, stopping at a certain chapter.
“He talks about language here. He says there are different dialects in different kingdoms, but a common tongue is used for all matters of trade and diplomacy.”
“Does this common tongue use the same script as our language?” Elowen asked, glancing at the note Sophia held, where she’d copied what was on the labels of the vials.
“It does,” the man confirmed. “It comes from the same root tongue as ours, actually, but I suppose they’ve evolved quite differently over time. Ah look. There’s a glossary at the back, with translation of quite a number of common words. You could try there.”
“Thank you.”
Elowen practically snatched the book from him, turning her shoulder on his scandalized expression. She carried the book to a nearby table and bent over it, Sophia’s face close to hers.
The other girl laid the note flat against the table, and the two of them started scanning the glossary for any that matched.
“Here!” Sophia pointed excitedly. “This is almost the same as one of the words from the empty vial, isn’t it? It says it means unhurried or at leisure.”
“That doesn’t sound too sinister,” Elowen said optimistically. “There’s another word with it, though, maybe if we find that it will…” Her words trailed off as she caught sight of the word she was searching for.
“Death,” she read. “It means death.”
She looked at Sophia, her voice hollow.
“A slow death.”