Chapter 23 #2
His eyes widened slightly, and he said nothing more.
But his muscles were still taut with tension as he helped Sophia to mount one of the spare horses, then vaulted lightly onto the other himself.
Every second seemed an eternity to Elowen, who knew that their only hope was to get out of the city before the guards had any idea they were looking for an escaped prisoner.
To her immense relief, the gate they’d chosen was busy, a thick stream of people moving through it.
They joined the crowd, heads lowered as they walked their horses past the gate.
As soon as they could move freely enough, they urged their mounts to a canter, joining the eastward road that led to Carrack. There was no conversation as they pushed to a gallop, thundering over the ground at a speed that still wasn’t fast enough to satisfy Elowen.
Once the capital was far behind them, some of the invisible tension lifted from their group, and they slowed to rest their horses with a brief walk. Elowen listened as Sophia told Simeon why they’d taken such a drastic step.
“So it was poison in the vial?” he murmured, aghast. “I knew he was meddling in some dark things, but I didn’t think he’d go to those lengths.” His face darkened. “He manipulated me skillfully.”
“Manipulated you how?” Elowen demanded. “You have some questions to answer, Simeon. “Why in the Peninsula would you confess to crimes we know you didn’t do?”
His shoulders slumped in weariness. “I shouldn’t have,” he said. “That’s clear to me now. But he told me to.” His lips twisted in a bitter smile. “And I’ve gotten into the habit of doing what I’m told.”
Elowen saw the way his eyes flicked to Sophia, and her frown deepened.
“Explain what you mean.”
Simeon returned his eyes to the road. “It’s always been my job to look out for the viscount and assist him in whatever way he wishes.
But it’s only more recently that he started to give me very specific instructions that he would never explain.
He would send me away, or order me to stay in a certain place.
And often he would then berate me for doing exactly what he’d told me to do, as if I’d done it in disobedience to his instructions. ”
“Always in front of witnesses,” Elowen added darkly.
“Yes, of course, I could tell it was for show, although I didn’t yet understand the reason. But naturally I didn’t expose him.” He spoke simply. “I was used to that type of treatment.”
Sophia’s expression was so distressed, Elowen regretted sneaking a look at her friend.
They increased their pace again, the horses’ strides making short work of the road that Theo and his brother would certainly have taken.
Would they reach them before dark? Before pursuers caught up with them?
And if they did, would it be in time for Theo?
There was plenty of time to think about what Simeon had said, and the next time their horses needed to walk, Elowen was ready with more questions.
“The scarf was Bertrand’s?” she guessed.
“The purple scarf. He made a show of having it presented to you, knowing you would follow his prompting and accept it. It occurs to me now that many of the duke’s servants were at the forest. There was time enough while we ate dinner for Bertrand to demand a report from one of them and to realize he was at risk of exposure.
So he passed the risk to you, as usual. Did you realize that accepting the scarf was implicating you in the landslide? ”
“I didn’t,” Simeon said. “Not exactly that, anyway.”
Frustration flared in Elowen. It was galling how well Bertrand’s tactics had worked.
That conversation was what had made Theo suspect Simeon, when the report about the scarf should actually have implicated Bertrand himself.
He must have been the young man who ran away from the landslide.
Theo had even gone as far as to do Bertrand’s dirty work for him by reporting Simeon to the king.
“I think it will fall to me to say what Sophia is too gentle to,” she said tartly.
“No, it won’t.” Sophia cut across her words. “Of course I’ll say it. Simeon, what were you thinking? I know you’re smarter than that. After so many instances, you must have figured out that he was up to something bad, and was setting you up to take the fall for him. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to protect you, Sophia,” Simeon said softly.
It was the first time Elowen had heard him drop the title, and the way his voice caressed Sophia’s name told her that a lot more had happened since last she’d observed their doomed romance.
“I wanted to shield you from grief and from the shame your brother would bring on your family if he was discovered in still more misdeeds. Better me than him, is what I told myself at first. But that was before I understood the severity of what he was doing, that he was involved somehow in the disasters.”
Still more misdeeds? There was no opening for Elowen to question him.
“And after you understood that?” Sophia demanded. “Why did you cover for him still?”
He met her eye. “Because he told me plainly that he knew how you felt about me, and he would expose you to your parents and the court if I defied him. He had quite a detailed plan for your future from that point on, right down to the specifics of the arguments he would use to convince your parents to marry you to an older nobleman whose reputation for cruelty, among other things, is well known among the men of the court, if not the women. The plan was very plausible.”
Sophia was silent and pale, but Elowen let out a cry of disgust.
“She’s his sister!”
“He has no family affection,” Simeon said simply.
“Only family pride, which is not the same thing at all. I knew his threats weren’t empty, and I couldn’t be the one who gave him reason to do it.
But when I came across the vials, and was confronted for the first time by concrete proof that he was working for someone far more powerful and dangerous, my resolve was tested. ”
“What do you mean?” Elowen asked quickly.
“The vials had notations in some other language, for one thing,” Simeon said. “They didn’t come from anyone inside Torrens.”
“It’s a language from the continent,” Elowen told him.
A shadow passed over his face. “That’s…alarming.
Whoever gave him those vials has far superior magical understanding than we’ve attained in Torrens.
I only caught a brief glimpse of the instruction sheet that was in the same bag, but it described a type of magic I’ve never even heard of before.
If you asked about it at our guild, they would tell you it was impossible. ”
“So why didn’t you expose him then?” Sophia demanded. “Loyalty to the kingdom should have overcome a desire to shield our family’s reputation, Simeon.”
“I know it should have,” he said. “And I was trying to figure out how to go about it. But in the meantime, I needed the viscount to believe I was obedient, so he wouldn’t use the contents of the vial on you.”
“On me?” Sophia said, startled.
“That’s what he threatened when I confronted him about the vials,” Simeon said.
“But he didn’t call it poison. He said it could compel you to do whatever he told you.
I wanted to get the vials away from him before telling anyone what I suspected, so I’d have evidence and so he couldn’t retaliate against you.
And I would have managed it, too. He was so sure of my obedience by then, I don’t think it occurred to him that I might defy him and steal the vials.
Except next thing I knew, the royal guards were at my door, and the viscount was telling me that I knew what would happen if I didn’t confess to whatever they accused me of. ”
A strong part of Elowen wanted to tell Simeon that he’d been foolish, letting Bertrand use his love for Sophia to tug him around like a puppet on a string.
But after a moment’s reflection on the impact Bertrand had managed to have on her own betrothal without even resorting to open threats, she decided to hold her peace.
“So when you sent me to retrieve the bag, you were sending me to heroically rescue myself?” Sophia said, seeming entertained by the concept.
Elowen pulled the bag out of her pocket, extracting the paper and handing it silently to Simeon. “What’s the unknown type of magic? Does it explain how he poisoned Theo without leaving a trace?”
Simeon scanned the page eagerly, his brow creasing as he tried to make sense of it.
“I see,” he said softly. “It’s not a compulsion enchantment like he claimed.
But it’s also not a poison exactly. It’s an enchantment wrapped around the liquid.
Consumption of the liquid triggers the enchantment, which then acts on its own impetus.
It’s a magical malady, though, not like the effects of any traditional poisons.
I think it must have been designed to look like a natural illness. ”
“Well, then it worked,” Elowen said flatly. Unease gripped her, for a moment taking her beyond her own and Theo’s problems. “I don’t like the thought that the continent has such superior magical skill over the Peninsula,” she said uneasily.
No one replied, the three of them pushing their horses forward in unison, troubled thoughts circling each mind.
By the time they rested their horses again, hours had passed since they’d left the capital.
Elowen was weary and sore, but as determined as ever.
It would be dark soon, and they still hadn’t caught sight of their quarry.
At least no pursuers had yet caught them, either, although she had no doubt there’d be quite a mess waiting for her when she returned to the capital.
“So Bertrand really was behind all the disasters?” It was Sophia who broke the silence this time. “I’m finding it hard to accept.”
“I don’t know for certain,” Simeon said.
“It’s not as though he’s admitted it to me.
Something was definitely off in his actions the day the tower collapsed.
And I have reason to think he had opportunity to damage the foundations of the dam before he left the estate for the capital.
But he can’t have been acting alone in that instance, because I don’t think he intended to be there in person when it actually burst. He made sure I was, of course,” he added bitterly.
“He also made sure to make a fuss publicly about how he had no idea where you were because you’d left without leave,” Elowen said, resentment bubbling again. “Even then, he was already setting you up to take the fall if he got caught.”
“Well, whatever he’s involved in, I doubt he’s the architect,” Simeon said. “He has his talents, but this is outside them. Whoever gave him these vials has a bigger plan, and the viscount either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care that he’s a pawn in their game.”
“Do you think the antidote will work?” Elowen asked, less interested for the moment in the bigger picture than Theo’s life.
“Not by itself,” Simeon said. “You were wise to investigate the meaning of that label. If you’d just gotten him to drink it, I doubt it would have any effect.
The instructions make no sense according to our magical knowledge, but the mechanics of it are clear enough.
” He saw they were both watching him expectantly and added, “When the antidote is drunk, it will release magic, which I’ll need to harness to attack the sickness enchantment still clinging to Prince Theodore. ”
“Release magic that you need to harness?” Elowen repeated.
“Hold on. An enchantment released by drinking the poison is impossible enough. But at least that’s a formed enchantment, like we sometimes use.
You’re telling me the other vial contains stored magic, not molded to any particular use? That’s…not possible.”
“Not according to our magical knowledge,” Simeon agreed. “It’s not completely unformed magic, I don’t think. It’s sourced from the right kind of movement and given some hint of shape already.”
The conversation was becoming harder to follow, and Elowen decided to worry about the broader magical implications later. They were passing the turnoff to a tiny town, and she glanced to the side as the road branched.
“Look!” She pulled up her horse. “Is that them?”