Nine - Felix
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I watched Isaleave the dining room with a heavy heart. After I offered to help change the law that granted legal rights to a woman’s closest male relative, the look she had given me turned downright icy.
Too little, too late. And I knew it.
I had known I was crossing a line when I signed the damn contract. Having met Isa, the guilt only compounded. I had soothed my conscience by claiming that Edwin could have negotiated better terms. I had expected him to. After years of watching people fight over every turn of phrase, a simple acquiescence hadn’t occurred to me. The only term I wouldn’t have budged on was the requirement that my curse stay secret.
But Edwin hadn’t negotiated on his daughter’s behalf, and I had decided that absolved me of responsibility.
Now I had to live with that mistake. Until she was freed from the contract, Isa would hate me. Probably after she was freed, too.
I stretched and jumped off the dining room table. Isa had returned to the library. Next time I saw her, I’d have to ask if she was looking for any book in particular. Summoning a book using node magic was far easier than finding where it was shelved. I’d make the offer now, but I doubted she wanted to see me, even if I was trying to help.
My time would be better spent checking in with Marc. I padded through the castle and down to the archives. The secretary was hidden behind the shelves of scrolls, so I waited on his desk, idly batting at the pen on its surface.
Becoming a cat had been an odd transition. For the most part, nothing had changed except my physical form. I still kept to the same sleep schedule, my taste in food hadn’t changed, and I had never once felt the urge to chase a mouse. Pretending my instincts had become more feline, however, had become habit around Marc.
I had pounced on a sunbeam the first time purely for amusement, planning to joke about my form. There had been something in the secretary’s reaction, however, that prevented me from making the joke. Now, I reinforced the idea that I was driven by feline instinct, wanting my secretary to underestimate me.
As I waited for Marc to emerge from the archives, I wished yet again that one of the other members of my staff had been the one to find me on the floor of the great hall after my transformation. Having my butler know didn’t make me as uneasy, but I needed Berklay in Leort to manage the staff still working on my behalf. Someone needed to serve as my hands, helping me search the archives. That left me with Marc.
He walked out of the archives, two scrolls in his arms, and noticed me. I batted at the pen once more, sending it tumbling to the ground.
“Have you been waiting long, Your Grace?”
After Isa’s comments this morning, I paid closer attention to my secretary’s choice of words. His greeting wasn’t unreasonable, and yet it left me wondering. Could Marc even say that he hoped he hadn’t kept me waiting or that he was glad to see me?
My nose twitched. Perhaps I had let Isa’s skepticism infect me too much. Marc was an employee, not a friend. I’d had a more meaningful conversation with Isa within two minutes of her arrival than with Marc over two months. Of course his greeting was generic.
I settled back on my haunches. “Not long, no.”
“What can I do for you?”
I looked at the two scrolls Marc set on the table before he took his seat. “Have you found anything of interest?”
Marc had remained at Rose Castle with me specifically to search the archives for scrolls that might help me understand the curse Cecily had cast. I had tasked him with going through the archives and pulling out anything with only a single signature, rather than a normal contract. In two months, he had discovered two of my predecessors’ inheritance contracts. Having signed one myself years before, those were less than helpful.
For him to find two more scrolls this afternoon seemed unlikely.
Marc shook his head. “They aren’t single signature scrolls, but I thought the wording looked interesting and wanted to read them more closely.”
Yesterday, I would have shrugged off his words and ignored the scrolls. They weren’t what I was looking for, and Marc would tell me if there turned out to be useful turns of phrase. Today, I wondered what had caught his interest and why. Today, I remembered that the contract binding Marc to help me wasn’t nearly as comprehensive as the one affecting Isa.
I laid down, making it clear I wasn’t going anywhere soon. “What caught your eye in these scrolls?”
Marc hesitated.
It took effort to keep my body languid, my tail still. The secretary was hiding things from me. Had probably been doing so the entire time. I had never really liked Marc, but I had trusted in the enchantments of Rose Castle. He couldn’t lie to me, but I hadn’t understood just how much he could still deceive me.
I needed to see the contract he had signed. I had to double check exactly what he was required to do. But if I asked him to pull out the copy he had made, he’d know I was suspicious. Could I get Isa to request it without making Marc wary?
Marc unrolled a scroll and held it toward me, but clearly didn’t intend for me to read the text. “This one is a contract signed between two long-dead kings. It has a clause at the bottom detailing the penalties for breaking the terms, which sounds much like a curse.”
Without moving, I tried to read the final section of the contract, but the angle Marc held it prevented me. “A contract witnessed by a Truthholder and passed through the node can’t be broken,” I said in my most dismissive drawl.
Was that a flash of satisfaction in Marc’s eyes? Damn it, had I truly been so oblivious all these weeks, or was Marc’s charade only now falling apart?
“That’s why I wasn’t going to bother you with this scroll.” Marc let go of the bottom, letting it snap back into a tight roll. “But the wording is still intriguing.”
I’d have to take his word on that; contractual language generally made my eyes twitch. “And the other?”
“A marriage contract. The groom was one of your ancestors.”
“What is of interest in that?” I could understand why he thought looking at the first contract might help. Anything resembling a curse was worth a closer look. But a marriage contract?
Marc shrugged. “Your family’s power must have always played a role in marriage negotiations. I am curious to see if the terms here include any mention of the node.”
If Marc was suggesting that the bride’s family might have demanded a node-tie as a condition of the alliance... well, I wanted to claim such a thing was impossible, but even though the truth-telling enchantment around the castle didn’t affect me, I still couldn’t say it. At this point, I wasn’t willing to call anything impossible. “You’ll tell me if there is anything of interest?”
His lips curved upward. “I know the terms of my contract, Your Grace.”
I suspected I didn’t know the terms as well as I should. Marc was hiding things from me, and though he had to share certain information, I now worried that other secrets could slip through. If I couldn’t rely on him, then I’d have to dig around on my own. Except Marc was in the castle specifically because hunting through the archives was nearly impossible for me at present.
I could pull Isa in to help me. I knew she didn’t like me and didn’t want to help me, but she had less freedom than Marc. My earlier guilt, almost forgotten as I worried over the secretary, came roaring back. In an instant, I made a decision. My choice might condemn me to life as a cat, but at least I’d be able to live with myself.
I sat up once more. “Well, I hope the scrolls prove worthwhile, but they’ll have to wait. I came to see you for a reason. With Isa staying at the castle, we will need more supplies. I want you to go into Leort tomorrow to stock up. First, though, I need you to write out a contract to take with you.”