Eighteen - Isabel
???
As I fellasleep, I remembered talking to Felix about the Contract of Inheritance, the only type of scroll Marc had shown him with a single signature. My study of Demeret was teaching me plenty, but not about the peculiarities of the Truthhold node. Even knowing that it had been locked by a dual-power mage didn’t help. So, I decided to visit Marc the next morning and ask to see the Contract of Inheritance he had located.
Perhaps I’d see something Felix had missed. Given his record at missing loopholes in the wordings of contracts, it wasn’t a ridiculous plan. And, so long as I was in the basement, I’d study the magic in the archives, too. Knowing that there was an element of truth-reading in how the scrolls were created made me curious if I could sense something I had missed when Felix and I mapped the maze made by the shelves.
I attempted to use the node’s power to transport myself directly to the archives after I ate breakfast, but either I wasn’t using the correct invocation, or that Truth only worked to bring someone else to the speaker. With a sigh, I went downstairs the usual way.
“Isa,” Marc greeted me with a practiced smile. “What can I do for you this morning?”
“His Grace mentioned a scroll you had found for him, and I was hoping to study it myself.” Some instinct warned me not to refer to the duke as Felix around the secretary. I didn’t want him to know that I no longer fought the need to help break the curse or that I was no longer mad at the duke for bringing me to Rose Castle.
Did I still think he had made a terrible error in judgment? Absolutely, but I understood the pressures he had been facing. The need to prevent a new round of node wars, the fear that he’d never regain his human form, and most likely the manipulation by the secretary he thought was helping him had pushed him to make a horrible choice. But he tried to fix his mistake, and after everything, I was beginning to think that maybe I could forgive him.
Plus, the flattery, gold, and emerald didn’t hurt. Under the circumstances, I wasn’t above accepting a bit of bribery as an apology. My cheeks warmed as I remembered the delicate chimes I had heard when I held the paper stating that Felix thought I was beautiful to the node. That hadn’t been empty flattery.
“What scroll?” Marc asked, jolting me back into the present.
Tsy save me, I was not some blushing ingenue, to be distracted by a simple compliment. “A Contract of Inheritance.”
“Of course. Did His Grace also mention that he found nothing of use in that contract? It was one he was already familiar with, having signed one himself.”
My focus sharpened. Felix had found nothing of interest, but Marc hadn’t suffered the same limitation, it seemed. “He did mention that. Still, I’d like to look at it for myself.” I stood up. “Actually, can you show me where it is? Knowing where it is filed in the archives might help, too.”
“I don’t think you will learn anything from where it is filed.” Marc was telling the truth, but there was still a discordant note under his words. He didn’t think I’d learn anything, but he still didn’t want to show me. “The archives are a little claustrophobic. You’ll be more comfortable waiting out here.”
“Narrow passages don’t bother me.” I gestured toward the archives. “Lead the way.”
Marc stood, clearly out of excuses, and walked toward the shelf-filled corner of the room. I wondered why he didn’t want me to enter the archives with him. It wasn’t because he was afraid I was claustrophobic. Though I wasn’t usually one for small talk, I figured in this instance I should consider such a conversation part of questioning a suspect. Still walking behind Marc, I tried to sound only mildly interested when I asked, “What were you doing before I interrupted?”
He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Working.”
His contract with Felix required him to show any single signature truth scrolls he found after signing, but did not actually require him to search for those scrolls. Felix didn’t want to tip his hand and let Marc know that he suspected the secretary was working against him, but I wasn’t Felix. I had already questioned Marc about hiding his knowledge of a Truth from the duke. Pushing more wouldn’t betray that Felix knew something was going on.
“I thought your job is to find scrolls for F— His Grace.” I mentally cursed at my near slip. Hopefully, Marc hadn’t noticed. “How are you finding scrolls while sitting at your desk?”
Marc followed the twists of the archives without hesitation. I lost my sense of how to exit within moments. Not that it mattered. Even if the secretary decided to strand me among the rows of scrolls, I could summon Felix and get him to lead me out.
Not that I expected Marc to go that far. He still thought he could deceive me, despite my magic.
“I must also read many scrolls. I don’t spend every moment of the day in the archives.”
I didn’t bother to point out that he hardly needed to read the scrolls if he was really doing what Felix had asked. He only needed to look at the signatures on the bottom of a scroll and then move on. Asking a few questions as I followed him had made sense, but it wasn’t the reason I had insisted he take me through the archives.
I wanted to get a feel for the magic on the scrolls. The secretary finally slowed, informing me that the scroll was in this section, but he wasn’t positive exactly which cubby, so it might take him a minute to locate it. I took the time to concentrate on the spells woven into parchment. Or maybe there was no parchment, just magic? There were certainly enough whispers of power around me to believe that the scrolls were nothing more than a manifestation of magic.
I ran my fingers over the nearest scroll, trying to tease out the notes that made up this one piece of the archives. The problem was, everything was the same note. Every wisp of power had the same pitch, too sharp for pure truth-telling, too flat for truth-reading. But there wasn’t just one sound. The power came in different tempos and timbres, overwhelming my senses, though no single strand was powerful enough that I could even hear it without concentrating.
I thought the scroll under my hand had a rich timbre. Or maybe it was the buzzy sound that left a pins and needles sensation in my fingertips. I pulled my hand back, flexing my fingers. I didn’t know what I was sensing.
“Aha.” Marc pivoted away from the shelf, brandishing a half-unfurled scroll at me. “Here it is.”
I accepted it from him, mildly surprised he had given it to me at all. I had expected him to make an excuse about not finding it, especially after he warned me it might take a bit. If he had, I would have accepted the excuse and made my way back to this shelf later, since he hadn’t lied when he said it was nearby.
It was probably for the best that I didn’t need to resort to such measures, I realized as we made our way out of the archives. Even without the distraction of conversation, it was hard to memorize the path we took through the shelves.
When we exited the maze, I considered following Marc back to his desk and asking some pointed questions. A few wouldn’t be an issue, but if I pushed too far, I might ruin Felix’s plans. So, I wouldn’t settle in for an interrogation, but perhaps I could startle a single answer out of him.
“What was the last contact you had with Lady Cecily?”
Mark jerked around to face me, his face pale. “What? What makes you think I’m in contact with her?”
Tsy save me. Until that moment, I hadn’t truly thought he was. I had simply hoped to surprise a straight answer out of him about how he knew she hadn’t always had a tie to the node. There would be no straight answers coming now, but that was all right. His reaction had already told me more than I would have thought to ask.
“That’s not what I said,” I murmured placatingly. “His Grace said you found him after the transformation. I wondered if you had run into Lady Cecily as she fled the castle.”
Thank goodness I had enough unanswered questions floating around my head that my words were the truth. If I managed to misdirect even half so skillfully as Marc, I wouldn’t ruin Felix’s chance at demanding answers once he mastered truth-telling.
“I was too shocked when I realized what had happened to notice much else.”
Marc hadn’t answered my question, but he had told me the truth. Even if he was working with Lady Cecily, he hadn’t expected the duke’s transformation.
I nodded and lifted the contract wrapped in my fingers between us. “Thank you for finding this for me. I’ll see you at luncheon.”
I had lots to think about before then.
???
By the timeI reached the library spire room, I had decided that all I could do about Marc was tell Felix my suspicion that he was working with Lady Cecily. It would be up to him to ask the rest of the questions. Of course, I planned to share my thoughts on what he should ask. But that would have to wait.
I couldn’t sit back and do nothing until Felix figured out his power, however. So, I’d stick with my original plan for the morning. I settled on my favorite chaise in the spire room and unrolled the Contract of Inheritance.
The contract Truthholder heirs were required to sign was far more involved than I had expected. In my experience, the adage “with power comes responsibility” was rarely accurate. “With power should come responsibility” tended to better sum up the situation. But for the Duke—or Duchess—of Truthhold, not only responsibilities but also limitations were imposed before they could enjoy the privileges of their rank.
Though it was a contract for the heir, the stipulations listed within were all about after the signee assumed the title. The titleholder must remain within node lands—not the duchy, but the area within the node’s radius of influence—for at least half of every year.
I scribbled a note in my journal, reminding me to ask Felix how far the node lands extended. It couldn’t be just the hillside where the Truth enchantments were active. The Truthhold node was the most powerful on the continent; the power must extend for miles.
I set my journal aside and continued reading. Not only was Felix required to live at Truthhold for at least half of the year, but if he left for more than three days, he had to designate another person with a node-tie to act as his proxy. The proxy had to sign another contract that was essentially a more limited and temporary version of the one I was reading.
There were several more clauses detailing a code of conduct for the Truthhold liege. Most of it consisted of vague, generic ethical constraints that sounded good, but left plenty of room for interpretation. Given that the original contract had been written hundreds of years ago, that was probably for the best. But it meant that despite signing a contract just like this, Felix had been able to use his power to force me to Rose Castle.
I pushed the thought aside, and read the contract again, this time taking notes on certain turns of phrase, and trying to figure out what Marc thought he had seen that the duke had missed. An hour later, I had a list of questions for Felix, but no sense that I had discovered anything helpful.
It was a little before noon, so I spent the next quarter hour analyzing the magic clinging to the scroll.
The same pitch as everything I had heard in the archives, the power beat against my senses in a steady tempo that reminded me of the bells I heard when someone made a promise they weren’t sure they could keep, but were determined to try. I knew that truth-reading an inanimate object was beyond my power, but I didn’t discount my instincts. The node truth-read contracts; it made sense that the reading lingered on the scrolls created through the node.
If I was right, then I might be able to find the scroll with Lady Cecily”s curse.
I remembered the overwhelming feel of the magic in the archives and winced. Maybe not. It was easy, with only a single scroll, to discern the steady tempo and hear the brassy timbre of the magic, but once I was surrounded by thousands of scrolls, following a single whisper of power would be nearly impossible, even if I knew what I was listening for.