Twenty-Nine - Isabel
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I read Demeretbecause I needed a distraction. I knew that the node would allow me to avoid Felix if I was actively researching magical theory, but I didn’t actually expect to find a way to break the curse. But that was exactly what I stumbled over shortly before suppertime.
I marked the page and made my way to the dining room, the book tucked under my arm. It wasn’t the solution Felix expected, I was sure, and it depended on factors outside our control, but it was a solution. Not a step toward understanding the curse, but an honest to goodness way to transform him from cat back to human.
The dining room was empty when I arrived. I had too much energy to sit, so I placed the book on the table and paced. I stopped by the door and checked the hallway every time I reached that end of the table. Not only was I excited to share my discovery with Felix, but I also missed the duke. I had found myself wanting to share my thoughts on Demeret’s writing style constantly. I wanted to hear his dry replies and scathing indictments of the book.
But the duke didn’t come.
Perhaps, after I had avoided him that afternoon, he had assumed I wouldn’t want to eat supper with him either?
I grabbed the book again. Food could wait. I needed to tell him what I had learned, and not because the node’s magic was forcing me to act.
Where would he be? A flicker of awareness washed over me, an echo of sound coming from above me and across the castle. His spire room. I must have accidentally invoked the Truth that Felix used to monitor where people were in the castle.
I hurried upstairs. At the outer door to his suite, I paused, manners forcing me to knock, but I didn’t turn away when I heard no response. Unless he was checking my location, Felix wouldn’t even know I was outside his rooms. He wouldn’t have heard the knock from the spire room. And even if he wanted to be alone, I was confident he’d forgive my interruption when he heard what I had to say.
When I reached the spire room, I didn’t see him, but the magic of the castle came to my aid once more. I followed that sense to a pile of cushions near the wall. His black nose was the only bit visible under a plush blanket. Though I hadn’t tried to hide my arrival, he didn’t even twitch.
I dropped the book and knelt next to him. “Felix? Are you all right?”
I threw back the blanket, and he blinked up at me with gold-green eyes that held a wealth of misery.
“What’s wrong?”
His front paw twitched, and a creased piece of paper materialized next to my hand.
I read the letter, skimming quickly over the contents until a familiar name caught my attention. “Frederic? Berklay sent his brother to Rose Castle? What was he thinking?”
A spark of life lit in Felix’s eyes. “That is the first thing you notice in that letter?”
I lowered the paper. “Berklay may be your butler, but I know Frederic. He’s looked out for me ever since an investigation of my father made our paths cross. If he was suspicious about my sudden disappearance, sending him here was the worst thing Berklay could have done. I’m actually shocked he isn’t still outside. I wouldn’t have expected him to leave without talking to me. Even if you lied and said I wasn’t here.”
“I didn’t talk to him. I watched him try to break into the castle, summoned the letter from his pocket, and banished him from the hilltop. He might still be at the base of the hill for all I know.”
“He can’t approach Rose Castle again?”
“Not until I let him.”
“He is really going to be suspicious now. He’s going to stir up trouble.” His intentions would be good, but he’d draw attention to Truthhold, and that was the last thing Felix needed.
Felix snagged the edge of the blanket with a claw and pulled it over himself once more. His voice was muffled when he next spoke. “Did you read the entire letter?”
“I did.”
“Then you know it doesn’t matter now. Secrecy is no longer an option. Unless we break the curse within the next few days, everyone will know what happened.”
Confused, I scanned the letter once more. I still didn’t understand what had sent Felix hiding under the blankets, though. “Princess Charmina is coming to Leort to sign the contract about her inheritance conditions. How is that any different from every other contract you have witnessed in the past few months?”
He poked his head out. “Her Highness won’t end her journey in Leort. She’ll come to Rose Castle. Berklay won’t be able to stop her. She’ll see me as a cat.”
Never had I heard this level of despondence in Felix. He usually gave the impression of being comfortable in his feline form. I knew he wanted to break the curse, but he had always been ready to poke fun at himself.
I ran my hand over the soft fur of his head. “Is it truly so terrible? You hid what had happened because you feared the blood-lock on the node had broken. But now that we know how Cecily accessed the power, there isn’t a danger of triggering another round of node wars. More people knowing what happened could also mean knowledgeable mages working to break the curse.”
“I’d still rather not be known as Duke Feline.”
I frowned. He was lying. The ignominy of the nickname might bother him, but it wasn’t his true worry. But I couldn’t guess what was. The princess’s visit took the choice out of his hands, forcing him to reveal what had happened on a schedule not of his choosing, but if it resulted in breaking the curse, wouldn’t that be worth it?
I shifted, and the corner of Theory of All Magics bit into my thigh. I grinned and swiped the book off the floor. Felix might not need other mages. “Maybe you won’t be a cat by the time Her Highness arrives.”
“What?”
I flipped open to the page I had marked. “I found something. A way to transform you back into a human, I think.”
“What?” Felix repeated, throwing off the blankets with a violent shake of his entire body. “Why didn’t you say that first thing? What are we waiting for? Let’s go to the node.”
I pressed my hand against his back, stopping him from darting out of the room. “It’s not that simple, of course. We need a different node, first of all.”
Felix sank back on his haunches. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
I turned the book to face him. “I was reading Demeret this afternoon, and he went off on a tangent talking about how the various mage powers received their names. At first, I thought the entire section was a waste; what does it matter what each type of magic is called? But then Demeret pointed out that there is only one power that you can remove the descriptor of the power family, and the magic is still easily identifiable. How often do people say healer instead of body-healer?”
“Almost always. I’m still not seeing the point.”
“Demeret claims that emphasizing the healer aspect of that power was a deliberate push. Apparently, all the way through the Node Wars, that power went by a different name. But in the decades that followed, the mages became known as healers.”
Felix watched me for a moment, then sighed. “Fine, I’ll ask. What were the mages called before?”
“Body-changers. Demeret thinks that before the nodes were locked, body-changers had access to enough power to shapeshift.”
“You think a healer could transform me back into a human.”
“I think the healers in Drakona Forest might be able to, yes. Their node is nearly as powerful as yours.”
“We’d have to get to Drakona.”
“It isn’t that far away. If we left now, you might not make it back before Princess Charmina reaches Leort, but you won’t make her wait more than a few days. And you’ll be human when you welcome her to Rose Castle.”
“You really think the healers could . . .” Felix trailed off, and he sank back into the cushions. “No. Oh, no.”
“What? What is it?”
“It won’t reverse the curse. Even if the healers can change me back into a human, it won’t last.”
“Why not?”
“Rose Castle.”
“I don’t understand.”
“This is the heart of Truthhold. The node doesn’t just enchant things, it makes them true. The castle is covered in roses because it is Rose Castle.”
“I’m still not seeing the point,” I said, stealing Felix’s words from earlier.
“About a hundred and thirty years ago, the Duchess of Truthhold decided she didn’t want roses growing all over the castle walls. She had her gardeners rip them out. But by the next day, the rest of the plants filled in any holes made. The gardeners never made progress. So, she hired an entire crew to rip out every last rose on castle grounds in a single day. She even had them salt the ground. The next morning the roses were back, and according to family legend, in greater numbers than ever before.”
“You think Lady Cecily”s curse would cause you to transform back into a cat, even if the healers can make you human.”
“It isn’t really a curse, is it? It is a Truth. My node will work against me unless I can reverse her spell.”
“Then you won’t even try?”
He shrugged. “If there is nothing else to do, then I will certainly try. But I don’t think a quest to Drakona Forest is the right move at present. Not when Princess Charmina will be in Leort within the week. And especially not with the rumors Berklay says are circulating about you.”
I hadn’t paid much attention to that part of the letter except to recognize that the rumors made sending Frederic to Rose Castle even more foolish. I cared little what the people of Leort said about me. But they weren’t really about me, were they? People were speculating about my sudden disappearance, but it wasn’t me they were interested in. They were interested in where I had gone.
And they shouldn’t have guessed the answer so easily. “Felix, those rumors aren’t natural. Someone had to actively nurture them. My sudden absence in Leort two months after you turned hermit wouldn’t have been connected otherwise.”
“Your father might have—”
I shook my head. “The contract he signed is too stringent about what he can’t say. I doubt he’s said anything. Despite living in the same house, our lives rarely intersect. And he would say nothing to Sofia in case she figured out that he was responsible for my departure.”
“Marc,” Felix hissed. “He didn’t tell me about the princess’s scheduled arrival in Leort. He didn’t deliver the contract to your father. And the rumors started directly after his last trip into town. He’s trying to ruin you.”
“It isn’t about me,” I insisted. “The rumors aren’t about ruining my reputation, but yours. That’s why he didn’t give the second contract to my father. He wanted me to be trapped here. He wants you isolated from the townspeople.”
“I’ve been isolated for months.”
“But not ostracized. It was your decision to hide in the castle. The citizens of Leort have no idea why, but you are a duke, and dukes can choose to be eccentric. But now the narrative will be shifting. You are no longer a duke who wants privacy, but a man abusing his power to take advantage of innocent women.”
“Women, plural?”
I raised a brow. “It’s been nearly three months. People will assume I was not the first.”
He sighed. “Tsy take it. But what is Marc’s end goal?”
“I don’t know.” I tried to think like the secretary. “Berklay told him about the princess’s scheduled visit. She must factor into his plan.”
“If I weren’t a cat, I might understand,” Felix muttered. “Her Highness hears the rumors in Leort, then finds you at Rose Castle and every horrible thing whispered about me seems confirmed. But I am a cat. Once she sees that, she’ll know the situation is more complicated.”
“So, we are still missing something. There must be more to Marc’s plan than we can see.”
“But whatever it is we are missing, we don’t have much time. Not if Her Highness is a critical component. Which means we have less than a week to break the curse if we want to foil his plan.”
“We might be able to foil his plan without breaking the curse.”
“Not if we don’t even know what it is.” Felix sighed.
“I could talk to Frederic if he is still nearby. He is a talented investigator.”
“Who thinks I’ve locked you up in my castle for my own perverted purposes. What will you tell him? You can’t lie, and the contract won’t let you tell the truth. Even if I make an appearance, I doubt he’ll be reassured, since the truth is I did kidnap you.”
“I thought you saw it as more of a recruitment?”
“And you were right; it was a conscription at best.”
I reached out and ran my hand through his fur. “I’m not saying Frederic will be your biggest fan, but he can still help us. He’ll understand that you made a choice you regret and that right now it is time to deal with the consequences, not dwell on something that can’t be changed.”
“He might not be at the base of the hill anymore. I haven’t felt him try to get onto castle lands for at least an hour.”
“It can’t hurt to check. Will you go with me, or do you want to stay hidden?”
“I’ll come.”