Chapter 21
Chapter twenty-one
Cedric’s familiar voice sent my heart rate crashing back down, nearly blacking out my vision from the waves of panic.
“Cedric, thank goodness it’s you.” I lowered my weapon, pressing a hand to my flailing heart as I stumbled back against the bedpost to steady myself.
“Are you all right?” Cedric rushed over, his gentle voice spiked with worry. “You don’t look so good.”
“You should have seen the other guy.” I attempted a dismal joke, only succeeding at making Cedric’s pupils double in size. “Or girl. Whoever they are, I hope I broke their ribs.”
“Someone was in here?”
“I was attacked moments before you arrived,” I admitted, my ability to think clearly slowly returning to me as I straightened myself.
“They snuck in and tried to stab me in my sleep.” I pointed to the torn mattress and the fresh rip in my sleeve.
Cedric hastily investigated both, a hand pressed to his lips as he pulled away from my torn sleeve in a panic.
“Take that dress off, now,” he said.
“What? Why?” I scrunched my brow. There was no wound that needed to be tended to.
Cedric pointed at the tear, showing me the tiniest black stain along the rip that I had mistaken for a shadow. “There’s poison on it. In the mattress too.”
I looked back at the damaged bed, alarmed to find that he was right.
A shiny black liquid lined the edges of the rip.
Without further argument, I grabbed another nightdress and ran behind the privacy screen to change, careful not to let my skin brush any of the poison on the sleeve.
I hurried back out once done, handing the poisoned nightdress to Cedric for further investigation.
He took it closer to the fire, studying it carefully in the light. He lifted the fabric close to his face to sniff it, his brows rising as he pulled it away.
“It smells like gripplepetal flowers,” he said.
“Is that deadly?” I asked, trying not to think about how close I’d come to death for the second time today.
“It can be,” he said, carefully setting the nightdress down on the nearest surface. “It has a negative reaction to magic that attacks it like a virus.”
It attacks magic?
Aemastian flora never ceased to amaze me. While Ivalon’s resources were heavy in magic metals, Aemastia possessed the most fascinating foliage that could counteract or even enhance magic. Combining the two resources would be any ruler’s dream.
“It makes you sick, then?” I asked.
“Very.” Cedric looked at my rings, his face paling as he seemed to come to a new conclusion. “If it got under your skin, it would infect you with a deadly illness that would only get worse until you removed your rings.”
My fingers twitched, feeling slightly numb at the thought of them being used as a way to kill me. What an interesting thing for an assassin to target…
“Tell me more about this attacker,” Cedric said. “What did they look like?”
“It was all too fast to get a good look at them,” I admitted. “When I kicked them, they felt too light to be a man, but their entire face was covered. They also came in through the servants’ entrance.” I pointed toward the door, my stomach knotting as I realized something crucial.
Only specific keys could open the servant doors, and those keys magically reported who opened them and when.
“Father gave them permission to enter.” Cedric spoke my grim thoughts aloud. “If they didn’t want to be detected, they would have gone through the main door.”
“And killing me from an illness would be far more subtle than a knife in my back.” I brushed my arm, replaying the battle in my head.
They weren’t aiming to kill me…if they were trying to stab my heart, my dodge would have landed the blade in my arm, not the mattress.
“I’d gamble that Sybil wasn’t in her bed on time tonight. ”
“Or Father sent poison and a key to another competitor who holds a grudge,” Cedric suggested. “Princess Ciara didn’t seem too happy with you today.”
“Princess Avalyn isn’t exactly fond of me either.
” I shrugged, spinning my mother’s ring on my finger.
The king was under the impression that I couldn’t remove my betrothal ring without Damon; infecting me with a magic-attacking virus would have been dangerous, but in truth, I could have saved myself by removing the ring and asking Atlas to remove his.
“Or maybe the king wanted to remove your advantage.” He nodded toward Atlas’s ring, and I felt my fingers tense.
“Atlas told me about how he was able to help you in today’s event.
It’s funny, I always thought that I’d be the one to put a new ring on your finger.
” He let out a soft chuckle that did an excellent job of masking the underlying ache.
I curled my fingers, smiling up at the prince who had accepted me first. “If it’s any consolation, your brother has terrible taste in jewelry.” I laughed, flashing the ugly iron ring to him.
“Oddly, that does make me feel better.” He laughed with me, his dark eyes looking cozy and warm in the fire’s glow, then his expression softened as he looked back at the arm that had nearly been infected.
“Are you sure you’re all right? This isn’t exactly what I was expecting to talk about when Atlas said you wanted to see me. ”
“It wasn’t my initial plan either,” I said.
“But yes, I’m fine. I should have expected Septimus to play dirty, and now I’m all the more prepared for his tricks.
” I stepped away from the fire, my attention shifting to the main reason I’d needed to see Cedric now that the mystery of my attacker had been as resolved as it could be.
I pulled out the sheets tucked around my mattress, reaching under to find the enchanted letter I’d hidden earlier. “This is what I summoned you here for.”
I handed him the letter, and his fascination took over the moment he saw the purple tinge to the paper.
“I’ve heard about these letters,” he said, looking inside the envelope but unable to see the hidden ink. “They’ve been a mystery for months now.”
Months—so they’d been coming in since I was still in the prison.
“I need your help mailing a message back to this sender,” I said, rolling back on my heels as a sudden rush of nerves tugged at my chest. “With a fogwrath flower inside.”
That got his attention. He looked up from the letter, his expression puzzled at first until that dangerously clever mind of his started to change something in his eyes.
“The sender?” he repeated, his grip tightening on the paper. “Diaspro… Is this letter from the Guardian?”
I should have known he’d figure it out.
There was no point in lying to him. Everyone I knew outside of the castle was dead, so there wasn’t any point in trying to claim that I wanted to contact a long-lost relative or friend.
Cedric came to the conclusion so quickly that I wondered if he’d been theorizing it all along and my interest was the final clue he needed to connect the dots.
“Diaspro, you shouldn’t get involved with them,” he said, taking my silence as a confirmation. “The king hates the Guardian even more than he hates you.”
That made me like them even more.
“How do you know that?” I asked. “Does the king talk about the Guardian at all? Do you know anything more about them or their goals?”
Cedric frowned, clearly not pleased that I wasn’t giving up on this futile quest. “I know a bit,” he sighed, relenting to my curiosity.
“Father believes that they’re building a rebellion army, but no matter how many troops he sends to disassemble it, he can never find any proof of their existence. It’s driving him mad.”
That was interesting… Either the Guardian was a master tactician or a skilled mentalist who had nothing more than a smoke screen to show for his efforts. Either way, I still wanted them on my side.
“He already despises you.” Cedric handed me back the letter. “But if he discovers you’re associating with the Guardian, he’ll have every right to declare you an enemy.”
“I’m already his enemy,” I said, snatching the letter back.
“The only reason I’m still alive is because killing me would be like dousing the Guardian’s fire in lamp oil.
If the rebels are real, then they’ll rally over my demise.
The king fears that they’re already looking up to me, so why shouldn’t I take advantage of the support he already blames me for having? ”
Cedric ran a hand through his hair, pausing halfway like he needed to hold his brain for it to work through this predicament. He couldn’t deny that I had a point. The Guardian was a tool the king already feared I was utilizing, so why should I fear using it?
“What happened to the fogwrath I already gave you?” he asked begrudgingly, my chest fluttering with sparks of hope that he’d even asked.
“It went to someone who needed it,” I said simply. “I need a new one to include in the letter so I can show the Guardian how to mask messages. That way I can prove to him that I’m on their side.”
“Are you?” He stepped forward, the serious shift in his voice catching me off guard. “On their side?”
The question sank heavily on my shoulders, and I knew my reply would be anything but light. The Guardian was definitely on the side of Ivalon, and here I was asking for help from a pure-blooded Aemastian. If I chose the Guardian, what would that make me to Cedric?
“I’m on the side that saves lives,” I said honestly.
“The Guardian might be the only person who can save Mara from the outside. I’m taking the side of anyone who can protect the people I care about.
” I closed the distance between us, forcing him to see that I was in earnest. “That includes you, Cedric.”
He didn’t answer for a long moment, but he didn’t leave either. Finally he nodded, the simple movement looking difficult to perform.
“If I do this, I’m officially betraying my own kingdom,” he whispered gravely.
I swallowed hard, my toes curling against the cold floor as I wondered if I had pushed him too far past his limits. He had never betrayed me, but I’d never given him a reason to until now.
“But…” he sighed, “I’ve never been one to refuse a lady flowers before.” He gave me a slight smile, and my spirits rose through the roof. “Just promise me you’ll be careful.”