Chapter Seven
The city was worse off than the palace. After only an hour, I had seen a crumbling bridge, several closed shops covered in silver veins, and cracked building supports all over the city.
I had taken samples where I could, and then stopped for lunch at a cafe.
Sitting at a table near the window, I sipped a hot cider and jotted down notes as I waited for my meal.
Sure, it was only my second day and my first inspecting the city, but my lack of progress annoyed me.
I still didn't know what the rot was, what had caused it, or how it spread.
It seemed random, hitting magic with no discernible pattern to the objects or locations.
I'd never come across anything like it. So, along with my annoyance came a hefty dose of excitement.
It was a challenge, and I wasn't often presented with such.
A commotion caught my attention. I looked up from my notebook and out the window.
With a strange tingling traveling down my chest, my jaw fell open.
A carriage had stopped beside the cafe. A royal carriage.
Pedestrians bowed to the King as he climbed out.
He nodded and waved to his people as his knights closed in around him, forming an aisle to the cafe's door.
“My goodness, it's the King.” My server stood beside my table, my lunch in his hands, and stared at the King as he entered the cafe.
“Uh, if you please?” I motioned at the plate he held.
“Oh!” He set it on the table before me. “Here you are. Sorry, excuse me.” He hurried to greet the King.
I set my notebook aside and ate. Yes, I knew he was there for me.
That he had suddenly decided to dine in the very cafe I had chosen for lunch was ridiculous.
No, this wasn't a coincidence. Somehow, he had found me.
It was exceedingly annoying. But I didn't know how he had done it, and that piqued my curiosity.
So, instead of storming out, I ate my lunch and waited for him to join me.
The server's eyes went wide as he spoke to the King and glanced over at me.
I ignored them. The food was good and deserved my attention—the King did not.
He approached my table while his knights took positions both inside and outside the cafe.
The other diners stood to bow to the King, and he waved them back into their seats.
“Sevarin.” King Falken sat down across from me at the little cafe table.
I looked up and set my fork down. “Please sit down, Your Majesty. You're not interrupting at all.”
He grimaced. “You told me you were analyzing samples.”
I looked pointedly at the server who stood beside our table, waiting for the King's order.
King Falken lifted his chin. “Whatever he's eating will be fine.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” the server said. He was human and looked as if he were about to faint. “Uh, would you like a mug of hot cider as well?”
“Yes, the night is cool. A hot drink would be nice.”
“Of course, Your Majesty!” He hurried away.
“Cool,” I murmured.
I hadn't considered the weather. Sconheit was further north than Tabaa, and it was the end of summer. Getting cold. I had been enjoying the brisk air, but now I felt like a fool for not paying it further mind.
“Yes, autumn is coming. Don't change the subject.” The King leaned in. “You lied to me.”
“I knew you'd want to come along, and you would have gotten in the way.”
He gaped at me. “What did you just say?”
“You know it's true. Between you, your knights, and the crowd you attract, it would hinder my investigation.” I tapped my notebook. “Now, your turn. How did you find me?”
The Dragon King blinked. “No, we're not done with you lying. I don't care what reason you had; you don't lie to me. I hired you, Alchemist.”
“Master Alchemist,” I reminded him with a smirk.
He snorted and shook his head. “Fine, I understand why you wanted to investigate alone, but you should have told me.”
“I didn't lie. I'll be analyzing samples as soon as I return to the palace.”
“You lied.”
“Yes, all right. Now, how did you find me?”
The King smiled at our server as he set a mug of steaming cider down. “Thank you.”
“I'll be right back with your meal, Sire.”
The King nodded, and the server left. I looked pointedly at Falken and took a bite of food. I was hungry, and he had barged in on my meal. Manners did not require me to wait for him to get his food in such a situation. This wasn't the Royal Palace.
“I have your scent.” He looked at me as if that explained everything.
“My scent? You tracked me like a hound?”
The King grimaced. “I am not a dog. But yes, I can track you. I know you. Intimately.”
“Ah, I see.” I took another bite and considered the ramifications. “How long will you have my scent?”
“How long?” He raised his eyebrows. “Forever.”
My fork dropped to clatter onto my plate, and I gaped at him in horror. He could find me. Whenever. Wherever. Forever. It was a terrifying thing for a Volper.
“Here you are, Your Majesty!” The server, who had the most horrible timing, set a plate of food before the King.
“Thank you.” The King kept his gaze on me.
“Uh.” The human looked back and forth between us. “You're most welcome, Your Majesty. Just wave if you need anything.” He hurried away.
The King leaned over his food. “Why does that upset you?”
“Why?” I blinked. “Why?” I snarled and leaned forward to close the distance between us. “How would you like to know that someone you've only had sex with once can find you anytime they wish—forever?”
Falken leaned back. “I won't abuse you, Sevarin.”
“I don't know you,” I hissed.
“We've been intimate.”
“So what?” I grabbed my fork and waved it through the air. “Sex is just a physical release. It certainly doesn't impart any kind of meaningful knowing.”
“It does if there's something more than physical between the participants.”
“Which there isn't. I just met you yesterday. We barely know each other. Sex did nothing to change that. It was a meeting of the bodies, not of the minds. I don't know you, and so I cannot trust you.”
“I see.” He lifted his mug, inhaled deeply, and sipped.
I ate my food.
“Your lab is ready,” he said, like an offering.
“Thank you.” I continued to eat and then waved at his plate. “Don't you like breaded meat?”
“Huh?” He looked down at the flattened piece of battered and fried steak. A heap of potatoes lay beside it, and little containers of condiments sat between us. “Oh. Yes, of course.” He scooped some jam onto his meat and sliced off a piece.
As he chewed, I said, “I believe those silver flakes are spores.”
The King looked up. “Spores? As in fungal spores that infect plants?”
“Yes, for lack of a better term. The rot consumes magic, leaving only silver behind. The silver flakes off, and the flakes ride the wind to the next victim, similar to a fungal spore.”
“I see.”
“It spreads randomly. I can't find a pattern. Therefore, it must be airborne. That being said, I can't trace the path until I find the original infection.”
“How will you know it's the original?”
“It will have the greatest amount of rot. In fact, it may be nothing more than a pile of silver by now. After that debacle with Vanre, I'm thinking the cold may preserve it. So, silver spores could ride cold drafts and stay dormant until they land on something warm. But that's just a theory.”
The King frowned over this for a minute and then said, “I may have found something as well.”
“Oh?” I set my fork down.
“While you were supposed to be analyzing the rot, I went through the palace archives to see if there had ever been something similar in the past.”
“And was there?”
“No, but I found architectural drawings of the palace. They show a second armory.”
“A second armory?”
“Yes, the first Dragon King of Sconheit had a different armory. He apparently sealed it off before he left the throne.”
“Why?”
The King shrugged. “I don't know, but I'm going to find out. Either way, it will give me access to weapons.”
“Why do you care about weapons? You're a Dragon.”
“But most of my people are not. If something happens, I want them armed.”
I nodded, but my thoughts were already on the armory.
Why would a king seal off an armory? King Falken had done it that very morning, but that was to contain the Silver Rot, and he said there was no mention of the rot in the palace archives.
So, why did the first Dragon King do it?
Regardless, I doubted there were weapons in it.
If you're going to seal off an armory, wouldn't you remove the weapons first?
Unless the weapons were the reason for sealing it.
“It doesn't sound safe,” I said.
“Opening the armory?”
I nodded. “Kings don't seal off armories for no reason. We may unleash something worse than the rot.”
“Or we may find the key to destroying it.”
“At least let me look at it first.”
“Very well.” He paused. “Sevarin, you can trust me. I won't hunt you like an animal.”
I lifted my chin. “Isn't that what you just did? You hunted me here.”
“That's not the same!” He took a calming breath.
“I went to your guest room to tell you about the armory, and you were gone.
I was worried. That's why I resorted to tracking you. Then I found you eating in a fucking cafe! This is irresponsible, Sevarin! Your kingdom needs you, and you run off without guards? What if you had been attacked?”
“I know this city well. I wasn't in any danger.”
The King leaned in. “You are not a normal citizen anymore. You are working for me.”
“Why does that matter?”
“Kings always have enemies, and when you work for me, you become a potential target.”
“Many people work for you. Must guards accompany them all when they leave the palace?”
“You are a master alchemist whom I hired to end this rot. You're more important than the other people who work for me.”
After considering his point, I nodded. “I understand. I won't leave the palace unaccompanied again.”
“I appreciate that.”
A cry came from outside, and we both turned to look out the window. A streetlamp had fallen into a pile of silver rubble, its light orb still activated within the glass case, but the steel pole holding it was gone.
I looked at the King.
“Finish your meal, Master Sevarin. It's time to go.”