Chapter Twenty
I should have been more careful after Lord Turgov's attack, but I was too unsettled by it and the King's response to everything.
He had acted to protect his people and then to avenge me, but only enough to assuage his anger.
His actions had spoken to needs inside me I hadn't known existed. It was as if he had been made for me.
“Don't be ridiculous,” I muttered to myself as I entered the lab.
Distracted, I went to the central worktable where I had the ingredients laid out to make a new batch of revealing reagent.
I modified the composition so that it could be sprayed on an item to determine if it had a resonant enchantment loop.
The search teams were using it to check items in case an owner lied about its enchantment.
Now, I wondered if I should ask the King to order the teams to spray every item to verify infection.
Shaking my head, I poured some powdered ivy root into the base solution and set it over a burner. No, that wouldn't do, because many items with resonant enchantment loops weren't infected yet, but would still need to be collected. There had to be a way to verify that an item held a loop.
As I lit the burner, the Dragon King entered the lab. I glanced at him and returned to mixing.
“Why did you leave?” The King came to stand across the table from me.
“I wanted to get a fresh batch of revealing reagent made.” I picked up a vial and added the contents to the bubbling bottle.
“Sevarin, I'm the one who's mad at you. You don't get to be upset with me.”
“I don't believe that's a law, Falken. Regardless, I'm not upset with you.” I paused. “And why are you mad at me?”
“You made it sound as if love between us is impossible.”
“I did no such thing.”
“You were shocked that I might love you. Shocked and repulsed.”
“Shocked, yes, but not repulsed. It's too soon for there to be love between us.”
The King's shoulders relaxed. “Oh. Then why did you leave the throne room without me?”
“I told you. I wanted to get mixing.”
“I don't believe that.”
I sighed and met his gaze. “I thought you might need some time to calm down after dealing with Turgov.”
He stepped back. “Are you afraid of me?”
“No, I just prefer to be alone when I'm mad. Otherwise, I might say something I'll regret. I thought I'd give you the respect of leaving you to calm down.”
“So you wanted to protect our relationship?”
“I just wanted to give you space.” I picked up a pre-mixed solution and poured it into the bottle.
I was about to say more when the liquid bubbled. Watching it, I went still. Then it turned black.
“No!” I turned off the burner and leaned over to sniff the liquid. “Those fucking bastards!”
After the incident with Lord Turgov, this interference was too much. I lost my temper. Fury and frustration boiled through me. I grabbed a beaker and threw it against the wall. It shattered, and it made me feel better, so I threw another, and another.
“Sevarin!” The King shouted. “You made a mistake. It happens.”
“A mistake?” I shook my head. “I know my ingredients. Normally, I check them before adding anything to a mix, but I was distracted. Since I had prepped them, it shouldn't have mattered.”
“But it did.”
“Yes, the reagent is useless. There's only one explanation.”
“Someone sabotaged you.”
“Yes, I believe someone added something to the pre-mixed potion. It smelled like tulfi. It's pungent but harmless. I should have smelled it. Instead, I just dumped it in, and it ruined the reagent.”
“Who would do this?” The King headed for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To find someone to investigate this mess and tell me who did this.”
“I know what was done, and I can't determine who the culprit is. It's impossible. The evidence is within a reagent. No spell can detect who did this.”
“No, but maybe there's a spell that can tell us who was in the room earlier. Or maybe someone saw something.”
I raised my brows. “Do you think there was a witness?”
“I don't know, but with or without a spell, I'm going to find out who did this.”
“Falken, you need to assemble that audit team.”
“That can wait.”
I stepped around him, blocking his path. “No, it can't. Take care of your people first.”
“You are my responsibility as well.”
“I'm not yours.”
“I thought you trusted me?”
“I do.”
“Then trust that I'm not trying to own you. You are my lover, my employee, and a citizen of Sconheit. Therefore, you are my responsibility.”
“You need to see to the needs of the many before you take care of one.”
“What you're doing is helping them, and someone sabotaged your work. To help them, I have to help you first.”
Rolling my eyes, I gave in. “All right, what are you going to do?”
“Find the bastard.”
“Yes, I got that part, but how?”
The King took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I will interrogate the alchemists.”
“That's a good start, but anyone could have tampered with the ingredients. They wouldn't need to know what to swap, as long as it differed from what I had prepped, it would wreck the alchemy.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“Let it go.”
“I will not.”
“They didn't hurt me, just my work. Let it go. Put a better lock on the door—” I trailed off.
The King didn't need an explanation. He ran to the door to inspect the lock. “Could you have left it open?” He looked up at me. “There are no marks in the metal to indicate it was forced.”
“It could have been picked. If they were adept, they wouldn't leave any marks.”
“So, the culprit knows how to pick locks. That implies a thief.” The King narrowed his eyes. “First, the search teams, and now this. There are a lot of thieves in my city.”
“Thieves are always the first to make use of a bad situation.”
“Yes, but this thief was making a bad situation worse. Why?”
“Either they want the rot to spread, or they don't like me.”
“Because you're making them look bad.” He lifted his eyebrows.
“All right, let's go talk to the fucking alchemists.”