Chapter 17
17
A woman was crouched over the body, rocking back and forth. Judging by her face, she was my mother’s age; she had dark-gray hair, long, in two thick braids, one over each shoulder, and she wore a yellow scarf on her head. Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
“That’s the healer,” Nix whispered to me. I looked at her quizzically. “Remember, the healer from the market? Althea? My friend?”
“Oh! Yes.” I remembered her kindness when I wasn’t feeling well. Her warm, soft hands on my brow.
More people were pushing into the room by the second.
All I could see was the other person’s legs and the green ballet flats they wore on their feet; their upper body was obscured by the healer. The shoes looked really familiar—I couldn’t quite place them, though I knew I’d seen them somewhere before.
“Don’t come any closer, Your Highness,” one of the guards warned me.
I opened my mouth to ask what was going on. Lucas beat me to it. “Someone needs to inform the princess about what’s going on, immediately,” he insisted.
No one answered. They all looked at one another, waiting to see who was going to talk. The healer, Althea, rose from the floor. She stood and looked down at the body, wiped her eyes. “It’s useless to ask them,” she said, gesturing at everyone else gathered in the room. “They have not the answers you seek.”
I stared at the body on the floor. I recognized her right away—it was Marikit Baluyot, one of the page girls I saw almost every day. She delivered letters and packages from town throughout the palace. The image would never leave me. Her mouth was set in a silent scream, bloodshot eyes staring off into nowhere. Her hands were up near her face, as if she’d been trying to shield it.
I did everything I could to avoid looking by the healer’s feet, to the face of the girl who just days before I’d seen running around the palace, perfectly healthy, with no idea of the horrible fate that was about to befall her. “What happened?” I asked.
“It’s not the what, so much as the why. And the who,” Althea replied. I was getting tired of opaque answers and was about to say so when she began speaking again, this time with actual information. “She’s been taking lessons from me to become a healer in her own right. Everything was fine. Then she started to convulse.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. “It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen that.”
“Seen what, exactly?” I nudged. I felt for her; I did. But if the girl had been assaulted somehow or poisoned, we needed to know and quickly. There could be a murderer in the palace. Maybe in this very room.
“Darkness,” she whispered. “A darkness that comes for us all.”
My stomach lurched. I could tell Lucas and Nix exchanged a look.
“What do you mean?” I demanded. Why was this girl dead? Why was Althea so spooked? What had she seen?
“The darkness is all around us.” Althea shuddered. “It comes out of the walls.”
Lucas stepped forward. “All right, the princess has heard enough. Let’s not upset her any more.” Then he looked to one of the guards. “Please escort Althea to the library so an investigator can speak with her.”
The healer nodded and allowed the guard to take her arm and lead her out of the room.
I wondered whether Lucas was trying to be helpful or to control the situation. I looked over at him. Handsome, self-assured, calm. Innocent? Nix said she believed him, that he didn’t mean any harm to me. I believed that, too, but just because he didn’t mean me any harm didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. I wondered if, before swimming in the gardens, Lucas could’ve killed the girl. He knew his way around the palace, after all. But why would he do something like that? He’d said it himself—he wasn’t a killer. Or was he?
The guard commander stepped over to me. “Your Highness,” she said with a curt bow. “Can I speak to you privately?”
“Yes, of course,” I said. I looked around. There were people everywhere. One of the adjoining rooms would probably be emptier. We went in there, and she closed the door behind us. She was in charge, since Elias had left that morning, still bent on rooting out the leader of the insurgents. Another lead had taken him all the way to the Paulanan Mountains, on the far reaches of the island.
“We are preparing to arrest the healer Althea,” the commander said solemnly.
I was taken aback. “Why do you believe she’s responsible?” I asked.
She blinked at my question but, to her credit, didn’t break her professional demeanor. “She was alone in the room with the victim when it happened. There are no other suspects. She is the only one who could have done it. According to the kitchen staff, she was with the victim for more than an hour, and the page was perfectly healthy before then.”
“Did she explain why she was here?”
“She claims she was summoned to the palace by the victim. That a letter arrived at the apothecary, asking for urgent assistance.”
“Did she produce the letter?”
“According to the suspect, she left it behind in her haste.”
I shook my head at suspect . “Althea had no reason to do this. And even if she did, why here, in such a public way? She could have done it some other time and been long gone.”
“Maybe that was part of her ruse. To make it appear so obvious that she wasn’t covering up, to confuse an investigation.”
“Maybe. It’s always possible,” I conceded. I didn’t have any concrete evidence, of course, but I just didn’t think Althea was responsible. Much the same way Nix just didn’t believe Lucas had anything to do with my father’s death.
“Regardless, Your Highness, I think the best course of action is to put the entire palace into lockdown immediately. I’ve already notified all stations.”
“If that’s what you think is best,” I told her. She was the security expert. Privately, though, I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of being locked inside with a possible assassin on the loose.
“And if you’re correct and Althea is not the culprit, all the more reason to institute a lockdown. The perpetrator could be anywhere.”
I nodded. She was right about that.
“I’ll escort you to your room personally, then,” she said.
Admittedly, I was relieved to leave that gory scene. As we headed out the door, another guard stepped alongside us with Lucas in tow. “So, are you being escorted to a ‘safe room,’ too?” I asked him as we walked.
“A bit flippant under the circumstances, no?” he replied.
He was insufferable. “If I took everything in my life too seriously, I wouldn’t be able to cope.”
“Being a princess is quite demanding,” he muttered.
“For your information, Sir Lucas,” I hissed back at him, trying to keep my voice low so the guards ahead of us wouldn’t hear, “my life has been anything but regal, and I didn’t ask for any of this, nor did I particularly want it.”
He had the nerve to roll his eyes.
“Well, lucky for you, I’ll be locked up in my chambers until the killer is captured, so you won’t have to deal with me,” I told him. I looked around. “Where’s Nix?”
“I don’t know. I assume she went home while you were talking to the commander.”
I hoped Nix wasn’t too shaken by the scene and was able to get home safely. I’d have to ask her about why she was so afraid of encantos from Jade Mountain. We didn’t get many foreigners from other realms—a few Avalonians here and there once in a while, or someone lost on the way to El Dorado.
“Here we are,” the guard commander announced. I was so busy shooting daggers out of my eyes at Lucas that I nearly ran into the guard when he stopped in front of me. We were standing in front of one of the guest suites.
“I guess this is you,” I told Lucas.
The commander opened the doors and walked inside. Lucas and the guard followed. I was being left alone in the hall. The guard noticed I wasn’t with them and turned around. “Your Highness,” he said, indicating I should go with them. I wasn’t sure why I needed to be present for this, but I went along anyway.
It was one of the nicer suites, with a spacious sitting room but no balcony, making it harder to get in or out. A solid choice, I thought. After all, there was still a possibility that Lucas was the one behind all this, or at least had something to do with it.
“Hope this will suffice,” the commander said to me.
“I’m sure he’ll be very comfortable here,” I said, looking at Lucas. I couldn’t help but rejoice a tiny bit over his unfortunate circumstances.
The commander looked at me, confused. “And you as well, of course.”
“Me?” It was my turn to look puzzled. And embarrassed. Now Lucas was smirking at me .
“Yes, you will both be staying here.”
“What about my rooms?” I asked, voice edging on shrill. I felt a bit panicked at the idea of being locked in this space with... him .
She shook her head. “I’m afraid there was an incident in the queen’s wing. Your safety is paramount while we secure the scene and investigate.”
“What kind of incident?” I demanded.
“It appears as if the lock was damaged and the outer chamber, the receiving room, was breached. Someone managed to riffle through the desk and some files. Until we know the full extent of the situation and find the perpetrator, alternate lodgings have been arranged.”
Someone had broken into my rooms? Was I not safe anywhere?
Lucas plopped into a chair and crossed his ankle over his knee. “Get comfortable, Princess. We might be here awhile.”
Obnoxious man. This was unbearable. While I was thinking of something sarcastic to say back, the commander stepped in between us. “I’ll have two guards stationed at the door at all times. If anything happens outside this room”—she looked at both of us, one at a time—“ or inside, security will be at the ready. Sir Lucas has been tasked to protect you, as our highest-ranking knight of the realm.”
Oh.
“I’ve got this, Commander,” Lucas said with a smile. “The princess will be completely safe with me.”
The commander nodded. “In that case, I better return to the others. We’ll have the palace secured and the perpetrator apprehended as soon as possible.” She bowed and left the room. The door shut firmly behind her. I heard a loud click from the lock as it was bolted.
We were locked in here together?
“So,” Lucas said, grinning, “do you play cards?”
“I’d prefer to go to sleep, if you don’t mind,” I told him as I pulled my cape around me and walked (rather haughtily) into the adjoining bedroom. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught him shrugging, as if he didn’t care, yet I thought I detected some disappointment on his face. I almost felt a little bad for him. Almost. He was still irksome and egotistical and shady, and I didn’t want to be anywhere near him, let alone locked up in that tiny suite together. Whether he had blood on his hands or not—and admittedly, I was beginning to believe he couldn’t have been the killer—he was still my enemy.