Chapter 17
Theo
Theo’s father motioned for him to enter his study.
Theo took a casual position, resting upon the corner of the large, wooden desk while his father stood by the window.
He rubbed his hand along his temples, bracing his mind between his fingers.
Theo hoped the summons would be short and without emotional outbursts from either party.
He still prayed to the gods that was the case.
“Who have the gods cursed upon us?” his father muttered.
“I hardly see the gods deeming us of any worth to burden us with Amaris.”
“Alan, will you fetch something stronger than tea?”
“Oh course, Your Grace,” Alan answered before exiting through the hidden servants’ door.
Many years ago, they’d all used the servants’ passageways as a means for adventure.
Adelaide had stumbled upon the door and insisted on using the secret entrance for their own mischief.
Their father hadn’t thought it amusing at all when he entered to find forty-nine chickokees squawking about and discarding their droppings on his desk.
They’d planned to unleash fifty, but Adelaide had insisted on one for a pet.
“Theodoric,” he began.
Theo’s body stiffened at his call. Whether he started a conversation with Theo or Theodoric usually dictated the course of their meetings.
“What do you think of Miss Carter?”
Theo was tired of the question. He took a deep breath and rested his hands upon his belt. “She’s stubborn and annoying, but with those qualities, she’ll fit in perfectly.”
The scrunching of his father’s brows and drop of his eyelids were enough to show his displeasure at Theo’s attempt at humor.
Describing what was reeling through his mind was impossible.
He didn’t have the courage to break the deafening silence between them.
Theo had intended to rile Amaris last week to see who she was running from, but he’d lost it when she spoke of her betrothed.
She was emotional, but she’d defended him.
Maybe Theo was wrong, and her injuries weren’t related.
Theo’s father pondered carefully. He was a strong leader. Theo would give him that much.
“Do you trust what she had to say?”
“In which regard?”
“She claimed to have pulled you from the river.”
Theo paused. Only Theo, Amaris, and Gris knew what happened that day.
He’d already made a fool of himself when he’d fainted in the throne room and didn’t want his father believing Amaris had summoned him back from the dead.
“I spoke with Gris, and she vouched for Amaris’s story.
She was the one who jumped in, not Gris.
I believe she’s telling the truth about running away too. ”
Theo held back the new information regarding her betrothed. He wanted to learn more before he told his father. She was still hiding something, and Theo was going to learn what it was. Maybe it would clear her of the allegations.
“Indeed. I want this to continue to remain within the army. I don’t want a single word escaping these walls about how we have allowed a possible murderer to parade around as the mystique.”
“Why present the position to her?”
“She’s proven valuable, has she not?”
Theo ignored his father’s attempt to bring up his collapse in the throne room. “You wish to exploit her for her skills?”
“A time will come when her identity is revealed. She’ll either prove herself by working here for a time or slip up. Regardless, however long it takes is our opportunity to learn what skills she possesses.”
“Aren’t you afraid she’ll cause further harm or kill someone in the role?” If he truly believed her to be dangerous, it didn’t make sense to offer a role to her that held life delicately in one’s hands.
“She rushed and tended to you without a thought in the throne room. It’s said amongst the mystique community that selflessness is the first trait of value to a powerful healer. Miss Carter may not be forthcoming with who she really is, but her instincts are to act.”
Theo was thrown into the war again, forced to discern who his enemies were and what they were planning. He missed the few weeks of peace, where the only worry was whether he’d wake from a nightmare needing to vomit.
“You think she’ll put other’s safety before her own?” Theo asked.
“With patients, yes.” His father leaned further into the sill, the sun casting him in a bright aura, a massive contrast to the darkness he emanated. “I wish for her not only to be under guard but for someone to infiltrate her life.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
His father’s face scrunched up as he took a seat in a leather chair beside the window. “Have you learned nothing while you were away?”
Theo took a deep breath, forcing himself to surrender to his calm demeanor. “Is a guard not enough to gather information?”
“You of all people should understand that’s not enough. I want someone to gain her attention, become her ally.”
“You wish for someone to earn her trust and spy on her?”
“If given the opportunity to befriend, I believe she may open up. People sometimes have loose tongues around those they’re comfortable with.”
“She won’t appreciate our deception.”
“She’ll be none the wiser. They’ll keep their mission secretive.”
“Would Adelaide suffice?”
She seemed to have taken a liking for Amaris, even though he couldn’t imagine why.
“Adelaide,” he said through a raspy breath, “is to do nothing of the sort. She may run about the manor pretending she is a soldier, but she hasn’t the skill for a task such as this.”
Theo loosed a breath and shoved away the beginnings of an outburst. It wasn’t the time for that fight. “You wish for a soldier to gain her trust, then? I can delegate the mission to Sephardi or Gris?”
“No.”
“Amaris might be more willing to reveal her identity to another woman,” Theo countered.
“Sergeant Salter has already shown her true colors regarding what she believes of Miss Carter. She’ll be harder to control. Corporal Salter will no doubt side with her wife.”
“Who do you suggest then?” Theo had several more than qualified soldiers at his disposal for such a task. His arms folded across his chest. He waited for his father to say Alan or even Esaias, but after the near attack with her spoon, Theo would suggest anyone other than Esaias.
“I’ve grown tired of your lack of care for the loss of Lord Freville. He was a nobleman of Luana and deserves our respect. You will do it.”
“Me?” Theo questioned. “I have more than enough duties—”
“You will be the one to earn her trust. As you have become infatuated with the nefarious possibilities of the Black Sea. It’s only fitting she is your responsibility.
“My responsibility?” Theo scoffed.
“You’re to be her guard and earn her trust.”
Theo’s nostrils flared. “I can’t,” he protested. The idea of parading around with Amaris on guard duty was insulting, and the thought of befriending her sent his teeth clenching. “I’m a captain.”
“You’re a soldier.” His father pressed his hands into the chair’s arms and rose. His presence towered over Theo, but he was already in the stages of falling from his prime. He may have had a couple of inches on him, but Theo was still stronger. “You don’t get to deny an order.”
“This is an order then, not a request?”
“This will be the last of this conversation. Delegate your investigation into Duncaster to one of your soldiers. I want you focused on earning her trust and learning who Miss Carter is. Is that clear?”
Theo’s body acted of its own accord, rising from the desk and interlacing his hands behind his back. “Yes, sir.” He was a captain and should’ve been spending every moment investigating the Duncaster disappearances, not trading stories with Amaris.
“Your people are depending on you. We’ve invited a viper into our midst, and we must be prepared.”
My people. Everything their family did was for the people of Luana, not for themselves, but the people his father cared for held titles or had enough gold that their pockets dragged against the floor.
Theo had brief bouts of jealousy of Esaias and his strength to step away from the life of nobility when he moved to Luana to be a soldier. Now was certainly one of those moments.
“What am I to do when I discover she isn’t the murderer?”
“Are you certain she isn’t?”
Theo’s weight shifted beneath him. He hardly knew her, but she’d saved his life. His mind was swallowed by the grim memory of standing outside After’s gates and Kedes’s claws reaching out. He shuddered, gripping the hilt of his dagger.
His father went on. “Don’t go into this believing she’s innocent. Believe the worst until she proves otherwise. I’m certain with what I heard during the war, you’ll have no trouble extracting the truth from her.”
His father’s taste for power and control was overwhelming. He knew more about the war than Theo believed him to. He turned, reaching for the door.
“Do whatever is necessary to earn her trust. I only ask, Theodoric, that you remain professional and refrain from procreating. We don’t need a bastard staining the Fastrada bloodline.”
Theo flung the door open, wishing it would snap from its hinges as he stepped into the hall. He ignored his father’s disapproving grunt as a servant came racing toward him with flushed cheeks and panting breaths.
What is it now?
§
Theo moved swiftly down the hall, not caring that he was sending paintings to turn on end or passing servants at an alarming rate. He raced toward Esaias’s room, stopping and pounding on the door.
A muffled sound came from the other side.
Theo grasped the handle and entered the bedchamber.
Esaias was in bed with his golden quilt pulled up to his chin.
Onika was at his side, pressing a compress to his forehead.
She turned her head and offered a weak smile.
She pulled a stray strand of her dark curls and wound it tightly behind her ear.
“Can we have a moment, Onika?” Theo asked.
She raised a brow but dropped the rag in the basin of water.
As a servant of the manor, she wore the same white dress and beige apron as all the rest, but a gold necklace could always be seen poking out at the back of her neck.
Theo always wondered why she hid it instead of displaying it over her dress. Maybe it was family heirloom.
She stood, brushing her umber-colored hands across her apron. She stopped at Theo’s side, her head barely coming to his shoulder.
“He was fine the last few days, hardly more than a cough—” Theo began.
“He’s caught a fever and hasn’t thrown a single insult at me,” she said, which, when it came to Onika and Esaias, that was grim news. “I found him unconscious in the stables last night. He hadn’t been able to stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time throughout the night.”
“Did he catch something in Duncaster? Has anyone else fallen ill?”
“I’m not sure where he caught it, but I haven’t heard of any other cases.”
“Thank you.”
Onika nodded, and Theo hardly heard her leave or the familiar click of the latch when she closed the door. The ceiling pressed against his shoulders. He went to Esaias’s side and sat in the small chair beside his bed.
“Esaias,” Theo whispered.
Esaias answered him with a moan. His skin was pale, and beads of sweat trickled down his forehead. Theo grabbed the rag, wringing it out and dragging it across his brow.
“Theo,” he wheezed.
“I thought you only attracted women, not a plague,” Theo said.
Esaias attempted a laugh, but he erupted into a coughing fit. He tried to sit up. The quilt fell from his chest, revealing the beginnings of black lines running like veins across his chest.
“Esaias.” Theo’s voice was breathless.
He dropped back to the bed, his hand reaching for his heaving chest. “I know,” he whispered. “Scrying fever.”
“How is that possible? There hasn’t been a case in Godwin for years.” Theo pulled his shirt over his face and stepped back. The only cases of scrying fever he’d ever encountered were in Mosfelkov during the war when it wiped out half a company.
“Theo, I need you to do something for me.”
“Don’t talk like that,” Theo shot at him. “You’re not dying.”
“Please,” he whispered, his voice raspy. Esaias turned away, coughing into his elbow.
“Why has no one sent for Amaris? Why was Onika even in here?”
“I tried to throw her out, but she wouldn’t listen to me.”
Onika wasn’t one to take risks. She may have sailed with them during the war to assist the mystiques and perform other duties, such as cleaning and cooking in the camps, but she was often far from the fighting.
“What can be done?”
“Nothing,” Esaias said.
“There can’t be nothing. What about Cornelius’s journal? Has Onika looked in there?”
He’d attempted to find a treatment during the war and spent countless hours concocting various tonics.
“I’m not sure.”
Theo sat back, running his hands through the strands of his hair. He couldn’t lose Esaias. No one else, never again. “Amaris must know something. She saved me for realm’s sake.”
“It’s useless,” Esaias mumbled. “Burn my body, and all my possessions while you’re at it, to keep it from spreading.”
Rather than argue, Theo ran out the door and headed toward the library.