Chapter 15
My heart lurched at what could possibly be making her so tense.
“After last night,” Carissa said. “I was suspicious about King Giles and his health.”
“Right…” I frowned.
“So when I spotted the Silver Coast’s healer heading around the main tent…” Carissa grimaced and fiddled with her fingers.
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I followed him,” she admitted.
“Did anyone see you?” I asked.
The air of nervousness around Carissa melted like snow under the Florida sun, and she outright frowned at me.
“Really?” Carissa scoffed.
“No,” I chuckled as I remembered who I was talking to. “Good point. Go on.”
“What did you learn?” Tanell asked.
“King Giles isn’t staying in the same tent as Queen Sybil,” Carissa revealed.
I failed to see what was so revolutionary about that information, but I held my tongue as she continued.
“I settled in behind his tent,” Carissa said. “I was there for quite a while and overheard a lot.”
She paused to take a sip of her tea.
“King Giles’ health issues started about eight months ago,” Carissa went on.
“It started with vomiting and general weakness. He was struggling to keep food down, and he lost a lot of weight in the first two months of his illness. No one could figure out what was going on with him, and the first healers Queen Sybil brought around were certain he’d be dead by now. ”
“But he’s not dead,” Yori pointed out. “So were they wrong or just idiots?”
“They were wrong,” Carissa said. “At least, that’s what this healer seems to think. King Giles talked about why he’d wanted this man’s help so badly.”
“Hang on.” I held up a hand. “So Sybil chose healers for King Giles when he first got sick?”
“Yes,” Carissa said.
“And they were certain Giles would be dead this many months later?” I checked, and Carissa nodded. “And then he brought in his own healer? Someone he chose?”
“Yes,” Carissa confirmed, and her eyes were bright with interest. “That’s not everything. This healer said Giles had really improved since his turnaround about two months ago. That’s when the king selected his own healer.”
“Yeah,” I said with heavy sarcasm. “That’s not suspicious at all.”
“I know.” Carissa grinned. “But it gets better.”
“How?” Serra asked.
“The healer listed off Giles’ symptoms,” Carissa said, and then she paused.
My queens looked ready to jump out of their skin with the way Carissa was dripping the details in, but I appreciated that she wanted us to experience the full excitement of what she’d learned.
“And his symptoms are…?” Tanell prompted.
“Indicative of a slow form of poisoning,” Carissa finally revealed.
“What?” Yori shouted in shock.
“Poison?” Serra hissed.
“Oh, my god,” Tanell muttered. “So the healers were slowly poisoning him?”
“It sure seems like that,” Carissa said. “Or they were helping Sybil to conceal it while she poisoned him. I don’t think it really matters either way. It was pretty obvious that Sybil was the mastermind of the attempted murder of her husband.”
“To what end?” Serra asked with a baffled look on her face. “Why would she want him dead?”
“So she could be free to make an alliance with Khorr,” I answered.
“Oh!” Serra’s face contorted like I’d told her the most grotesque joke in the world. “Of course.”
“Plus,” Yori chimed in. “I don’t think she likes him all that much.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Tanell agreed. “Most of the time, she seems to ignore him completely, and when she has shown him attention, it’s to tell him to shut up.”
“So Sybil was involved in trying to assassinate King Giles,” I summed up. “She is in cahoots with Khorr, she doesn’t want other countries’ armies within her borders, and she very much could have paid Drezzen to kill Mannie’s ambassador. Is that about everything?”
“She’s also a bitch,” Yori added with a helpful smile.
“Yes,” Tanell said. “But that’s not actually a crime.”
“God only knows what other actual crimes she has committed,” Serra said.
“What do we do now?” Carissa asked.
No one had an immediate answer to that, and I took a moment to consider our options.
It was a pretty easy decision to seek out Vannesh and Palchur first. They were the men on the frontlines of our evidence-gathering mission, and I didn’t feel entirely comfortable bringing accusations of treason and attempted murder against another monarch without some hard evidence.
“We need to speak with Vannesh and Palchur,” I said. “They have all the little pieces of this whole thing, so they’ll be best to confirm the bigger picture matches what we’re thinking here.”
The women were already dressed for the day. Carissa and Yori were wearing pants again, and Tanell had joined them in the fashion choice. Serra was the only one of the women in a dress that morning, but it was a simple piece that wouldn’t get in the way of her having to walk around in the grass.
We stood up, and the women fell in behind me as I stepped outside the tent.
Anders was nowhere to be seen, but Reggie was standing guard with another member of my personal security team, Tiberius.
It was the most fitting name I could think of for a man of his size. He was easily four inches taller than me, and I was a pretty tall guy, myself. Tiberius was built like a fucking fridge, and he would have fit right in beside the Mountain and his brother from Game of Thrones.
“Good morning, sire,” Reggie said.
“Morning,” I replied. “Is Anders sleeping?”
“Yes, sire,” Tiberius answered. “Do you need to speak with him?”
“No,” I said. “I was just checking. Actually, we need to speak with Vannesh and Palchur. We’re heading there now.”
“Very good, sire,” Reggie said. “All of you? Or should one of us stay here with the queens?”
“No, we’re all going,” I said and started walking. “Come on.”
The two soldiers fell into position on either side of the women, and I led the short distance across the grass to my Master of Spies’ tent. Master Palchur’s tent was right next to it, but I assumed they’d be in Vannesh’s tent, where all his notes and maps were.
“Master Vannesh,” Reggie announced when we arrived. “His Majesty requests an audience.”
“Yes, yes, come in!” Vannesh called from inside.
The soldier who’d been standing outside Vannesh’s tent pulled the canvas panels open, and the women and I all filed inside.
“Good morning, sire,” Vannesh said.
He looked like he might have gotten about two hours of sleep since I’d seen him last, and I worried about his health.
He was getting on in years, and I suddenly realized he wouldn’t be able to continue doing the job forever.
But that wasn’t something I had the luxury of worrying about at the moment, so I shoved it aside.
Palchur was slumped in a simple wooden chair in the corner. His eyes were closed, but he opened them long enough to greet me and let me know he wasn’t asleep.
“We have a new development.” I cut straight to the point and gestured for Carissa to step forward. “Lady Carissa has learned something about King Giles.”
“Indeed?” Vannesh’s thin mustache twitched with interest. “What have you discovered, Lady Carissa?”
She stepped forward, cleared her throat, and dove into what she’d told us just moments before. With every word she said, Palchur became more and more alert until he stood up and joined us at the table in the middle of the tent.
“Sounds like liger berries,” Palchur said. “Or perhaps thistleroot.”
Carissa nodded. “I thought the same thing.”
“Does it make a difference?” Tanell asked.
“Not really.” Palchur shrugged. “The result is the same if the victim is dosed frequently enough.”
“The problem is,” Vannesh said. “Or at least, Queen Sybil’s problem is that the victim can recover completely if the poison is stopped in time, and it sounds like King Giles caught on early enough.”
“Do you think he knows what’s been happening to him?” Serra asked.
“It’s possible,” Palchur said.
“I think he might have a clue,” Carissa said. “The way he spoke with his healer, it was like he knew someone had been doing it to him rather than it being some unprovoked illness.”
I heaved a deep sigh.
“What do you want to do, sire?” Vannesh asked.
Everyone turned to look at me, and I wished I understood this world’s justice system better.
“What are our options?” I asked. “Can we bring criminal charges against her? She’s a monarch, so do we even have any recourse here? What can we do other than start another war against the Silver Coast?”
“Actually, we have precedent for this,” Serra said.
“We do?” Yori asked.
Palchur’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but he didn’t say anything. Vannesh’s face wore a look of thoughtfulness for a second before he nodded.
“I believe her majesty is correct,” Vannesh said. “There was an instance about four, maybe four and a half, centuries ago… The King of Valnar was accused of butchering his people by the Queen of the Silver Coast.”
“What King of Valnar?” I asked. “They’re a democracy.”
“They weren’t always,” Serra corrected. “He was the last king the nation had. The people had started to revolt, and King Lassar was killing anyone who stepped out of line. The Silver Coast came in to stop him on the grounds of a humanitarian mission. They claimed King Lassar was not only failing at his duty to rule but was also outwardly harming his neighboring countries as well because his people were fleeing his borders and bringing the conflict with them. His soldiers were illegally crossing the borders and assaulting people beyond his rule.”
“Queen Serra is right,” Vannesh said. “We have grounds to intervene if Queen Sybil’s actions are causing direct harm to our people, which they are.”
“Or will be, at least,” Tanell remarked.
“Mmm.” Vannesh nodded.
“Okay, good.” I looked around at each of them. “So how do we do it? What’s the process here?”
“We need to get at least one other monarch to join us in our accusations,” Vannesh said. “I don’t think we’ll have much trouble with that, but who do you trust the most, King Ken?”
The answer to that question was easy and flew out of my mouth before I even had to consider it.
“Doria and Enken,” I said.
“Agreed,” Tanell murmured.