Chapter 11 #2
“On the contrary, I’ve merely proven what I claimed before: I’m not your accomplice…
though I’m willing to be persuaded if your current mischief is intriguing enough.
” He turned his attention to the blank panel I’d been examining when he snuck up on me.
“You do seem to like your walls. What plot are you concocting now?”
I hesitated. I had no reason to share my suspicions that a random painting was missing. Yet our banter hadn’t fully eclipsed the lingering relief at his reappearance, the familiarity his presence brought in this strange new world, the sense that I wasn’t alone.
“I’m wondering what happened to the painting that used to hang here,” I confessed.
His brow furrowed as he carefully examined the wall. A flicker of recognition momentarily flitted across his expression before fading into puzzlement as he took a faltering step backward. “I don’t remember there being a painting hanging here.”
But he spoke with the same uncertainty that had cloaked him when we’d been discussing whether or not he’d vanished, giving me another reason to wonder if his memories had slipped away, contained only in the objects that belonged to him.
My need to touch one in order to explore the stories it contained grew.
“Could you describe it?” he asked after a moment.
“I’m afraid I don’t remember myself.” It was an embarrassing admission, but he almost seemed not to have heard it. His gaze remained fixed on the blank wall, as if in a trance. After a moment, he hypnotically reached his hand out, fingers brushing the outline of where it had once hung.
A hum of magic filled the air as the wall responded to his touch—a brief flicker, during which I could have sworn the painting momentarily materialized in a blur of color and shape, too briefly to discern the details…
before disappearing once more. Evander gasped and yanked his hand away, as if he’d been burnt.
My breath caught. “What just happened?”
He said nothing, simply continued to stare at the wall with wide eyes, as if trying to look beyond the empty space to the vanished painting neither of us could longer see.
After an extended moment, he finally looked away.
“This castle contains many mysteries, though nothing that can’t be explained away with the enchantments said to be protecting the palace. ”
What had just happened went well beyond a mere mystery or protective enchantment. “Something more than magic appears to be at play.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps, but likely nothing that warrants such study. Is there a reason you’re so fixated on this particular anomaly?”
Once more I hesitated. The vanished painting was only one of a myriad of strange occurrences. How could I explain that my own memories seemed to be blurred, or that the reality where I found myself wasn’t how I remembered it?
I couldn’t resist exploring one of the riddles that had haunted me ever since waking, especially when it had so conveniently materialized before me.
If this strange man who disappeared and reappeared on a whim really was a figment of my imagination, it wouldn’t hurt to see what he might know about the surreal changes.
“Other than the missing painting, does anything else about this place seem…strange to you?”
He tilted his head. “In what way?”
There was no simple way to ask if the world we’d known before falling asleep was the one we currently inhabited. The inquiry alone should have been enough to invite his observations should he have noticed anything.
At my prolonged silence, he looked around, as if he could find the changes I spoke of arranged as tidily as the portraits lining the walls. “Everything appears as it should. I’m curious—what about the world seems peculiar to you?”
I struggled to put my misgivings into words. It was more than being heralded as a princess, or that time seemed to melt away whenever I fell asleep—it was the world itself, as if the colors and shapes didn’t quite align, though I couldn’t pinpoint examples.
“It just seems different from what I remember,” I murmured.
He stared at me a moment longer, appearing conflicted, as if debating how much to reveal. “Now that you mention it, something unusual occurred only this morning.”
I leaned forward eagerly. “What was it?”
His lips twitched. “I noticed a suspicious woman watching me from the roof of the palace. She not only followed me, but tried to scale the wall in torn silk. Does that classify as unusual to you? It was certainly a new experience for me.”
I scoffed, hating myself for having fallen for such an obvious trick.
“I was not inquiring after details I’m already intimately aware of.
” I frowned. Wait, had he mentioned that this event occurred only this morning?
Which likely meant he hadn’t noticed the passage of several days between our first interaction and our second.
“Then unfortunately I have nothing more to offer,” he said. “Other than you, everything is as it’s always been.”
I studied him carefully. I detected no sign of deceit, and it unsettled me that I seemed to be the only one feeling out of place.
If the world truly hadn’t changed, then why had the guards failed to see him?
How had he vanished? And why did the empty space on the wall feel like it contained a portion of the answers I desperately sought?
Before I had a chance to explore any of his riddles further, he interrupted. “As fun as a game of Twenty Questions is, I have official business with you.”
“You mean you didn’t seek me out just to torment me?” My sarcastic quip couldn’t disguise the protective shield I’d just erected. “What sort of business?” I hedged.
“Are you still interested in joining forces?”
I blinked in surprise. “Join forces? I never claimed to want to work with you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I seem to recall you trying to rope me in as an accomplice in your scheme to evade the guards. If you’re only interested in receiving my assistance when you’re in need without any inclination to offer yours in return, that, my dear, is a double standard. Quite dishonorable for a thief.”
I tightened my jaw. Considering he had offered no true help when I needed it, I refused to allow myself to feel duty-bound to assist him now. However, curiosity warred with my irritation. “What sort of help do you require?”
He grinned. “All in due time. You appear to appreciate a good mystery.”
While that was true, I didn’t like the idea of striking a bargain with so little information on what exactly I was getting myself into. But my wariness wasn’t strong enough to immediately reject him. “You want my help, I want answers. If I agree, what’s in it for me?”
He studied me a measured moment, letting the silence stretch.
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
“Then perhaps a trade is in order.” He leaned closer, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
“Perhaps we can exchange what you love best: secrets. For I know more about what’s going on in this world than I’ve told you. ”
The offer was quite tempting. The more I learned about this strange reality, the better I’d be able to navigate it…
and perhaps even find a way to eventually leave.
Yet I remained wary. “I’m reluctant to assist a man who has yet to assist me in return, both at the palace wall and when the guards surrounded me. ”
He shrugged. “Surely the gamble only makes my offer all the more intriguing.”
As much as I was loathe to admit it, the risk did make me more inclined to accept. I silently cursed my tendency to waltz with danger, especially one carefully concealed behind a handsome face, flirtatious manner, and charming smile. I sighed in defeat and the corners of his lips turned up.
He extended his hand to seal the promise…
but still I didn’t take it. Irritated at his obvious expectation of victory, I lifted my chin and evenly met his gaze.
“You appear to know little about the one whose aid you’re seeking.
My services aren’t so easily rendered, especially to a man who’s not only done little to prove himself to me, but is still very much a stranger. ”
“On the contrary: you’re the true stranger,” he said. “I’ve given you my name, but have yet to receive yours in return. It’s not every day a beautiful maiden spies on me from the roof. Can you blame me for my curiosity, the very trait you yourself appear to deeply value?”
Though his flirting was undoubtedly insincere, my heart couldn’t resist twinging at the compliment before I could check it.
The smooth words contained a hint of both teasing and flirtation, but he’d chosen the wrong victim for such a tactic—I’d engaged in enough fake flirting to know how the game was played.
I cycled through my prepared list of charming phrases… yet for the first time I came up blank.
“Names are unnecessary in a purely business arrangement,” I stuttered. “Calling me thief will be sufficient.”
The pseudonym created a necessary barrier that would make it easier to keep my rising emotions untangled from my work; I needed to counter the strange attraction he stirred within me.
The longer our interaction, the more certain I was that he was an illusion tempting me from my true purpose… and like a fool, I was falling for it.
He shook his head. “No, I want your name. If you hope to uncover the information I hold, the least you can do is offer something in return.”
I felt another flare of irritation that once more he felt the need to call my honor into question, yet still I hesitated.
“If you’re still reluctant, perhaps we can play a game, with your name as the prize?” he offered.
Normally I would thrill in such an exchange, but not only had I finally met a worthy opponent whom I wasn’t confident enough to beat, but now the stakes felt more personal, a feeling that frightened me more than the possibility of being unable to escape this strange place.
“There’s no need,” I said hastily. “My name is Sable.” I fought to keep my voice even to mask the lie, but it trembled slightly…as if a secret part of me wanted him to discover my real name.
“Like the color of the night?” He snorted. “As much as it suits you, I’m certain that’s not your real name. I know names signify trust—a thief’s greatest currency—which takes time to forge. I will be content for now until you not only come to trust me, but call me the man of your dreams.”
I rolled my eyes in an exaggerated display of contempt at such an ambition, anxious to convince both him and myself that such a sentiment would never leave my lips.
“If you truly were the man of my dreams, you would know that I despise foolish wordplay when there is work to be done.”
Evander gave me a long, thoughtful look; I fought to retain a calm, bored expression as it felt that he gazed far beneath my carefully polished veneer.
In the same way that I patiently uncovered the truth one layer of memory at a time, it seemed as though he now delved into the core of my true self.
“My apologies,” he said simply after a few moments of taut silence. “But you have to admit that you’ve been the one dodging questions and delaying us…when you aren’t climbing walls or looking for missing paintings.”
I glared at him. If this was the game he wanted to play…little did he know he’d just engaged a master player, one who was determined to do all within her power to beat him.