Chapter 23
Aliya
Aliya peeked down the cobweb-covered passageway from the safety of the door the guard held open for her. He was the same man who had informed her of the discovery. Her father, the former Baron Larimar, was already there, studying the scene. Somehow, he was always far too in-the-know for her liking.
“What happened?” Aliya asked him.
“Hmm.” He stood, brushing his palms on his pants. “Someone murdered Lord Macherall and three of his guards.”
Taking a few steps into the passage, she bent to study the footprints and drag marks in the dust covering the ground. Prior to today, this tunnel looked like it hadn’t been used in decades.
Aliya peeked over her shoulder at the guard. “Who found this?”
“I did,” her father answered.
She frowned. “But how?” Malkov wouldn’t have trusted her father with secrets such as this.
Though her father had been a sycophant with the former king, she’d seen the flashes of disgust that flitted across Malkov’s face whenever his gaze passed over the baron.
No, her ex-husband hadn’t thought highly of her father at all.
“Whoever killed them didn’t do a good job of disposing of the bodies. They left the door cracked open,” her father said. “I just happened to be walking by.”
Convenient. “And you didn’t think to keep it quiet?”
He turned his attention to her. “I thought to send a runner to inform you.” His eyes flicked over her shoulder to where she could feel Elessan standing, close enough the heat radiated from his chest. “In case you were in danger.”
She narrowed her eyes at the implication Elessan would ever harm her. But then, this was the man who’d sold her in marriage to Malkov, knowing full well Malkov intended to kill her for her magic, so his opinion on who was dangerous to her was worthless.
Instead, she crossed her arms and ignored the implied insult. “And what have you found?”
He grunted. “They were poisoned, likely with Faun’s Lock.”
No news there. “I’m surprised you were able to deduce the cause so quickly.” Especially when she hadn’t heard of the plant until today.
The baron’s lips pulled down as he narrowed his eyes. “What have I always told you? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right?”
She nodded. It was why he’d taught her the Elven language, after all.
“Faun’s Lock is one of their better-known poisons.”
Aliya fought to maintain her neutral expression.
“If you say so.” But the way Elessan reacted back in the Council Chamber had her wondering if there was more to it than that.
“Any concrete leads on who may have done it? Or are we still at the conjecture stage?” The time when it was apparently acceptable to hurl baseless accusations at Elessan because he’d been talking to the lord earlier and the murder weapon happened to be elven poison.
“Nothing quite yet, I’m afraid,” her father answered. “But I’m sure once I get the bodies to the alchemists, they’ll get this sorted out.”
Aliya blinked. She hadn’t realized she had access to alchemists, but that had been naive. She was the queen—her resources would extend to the whole of the realm and all its contents.
He turned back to the body but paused. “I did find this,” he said, pulling a glove from his pocket. “I assume it belonged to the perpetrator.”
Aliya took it. The fabric was crimson and black—Cerel colors, and made of a stretchy material she’d never seen. It was designed to fit anyone. They wouldn’t be able to use it to narrow down the suspects.
“Please keep me informed.” Handing it back to him, she spun, nodding for Elessan to precede her before glancing over her shoulder. “The dead guards, what are their names?” She should make a point to inform their families personally, as a show of appreciation and respect for their service.
Her father took a deep breath. “Dillan Ishan, Regis Durack and Lataren Ridley.”
Aliya shut the door to her private suite and leaned against it with a sigh.
Elessan stalked across the room and positioned himself where he could stare out the window into the darkness.
This late in the day, there was nothing to see out there beyond the residual glow from the coals from Roland’s bonfire, so he was definitely brooding.
Crossing her arms, she pressed her hip into the door. “Spill it, El. What’s going on?” He had to know she didn’t suspect him, right?
“You need to throw me in the dungeon,” he said.
“What?” she yelped. She’d misheard. She must have. “But you didn’t do it.”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. It’s obvious someone staged the whole thing to make it seem like I did. You can’t show me favoritism by not treating me as you would any other guard or nobleman suspected of a crime.”
Maybe that was something Malkov would’ve done, but…
“I don’t like the idea of people being guilty until proven otherwise.
That kind of thinking paves the way for punishment for baseless accusations.
Imagine if I imprisoned everyone who had a disagreement with their neighbor and got accused of theft or whatever?
We’d run out of space in the dungeons and have a lot of innocent people locked up.
And it would be a needless drain on our resources.
” Not to mention she only had a handful of jail cells near the front gate and one tiny room below the guard tower—the oubliette.
The guards would no doubt toss him there rather than the more comfortable options.
“Perhaps,” he said, glancing at her. “But you can’t show favoritism.”
She sighed, running a hand through her hair. “El, did you do it?”
His eyebrows furrowed. “No, of course not. Like I said—”
Waving a hand, she cut him off. “Then I’m not going to throw you in the dungeon.
That’s the end of it.” The windowless cell was so narrow he wouldn’t be able to stand or lay down comfortably.
Plus, unless the guards took pity on him and left a torch, he’d be in pitch blackness the entire time.
It was dank, and reeked of mildew and waste.
Shaking her head, she crossed the room and took his hands in hers.
“We’ll figure this out. My father’s smart, as much as I hate to admit it.
He’ll chase down a few leads for us.” Hopefully like he would with Brooks and the remaining Whisperers.
“Meow?”
Aliya jumped as Shadow leaped from somewhere high—likely the top of one of Malkov’s bookshelves—onto his desk.
Aliya shook her head, wincing as she glanced around the room.
Her bookshelves, her desk. She needed to quit thinking of this as Malkov’s study.
She was the queen—everything in this wing was hers now.
Tossing that uncomfortable line of thought aside for the moment, she fixed Shadow with a firm glare. “What, exactly, did you say to Roland that has him in such a tizzy?”
Shadow glared before licking her nose at Elessan.
Aliya released him and put her hands on her hips, turning the full power of her stare onto the cat. “Out with it. He must have said something to set you off.”
With a final huff, Shadow twitched her tail. “That male said all sorts of vile, inappropriate things, none of which I will be repeating here,” Shadow said, her claws extending and digging into the wood at the memory.
Elessan sighed, stalking to the far side of the room, electing to give them a small bit of privacy.
“Your response caused him to shred the agreement Tsara and I worked tirelessly to develop and burn it in a bonfire, along with all the food their portion of the treaty required!”
“I’m well aware of what he did, child. You think I don’t have eyes?”
Aliya wiped her hand across her face so hard it ripped some loose strands of hair that had the misfortune of falling into her eyes from her scalp. “Now we’re in a worse place than before I left, and even more desperate for allies and funds to help the people survive the coming winter!”
She wrinkled her nose, determined not to sniffle and betray how badly her eyes were burning. “I trusted you to maintain the status quo for a few days—a few stinking days—and I come back to a broken trade agreement and our most powerful ally storming out!”
Shadow hissed. “You don’t want to wed that self-centered, egotistical—”
“I wasn’t going to marry him!” She was shouting, and the guards could likely hear her through the door, but she didn’t care. “The treaty didn’t require it!”
Shadow flicked her tail, knocking a couple of pieces of paper off the desk.
“Foolish child. You would’ve had a hard time keeping that contract in place without tying yourself to the bastard.
Trust me, once elves decide they want something, they are single-minded in acquiring it.
” She slitted her eyes. “Your adopted father did you no favors when he proposed your marriage to that knife-ears.”
Spinning on her heel, Aliya stormed to the hearth where she started to pace.
“And now I have no official allies and am surrounded by nobles and guards who would happily see me dead at Brooks’ hands.
” Swallowing, she took several deep breaths until she was sure her voice wouldn’t tremble.
She stared into the flames, letting her vision lose focus.
“There’s no one left I can trust,” she whispered.
“You can trust me.” Elessan’s quiet words rumbled across the room, the note of hurt in his tone further twisting the knife in her heart.
“Not if I arrest you like you want me to,” she muttered.
He opened his mouth but closed it again, his gaze drifting to the hearth as he skulked near the far wall.
“And you can trust me,” Shadow said, not to be outdone.
Aliya narrowed her eyes. “Can I, though? You’re so biased against the elves you can’t take a few minutes to see how we would benefit from working with them instead of in opposition to them.”