Page 21 of The Study of Poisons
Or just confident? He hesitated. She’d called him a liar and Valek didn’t take orders. He gave them. This was a classic delay tactic. Eventually he would have to… He shied away from that thought.Might as well humor her.
Valek sipped the juice. He met her gaze as he rolled the liquid around his tongue. A sharp, bitter taste filled his mouth. He spat.
“Blackberry poison,” she said in triumph.
“Yes.” Valek examined the cup in his hand. It looked like the one he’d pulled aside earlier. He glanced at the table, seeking another one that might be similar. None of them matched.
“I passed?”
He nodded, but his thoughts remained on the goblet. He returned to his desk and set it down. It had been there the entire time he laced the other dishes. It couldn’t have been poisoned…unless it was spiked before coming to his office. No. He choose that cup at random. Which meant either Rand or Margg poisoned it when he was distracted by Hildred.
“I should have known you would try to trick me.” Anger filled Yelena’s voice.
He met her gaze. “You’re all fired up. And it isn’t because of the test. Explain yourself.”
“Explain? Why doIhave to explain? Maybeyoushould explain why you read my journal.”
“Journal?” Valek looked at her in amazement. That was the last thing he’d expected her to say. “I didn’t read anything of yours. But if I had, it would have been within my rights.”
“Why?” she demanded.
A few weeks of freedom and she already thinks she has the right to privacy. That she has any rights. Doesn’t she understand she’s still a prisoner and willalwaysbe one until she dies?A fact he also needed to remember before he became too attached to her. He quickly squashed the “too late” that popped up in the back of his mind.
Valek opened his mouth, then shut it before he said something he’d regret. When the right words formed, he said, “Yelena, you confessed to murder. You were caught straddling Reyad’s body with a bloody knife in your hand. I searched your file for a motive. There was none. Only a report that you refused to answer all questions.”
He moved closer. “Since I don’t know what motivates you to kill, I can’t predict if you’ll do it again or what might set you off. I’m bound by the Code of Behavior, so I had to offer you the choice of becoming the new food taster.” And then the Commander linked their fates to give him the extra motivation to train her thoroughly, so she not only passed the test but excelled as a food taster. Valek drew a deep breath and continued. “You’ll be very close to the Commander on a daily basis. Until I can trust you, I’ll be watching you.”
The fire in her eyes died. “How do I win your trust?”
Tell me about what happened at Brazell’s, about Reyad, and everything about you.He knew she wouldn’t confide in him, so he settled on the most pressing question. “Tell me why you killed Reyad.”
“You’re not ready to believe me.”
An interesting response. Was he ready? Valek gazed at the conference table. Someone had poisoned that cup for reasons unknown. At this point, Valek couldn’t trust anyone.
“You’re right,” he said.
“I passed your test. I want my antidote.”
At least he’d been right. She not only passed his test, but also survived a murder attempt. He filled a pipette with her “antidote” and handed it to her.
“Now what?” she asked.
He glanced out the windows. “Lunch! We’re late.”
She squeezed the White Fright into her mouth as they hurried from the office. Valek set a quick pace. He hoped the Commander’s anger would be tempered by the fact Yelena passed and he no longer had to rely on Valek, who tended to lose track of time.
An argument replaced the usual buzz of voices in the throne room. The Commander leaned against a desk near a knot of advisers and officers. Two obvious factions faced each other, debating a tactical operation. Adviser Tocara and Captain Etta claimed a dog team with a squad of soldiers could find an escaped prisoner in no time, while Adviser Felo and Captain Parffet countered that a highly skilled tracking team didn’t need dogs to outsmart a fugitive.
As Valek wove through the desks, he noted the dispute lacked anger. The Commander enjoyed presenting a problem to his team to see what strategies they would use to solve it. In this case, Valek knew the reason for this debate.
He joined the Commander and listened. Yelena hovered behind them. No doubt the discussion of escaping to Sitia would interest her.
For this particular deliberation, the advisers presented their plan, and the captains would, in theory, carry it out. Valek would bet a couple coins on the dog team except Parffet had a number of impressive soldiers in his unit, including his new scouts— Ari and Janco, the power twins.
Valek glanced over his shoulder to ask Yelena her opinion but paused. She was biting down on her knuckle as if in great pain. Then she eased up and inspected her finger. Her teeth had broken the skin and blood welled. That explained the scars on her hands. Anger rose. What had happened to her that she’d needed to suppress her emotions?
She caught him staring and shoved her hands behind her back. He returned his attention to the discussion.
