Page 110 of The Study of Poisons
“I’ll keep an eye on her as much as I can. If things get too hot, she’s smart enough to escape.”
“She should have done a runner like that chef. I wouldn’t have blamed her,” Janco said.
Valek would fill them in later about Rand’s fate. Right now, he had to hurry. Once outside the barracks, he took off his jacket and turned it inside out, transforming the basic soldier’s uniform into one that the valets wore. He entered the house and strode through the magic-filled halls as if he belonged.
The manor wasn’t as big as the Commander’s castle nor as chaotically constructed. It was a large four-story structure with two wings, resembling a square with only three sides. All the generals’ manors matched so none of them could complain of being slighted. The similar layout worked very well for Valek and his agents. He was familiar with the design, and he headed straight toward Brazell’s office.
He arrived just in time to see the Commander’s advisers being led out and escorted to the guest wing. The Commander and Yelena must still be inside. Not a good sign.
Ducking around a corner, Valek debated if he should charge into the office. He imagined Mogkan had trapped Yelena with his magic so Brazell could kill her. Returning to the door, he pressed as close as possible without touching it. Voices sounded, but none of them were Yelena’s.
“I’ll bet two silvers she doesn’t last two days,” a man said.
Valek glanced to his left. Two muscular soldiers headed toward him.
“I’ll bet two silvers she’s already dead,” the other man said. “Hey, you, what are you doing? Eavesdropping?” he called to Valek.
Valek smiled. “I’ll bet a gold that the general will make a big public display of her execution.”
“Ho boy, that’ll be fun, letting everyone watch that murderer die.”
“Do you take the bet?” Valek asked.
“No way, that sounds like something the general would do.”
“Too bad.” Valek walked away while the guards knocked on the door and entered the office.
Once again ducking around the corner, Valek waited, listening for any cries or sounds that Yelena needed his help. The two goons reappeared, but they were too focused on Yelena to notice him. She walked between them, looking small and fragile. Boy were they in for a surprise.
He followed as they led her to the guest wing and locked her into a room. That was a good sign that Brazell planned to wait to kill her. It gave Valek some time to figure out how to stop him.
Returning to Brazell’s office, he loitered nearby. Eventually, Mogkan escorted the Commander from the room to his quarters. Valek trailed behind, noting which guest room they assigned to the Commander. Valek might end up kidnapping the man in order to save his life.
* * *
Valek leftthe manor and followed the scent of Criollo, tracking it until he found Brazell’s new factory. The long, narrow building had two silos on the northern end and a brick smokestack. The surrounding air was thick with magic. Valek hid behind a pile of black coal to assess the situation.
The Sitian beans poured from the base of the silos and were transported via conveyor into the interior. He needed to get inside, so he joined the flow of people carrying burlap bags from nearby wagons to a table. There they were cut open with a knife and their contents—beans—were dumped into a hopper.
The workers ignored him and, after noting their blank expressions, Valek figured out why. They’d been eating Criollo. Or were they? With all the magic in the air, he wondered if the magic was infused into the Criollo. Except, if that were the case, he would have sensed the magic when he touched the dessert. His knife with the King’s blood always felt sticky with magic. Unless food had different properties?
Did it matter? The combination of Criollo and magic caused a person to lose their soul, for lack of a better word. The Criollo factory needed to be shut down. Valek planned to burn it down and destroy every piece of the cursed dessert. But first, he wanted to inspect it. No one in their present state of mind would bother to stop him or call out an alarm.
Inside, the beans were fed into large roasters. Heat poured from them, and the fire roared as workers shoveled coal, keeping it hot. After being roasted, the beans were dumped onto large tables where more people pounded on them with mallets. The debris was sorted either into the trash or onto steel rollers where the nibs turned to a paste.
Fascinated by the process, Valek followed the manufacturing line. The paste ended up in a steel vat where sugar, and butter were mixed with large paddles until it smoothed into a brown liquid. The end product was spooned into molds to harden. Considering the large stacks of Criollo on the tables, the factory produced quite a bit of inventory.
The workers were covered in sweat and stained with Criollo, indicating it was a labor-intensive endeavor. And expensive, as that pile of coal wasn’t cheap, nor was purchasing and shipping the illegal goods from Sitia. Why would Brazell wish to manufacture it? Was it not available for sale in Sitia?
About to leave, Valek spotted his two agents mixing a vat of Criollo. They didn’t recognize him, nor did they understand his hand signals. At least now he knew what had happened to them. He fervently hoped that once a person stopped eating Criollo, the magic no longer worked on them.
* * *
Valek returnedto the manor house and kept a low profile during the next few days. It appeared Yelena alternated between tasting the Commander’s food and being locked in her room. However, she was allowed to join the Commander and advisers during their tour of the factory.
If he needed evidence that Criollo stole a person’s will, he had it by observing the advisers’ expressions as they chomped down bar after bar of the dessert. The magic also swelled around Mogkan. He moved through the group of the Commanders’ advisers, talking to each one, touching them on the hand. Yelena avoided eating the dessert, which was good. But now that the advisers were also under Mogkan’s influence, she was in danger.
Valek followed the group to the manor house. Yelena was escorted back to her room and the tightness around Valek’s chest eased. He waited until darkness, then found a hidden spot to watch Yelena’s window. She’d claimed her actions with Star had been based on what she thought he would do, so he hoped Yelena recognized the danger and planned to escape tonight.
