Page 3 of The Study of Poisons
“Good. Now take another sip. This time roll the liquid around your tongue before swallowing.”
Her dirty face creased as she concentrated. “Orange?”
Erasing that questioning tone would come once she grew confident in her abilities.Ifshe survived the tests. “That’s right. Now gargle it.”
“Gargle?”
Valek nodded. Every food taster he’d trained had asked the same thing with the same startled expression.
She gargled and just about choked on the liquid. “Rotten oranges!”
He laughed at her outraged and slightly indignant cry, happy that she succeeded. Some people just didn’t have a suitable sense of taste and would never have picked up the White Fright. Valek handed her his goblet and asked her to repeat the experiment.
Yelena sipped the drink, then hesitated before she squared her shoulders and gargled. Her posture relaxed.
“Better?” He took the now empty cup from her.
“Yes.”
He sat down and opened her file. Dipping his quill in ink, he noted her reactions and how quickly she detected the White Fright. However, he wasn’t about to tell her what she’d ingested wasn’t a poison.
Instead, he said, “You just had your first lesson in food tasting. Your drink was laced with a poison called Butterfly’s Dust. Mine wasn’t. The only way to detect Butterfly’s Dust in a liquid is to gargle it. That rotten-orange flavor you tasted was the poison.”
A brief memory of a bright yellow butterfly landing on his hand flashed in his mind. He’d been with his brother Vincent, and they had stared in wonder as the rare creature pulsed its wings. When it flew away, it left behind a light covering of pale-yellow dust on his palm. He’d thought it was an excellent name for a fake poison.
Yelena stood on shaky legs. “Is it lethal?”
“A big enough dose will kill you in two days. The symptoms don’t arrive until the second day, but by then it’s too late.”
“Did I have a lethal dose?”
“Of course. Anything less and you wouldn’t have tasted the poison.” Valek studied her. Would she faint? Or vomit? Or scream obscenities at him? All three had happened in the past.
Except she did none of those things.
“I warned you the training would be dangerous. But I would hardly give you a poison your body had to fight while you suffered from malnutrition. There is an antidote to Butterfly’s Dust.” He picked up the small vial of White Fright from his desk and showed it to her.
She swayed with relief and sank into the chair with a sigh.
“In answer to the question you didn’t ask but should have, this—” Valek held up the vial and shook it “—is how we keep the Commander’s food taster from escaping.”
A little ridge of skin puckered between her dark eyebrows as she stared at him.
“Yelena, you confessed to murder. We would be fools to let you serve the Commander without some guarantees. Guards watch the Commander at all times, and it is doubtful you would be able to reach him with a weapon. For other forms of retaliation, we use Butterfly’s Dust.” He twirled the vial of White Fright in the sunlight. “You need a daily dose of this to stay alive. The antidote keeps the poison from killing you. As long as you show up each morning in my office, I will give you the antidote. Miss one morning and you’ll be dead by the next. Commit a crime or an act of treason and you’ll be sent back to the dungeon until the poison takes you. I would avoid that fate if I were you. The poison causes severe stomach cramps and uncontrollable vomiting.”
Well, the White Fright would cause those symptoms if she missed a daily dose of it. If she believed the “antidote” would keep her alive, she wouldn’t miss a single day. The ruse made his life easier.
As Yelena grappled with the information, the door to Valek’s office opened. Margg, his and the Commander’s housekeeper, entered. The stout woman would take the new food taster in hand and get her settled. He introduced her to Yelena. Margg shot him an irritated I’m-not-a-babysitter look. Valek ignored it. Margg was perpetually annoyed.
When Margg left, expecting Yelena to follow her, Yelena paused and glanced at the vial on his desk. Too late for questions now. Valek had a busy afternoon scheduled.
“Come to my office tomorrow morning. Margg will direct you.”
After a slight hesitation, she followed Margg.
Valek mulled over the encounter. His newest food taster appeared to be intelligent and quick to learn. But would she be able to handle the pressure from multiple sources? The Commander was demanding and intimidating. Margg hated the rule that murderers could avoid the noose by becoming the food taster. And some of the guards agreed with Margg and harassed the taster whenever possible. Brazell would find out about her new position when he attended the execution and a different prisoner was led to the gallows. Would Brazell demand the Commander find another food taster?
Time would tell if Yelena would last more than a season. In the meantime, Valek had plenty of other problems to solve.
