Page 23 of The Study of Poisons
He studied her sour expression. “Are you sure?”
“Oh, yes. If the Commander says she can live, then all I can do is make her life miserable.”
Classic bully tactics. It would be interesting to see how Yelena handled it. At least he’d eliminated Margg as a suspect. And while he didn’t like her bullying Yelena and could easily order Margg to refrain from tormenting her, he needed to keep his distance. His enemies would target Yelena if they knew he cared for her. Besides, there were a few others who felt the same way as Margg, and Yelena needed to learn how to defend herself and how to ignore the comments.
“Were you waiting for me?” he asked Margg.
“Yes. I’ve a meeting with Star tonight. What information should I sell her?”
“Tell her the new food taster passed the test and detectedallthe poisons.”
“All?” Her confusion cleared. “Ah. That’s why you asked me about poisoning her.” Instead of being offended, she laughed.
It was a hardy guffaw. Valek stared. He’d never heard her laugh before. Or smile.
“You think…I…tried to kill…her,” she gasped out between chuckles.
“Glad I could amuse you.”
She used a corner of her apron to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “I’m glad my feelings for the new taster are apparent.”
“You don’t do subtle.”
“I’m too old for subtle.”
“Can we get back on track? I want you to let Star know that the new food taster is one of the best. And that she’s been taken under my wing as I don’t have the time or the inclination to train another prisoner. Star’s payment for the information will let us know if it’s news to her or not.”
“A low payment means she knows.”
“Right.”
“Anything else?”
“No. Hopefully she’ll let you know what type of intelligence she’s looking for.”
“All right.” Margg left.
And now Valek had to figure out why Rand would poison Yelena. The cook appeared to enjoy her company. Or had that been a ruse to get information from her? Knowledge, he sold to Star? The only motive Valek could think of was that Star paid Rand to poison Yelena. Although he had no idea why she’d care about the food taster. Yelena could be a good source of intelligence on the Commander.
Valek had already warned Yelena away from Rand and that had only increased her determination to ignore his advice. Valek would need to show her evidence. She wouldn’t take him at his word that Rand had both the opportunity and the means—brewing blackberry poison was complicated.
Not at this point. Was he hopeful that she’d trust him at some point in time? Yes. Which meant he’d have to trust her, too.
* * *
Valek joinedthe Commander in the war room for an early dinner. Now that he knew Rand had access to blackberry poison, Valek would have to find it and replace it with a substance that looked the same so Rand would believe he still had the poison but couldn’t harm anyone if he decided to try again. Valek could just arrest the cook for possession of an illegal substance, but where was the fun in that? Rand would eventually provide him plenty of information about Star’s network.
He updated the Commander on Yelena’s test and his theories about Rand and took extra care in tasting his dinner.
“Our new food taster is already causing considerable trouble,” the Commander said. “Why don’t we just hang her and train the next prisoner on the execution schedule?”
The blood in Valek’s veins turned to ice. “That would be Serra. She poisoned her husband.”
Ambrose laughed. “She already has the skills and it’s a perfect punishment.”
Valek wasn’t amused. “She has the skills to poisonyou.”
“They all do, Valek. Once you train them, they learn how to bypass the standard tasting techniques…what did you call them?”
