Page 48 of The Study of Poisons
They all chuckled until Valek broke cover. Then they grabbed the hilts of their swords, suddenly all very serious.
Valek raised his hands, showing he was unarmed. “Nice work, Captain.”
“Thanks. Who the hell are you?”
“Adviser Valek.”
The guards laughed, but the captain stared at him. “Where’s your identification papers?”
He spread his arms wide. “Sorry, nopockets.”
“Stand down,” she told her unit, recognizing the code word. “Are you trailing that caravan, sir?”
“I was.”
She pressed a hand to her forehead. “Did I just ruin your operation? Or fail some test?”
“No, to both. You helped, Captain...”
“Unice, sir.”
He explained to Captain Unice, “If you hadn’t stopped them, I would have stayed with them until the end of their journey. Now that I know their destination and alleged cargo, I can go back to the castle. But I’ll need you to send me a report on what your Lieutenant Mell discovers right away.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thank you.”
* * *
To save time,Valek took a direct path, cutting northwest through the Snake Forest until he reached the main east-west road from Castletown to MD-5. The underbrush wasn’t as thick along this route due to the diligent efforts of the Commander’s landscape crew.
Anxious to return and check on Yelena, Valek only stopped for a few hours to rest. When he neared Castletown, he spotted a large group of people on the road, heading toward him. He stepped into the forest when he recognized the green and black colors of their uniforms.
Valek leaned next to a tree as Brazell’s procession passed. Thank fate, the old goat was leaving the castle. One less worry. Then a pang gripped his chest. Would Yelena insist on returning to her room in the servants’ wing? The strength of his reaction shouldn’t have surprised him. He’d been enjoying sharing his apartment with her even though he knew he should keep his distance. But the thought of her unprotected… No. She would remain with him. Unless she wished to return to her own room. He wouldn’t order her to stay.
He increased his pace, reaching the castle in the afternoon. It’d been four days since they parted in the forest, and, as much as he wanted to find Yelena, he needed food, a bath, and a nap. But he stopped in Kenda’s office to ensure Yelena had returned from the fugitive exercise and was in good health.
“Everything’s fine,” Kenda assured him. “Do you want Hildred and Inrick to stop trailing her now that Brazell and his goons are gone?”
Did he? No. Not really. Not ever. But the danger with Brazell was gone, and she was smart enough to avoid trouble. Plus, it was an invasion of her privacy and, if he wanted her to trust him and become part of his team, it had to stop. “Yes. But not until tomorrow.”
“Got it.”
He asked her to assign a couple agents to find out more about Brazell’s new factory and to stake out that route in the woods to see who else was using it.
“On it,” she said.
Satisfied, he left. The hot water of his bath drained his remaining energy. Good thing he’d eaten before the long soak, or he wouldn’t have had the energy to chew. He fell into his bed with a sigh.
* * *
When he woke,it was dark. He worried he’d slept through his nightly meeting with the Commander, but he’d only been asleep a few hours. He opened his door, grabbed the top of the doorframe, and swung over the powder on the floor, landing lightly. The lanterns downstairs had been lit. He crept down the steps and spotted Yelena on the couch reading. The part of him that needed to see her whole and hale with his own eyes relaxed. Another part chided him.She’s resourceful, it said.
But just how resourceful, Valek wondered. What would she do if someone had snuck into their apartment to ambush her? Why not test her? He retreated to the big sitting room at the opposite end of the hall from his bedroom. The upper floor was almost identical to the lower level. In the fifteen years Valek lived here, he’d managed to fill up both with books, rocks, and oddities. He picked up a heavy tome and slammed it on the floor approximately over Yelena’s location. Then he found a dark corner to wait.
It wasn’t long before she arrived at the top of the steps with a lantern in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other. That was a surprise. And the lantern would make it harder for him to remain hidden. She was methodical, checking the sitting room slow enough for him to keep out of the lantern’s light. Except when something scared her, and she yipped. He ducked as she spun around. After a few moments, she resumed her search, opening the doors to the three rooms off the sitting room and peeking inside. All filled with junk. He really needed to clean everything out.
When she went down the hall to his bedroom, Valek stayed at the top of the stairs. Would she go in? Did he want her to? She shone the light along the floor, revealing the white powder. Yelena must have figured out what the undisturbed powder meant because she turned back to check the rooms along the hallway. There were three and only one of them contained anything personal.
