Page 50 of The Study of Poisons
Valek analyzed not only her tone, but her word choice, and determined she didn’t really want to leave. Or was that just wishful thinking? “No. You’re still in danger. The magician hasn’t been dealt with yet.” Which was true. He returned to work and waited for her reaction.
After a few long minutes, she asked, “Exactly how do you deal with a magician?”
He twisted in his seat and met her gaze. Didn’t she remember their earlier conversation? “I’ve told you before.”
“But their powers…”
Ah, she was worried he couldn’t protect her. “Have no effect on me. When I get close, I can feel their power pressing and vibrating on my skin and moving toward them is like walking through thick syrup. It takes effort, but I always win in the end. Always.”
“How close?”
It depended on the strength of the magician. But was she looking for comfort or information she could relay to the southern magician? He hedged. “I have to be in the same room.”
She relaxed as if reassured. “Why didn’t you kill the southern magician at the festival?”
Because he was more worried about Yelena at the time. “Yelena, I’m not invincible. Fighting four men while she threw every ounce of her power at me was exhausting. Chasing her down would have been a fruitless endeavor.”
She mulled over his explanation. “Is being resistant to magic a form of magic?”
Not this again. Every single one of his adversaries had tried to use that logic to persuade the Commander that Valek should be executed as a magician. “No.”
“What about the knife?” She gestured to the weapon.
It hung on the wall in the center of his collection. Bright red blood stained the blade. Still wet after fifteen years.
Understanding her logic, Valek laughed. “That was the knife I used to kill the King.Hewas a magician. When his magic couldn’t stop me from plunging that knife into his heart, he cursed me with his dying breath. It was rather melodramatic. He willed that I should be plagued with guilt over his murder and have his blood stain my hands forever. With my peculiar immunity to magic, the curse attached to the knife instead of me.” Valek remembered the King’s desperate bribes for his life. He’d offered his daughter, money, and power. But he couldn’t give Valek his heart’s desire—his three older brothers alive and well. “It was a shame to lose my favorite blade, but it does make for a nice trophy.”
CHAPTER11
That night, Valek joined the Commander in his suite. As Valek sat on the couch, he noticed a bowl filled with those brown squares…Criollo. Odd. Ambrose never ate this late at night. And he rarely indulged in sweets.
Ambrose noticed the direction of his gaze. “Don’t worry. Yelena has checked them.” He handed Valek a tumbler. “I discovered they pair well with alcohol.” To prove it, he ate a few before taking a sip.
Valek tasted the amber liquid in his glass. “Whiskey?”
“I figured you’d had a rough couple of days.” Ambrose settled across from him.
Ah, nice. And, even nicer… “You owe me a gold coin.”
“I do,” he said dryly. “Your confidence in Yelena’s abilities wasn’t misplaced. She certainly gave the two teams quite the challenge, outsmarting both.” Ambrose raised his glass to his lips but paused. “Clearly, more training is necessary.”
“I agree, but you should know there were two lieutenants who were tracking Yelena.”
“Ari and Ganko? I already promoted them to captains.”
“It’s Janco, and that’s good. They deserve it. They would have captured her in the early afternoon, but I may have…interfered.”
Ambrose sighed. “May have?”
“Consider it an additional test of their tracking abilities. Besides, Yelena had shown a great deal of ingenuity up to that point, I wanted to see what else she would do.” He swallowed a mouthful of whiskey. The smooth, smoky flavor burned all the way down. “And if the exercise had ended then, we wouldn’t have encountered that caravan.”
“What did you learn about it?”
Valek explained what he’d found out regarding the shipment. “I’m hoping I’ll hear from Captain Unice about where the traders ended their journey.”
“Those pods and beans are not grown in Ixia,” Ambrose said. “Not even in the Snake Forest. They must be from Sitia.” He drummed his fingers on his glass. “I’ve asked Yelena to investigate their origins.”
Valek lifted an eyebrow, inviting Ambrose to continue.
