“Did you?” Valen rubbed his chest. “We argued. I said some things to him I’ll always regret. We might have dueled. I think I passed out soon after, so I don’t remember. More likely, I got in his way when he was trying to duel our attacker.”
I’d already described the battle as complete chaos that Valen had collapsed partway through, so hopefully that supported his story. Sir Marculus asked several more questions that Valen had told me to expect. Then he asked one that blindsided us both.
“Your human lover, Emmeline Le Brun, isn’t from the Moonlit Kingdom. And by your own account, you were unconscious from partway through the attack to when you woke up in a storage room with her. Has it occurred to you that she could be in league with your attacker?”
My throat closed up, and all my doubts rushed back in an avalanche.
“No,” Valen growled, looking like he was about to leap up and strangle Sir Marculus. “Absolutely not.”
“Can you elaborate?” Sir Marculus asked.
Valen took a deep breath and visibly reined himself in. “The attacker looked fey—though I realize that doesn’t mean much when shapeshifters are involved. But Emmeline is from Thallence. The people there—” He gave me an apologetic smile. “—are ignorant and fearful of magic. I can’t imagine her knowing anyone—outside of my circle of acquaintances—with the skills and knowledge to infiltrate the Palace of Eternal Moonlight.”
It must have been enough for Sir Marculus, because he dismissed Valen soon after, and he sat down beside me. His presence relaxed the tension in my body, and when he took my hand, I squeezed it tightly. They hadn’t thrown us into the dungeons. People seemed to be buying our story. So far, so good.
Lurena came in next, describing her encounter with Valen—or a shapeshifter impersonating him. Her fair skin reddened when she described how she’d lowered her guard and gotten attacked, and I felt bad all over again about Valen tricking her.
After Lurena, Sir Marculus questioned two injured guards who’d been recuperating in the barracks when Princess Regula herself had swept in and ordered them to go search for the missing jewel. I carefully hid my smile over how fun it had been to impersonate her. Setting the barracks on fire with Nin’s ring had been fun, too. I could see why she used it whenever she could. It felt incredibly satisfying.
Three other guards testified to seeing “Sir Valen” shapeshift into an unknown woman with black hair before flying off on the chariot, and the servant who’d discovered Valen and me in the storage room recounted her experience. Sir Marculus also called in guards to confirm that all the guests’ identities had been checked and that the magical protections around the palace were still functioning properly.
But the best, he saved for last.
“So you’d never seen the man before?” Sir Marculus asked.
Regula lifted her chin. “I can hardly be expected to know every single one of my subjects.”
“But you left the ballroom with this man, signalled your guards not to follow, and went with him—alone—to the balcony.”
“I had no reason to expect danger! The safety of the Court is your responsibility, Marshall. It should be you in this chair, not me.”
“I will of course submit to questioning and accept whatever censure my queen hands down,” he said smoothly. “But I’m not the Keeper of the Selenian Jewel, Your Highness. You should have at least let the guards accompany you.”
Regula drew herself up. “I’m entitled to my privacy—”
“Not while you’re wearing the jewel.”
She shot to her feet. “The guards should have stopped the thief when he left the balcony without me! It’s their failing, not mine!”
Sir Marculus stood in silence, letting the echo of her shouts fade as she fumed.
“What was the man’s name?” he asked in a low voice.
Regula flushed. “I already told your people that I don’t know it.”
“So you went to an isolated location while wearing the Selenian Jewel with a man whose name you didn’t even know.”
I hadn’t appreciated Sir Marculus’s interrogation when I was sitting in the chair, but watching him destroy Regula wasamazing. He asked her a few more questions, mainly to establish the timing of the actual heist in relation to other events, and then dismissed her.
She stalked over with as much dignity as she could muster, taking a seat between her husband and daughter. But unlike when Valen and I had sat down, no one leaned over to offer their sympathies. No, the court officials seemed determined to pretend she didn’t exist.
“Your Majesty.” Sir Marculus approached the throne and bowed low. “My conclusion is that a pair of thieves, one a shapeshifter, infiltrated the palace through as yet unknown means, seduced Princess Regula to steal the Selenian Jewel, and escaped in part by incapacitating and impersonating Sir Valen. I will continue to investigate the palace’s security for weak points they may have exploited, but I recommend focusing the search outside our borders on enemies with a motive for stealing the jewel.”
“Thank you, Sir Marculus,” said the queen.
And that was that. Guards opened the chamber’s doors, and Regula stormed out in a rush, her husband and daughter hurrying to follow. Though only a small group of people had witnessed the interrogations, I knew how the Moonlit Court worked by now: gossip would spread by the end of the day. Regula’s humiliation would be swift and well-deserved.
Valen offered me his arm with a smile, and we left the chamber.
