“What is?”
“Poison, usually. Beetles require magic. Healers don’t have that.”
“Why not?”
He regarded me with what seemed like curiosity. “You’re really new to Biringan, aren’t you?”
I didn’t answer, which was answer enough.
He sighed. “Healers are always human.”
I was confused. “What do you mean? Althea’s human?”
“Yeah. They aren’t diwata like you. They aren’t even hapcanto. They’re entirely human.”
I didn’t like what that insinuated. “So she’s a prisoner here?” Then what was said in class about Biringan trapping humans to remain here was true. I felt a little sick.
“In a sense,” he conceded. “Like the others, she came here willingly. At least at first. And then, though she was forbidden, she gave in to temptation and ate the black rice.”
“Right,” I said, remembering that conversation in Professor Borromeo’s class.
Lucas nodded.
“Why healers?”
“For a time, healers were recruited from the human world because they had knowledge we did not. Their illnesses had contaminated our world, and we were powerless against them. We needed their healers. After a while, we learned their ways and didn’t need them anymore. Some of them returned, and some of them stayed—by choice or because the rules dictated it.”
Althea said she had known my mother. My mom was a nurse back home. I wondered if Althea had been one, too, and if she’d bonded over this with my mother. Somehow, I struggled to believe that Althea would deliberately hurt anyone. I had seen firsthand how kind she was to her patients, and she had been there for Nix when she needed someone. Although if she was trapped here, maybe she was driven mad and initiated a killing spree. “But you said healers don’t use beetles.”
“They don’t. It’s not their way. They aren’t mambabarangs.”
I must have looked confused, because then he said, “You don’t know what that is either?”
“I mean, I’ve heard of them, but I haven’t met one.” I recalled that Elias had asked that of the patianaks when they brought me to him. If there had been a mambabarang among them.
“Hope you never do. A mambabarang is a dark witch. One who deals in the black arts. Evil magic. They were expelled from Biringan when their coven was discovered. They’d been using dolls to curse their enemies or anyone they considered an enemy—mostly innocent people who were unfortunate enough to cross their path. Their mistake was going after a lady of the Court of Tikbalang. That sparked an investigation across the realm, until they were rooted out.”
“Could Althea be one, and we just don’t know?”
“Highly unlikely, as humans don’t have any magical powers.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that.” I wasn’t sure what to think. “And what about you? Do you know any dark magic?”
Lucas laughed, so loudly I felt a little insulted. “No, Princess, I don’t work with dark magic. My talent lies elsewhere.” He waggled his eyebrows, and I wanted to hit him, except he looked so silly I laughed.
He beamed. “So she does have a sense of humor after all.”
I chortled. “Shut up.”
For a moment I wished I knew what my talent was as clearly as he knew his. But I got back to the issue directly at hand. “Then what about the beetles in the king’s chamber?”
“What about them?”
So he was going to be difficult. “I told you. I know you were there,” I said. “I saw you.”
“Then that means you were there, too. How do I know the beetles weren’tyourdoing?” He sounded serious, but the smile on the edges of his mouth told another story.
“Because I wasn’t even here when my father died! And this is my palace. You seem to forget that.” Whether he was teasing me or not, I didn’t like it. This wasn’t a joke to me.
