“So how do we find out who’s behind it? We need a plan. Elias’s investigation hasn’t been very fruitful.”
Lucas leaned forward and clapped his hands together. “All right, finally something I’m good at. Okay, here’s the deal. We need to know for sure what happened to the page. How did she die? Was she poisoned? Was she strangled? Stabbed? It makes a difference. Then we find out who had a chance to do it. A list of suspects.”
“It’s not Althea. It’s too easy. I think she’s being framed. Like you said, healers don’t have magic. And the beetles—whatever they are—they’re definitely dark magic, right?”
Lucas nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I think. So, if we want to prove Althea isn’t guilty, we need to figure out who is.”
“I could ask around, but what if the killer is in with the guards? It happens. I mean, what better way to control the investigation?”
Lucas agreed. “That’s why we’re not even going to ask them. As soon as they let us out of here, we’re going down to the morgue.”
19
“We’ve secured theperson responsible, Your Highness, so I’m pleased to let you know it is now safe for us to release you and let Sir Lucas off his post.”
Lucas and I looked at each other.
“May I ask who it is, Commander?” I said.
“We’ve arrested the healer.” She looked quite proud about it, too. “She was apprehended attempting to escape the premises.”
No! They’ve arrested the wrong person. Althea is a kind soul. This is nothing but a trumped-up charge.I had to put a stop to this. “Are you sure? I don’t think—”
Lucas interrupted me. “Thank you, Commander.” He turned to me. “Don’t worry, Your Highness. The threat is contained.” He shook the commander’s hand. “Thanks for your work.”
The commander bowed again. “If that’s all, we have more to attend to.”
“Yes, thank you,” Lucas said, directing the guards toward the door. Once they were out, he shut it behind them.
“Why did you do that?” I asked him.
“Because if you convince them to let Althea go, then they’ll lock us up in here again while they search for someone else. If youactually want to help her, the best thing we can do is go investigate ourselves.”
I hated how much sense he was making. I sighed. “Fine.”
Lucas stuck his head out the door, then shut it again. “They’re gone. Let’s go.”
We walked out as casually as possible. As we passed the guards, Lucas said loudly, “Wow, I’m famished. What do you say we grab something before we go into town?”
“Sounds good,” I said, a bit too cheerfully. I cringed at how fake I sounded. But the guards didn’t even look in our direction.
Once we were out of their sight, we relaxed and began walking faster. “How far is it?” I asked him. I assumed we needed to go into town or at least close.
“One floor beneath the cellar,” he said.
I stopped walking. “What? Like, in the palace?”
He turned around. “Yes—where did you think it was?”
“I don’t know, somewhere else? Not here!” Sneaking into a dungeon morgue in the darkness while a killer was on the loose was absolutely not my idea of a good time. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Sure you can. Come on.” Lucas took my hand and pulled me along. At first, I was going to pull away, outraged that he’d grabbed it. Except I didn’t mind as much as I thought I should. It did make me feel safer. Besides, there was no point to my objection. It wasn’t like there was another option available to us.
We descended the stairs to the cellar. It was cold down there, the coldest I’d experienced in Biringan so far. There were rows and rows of jarred fruits and vegetables lining the walls. I shivered. “Should have warned me. I would’ve changed into something warmer.”
“You’ll get used to it.” Lucas led me farther into the darkness, past the stored food and then stacks of wooden crates. It got so dark that I started knocking into things.
“Careful,” he whispered.
