The alchemists swore that they were innocent. According to them, it had to be Turgov. He was the only one upset with me. Of course, it was easy to blame a man already imprisoned. The Dragon King and I shared a grimace.
“You're deceiving me!” King Falken looked down the line of quaking alchemists. “I can smell it. Now, one of you had better tell me what you're hiding, or all of you will be out of work.”
“But we aren't hiding anything, Your Majesty!” a Lelurra man cried.
The King looked at each of them, walking down the line and back. He stopped beside me. “You are all excused from my service.”
The alchemists broke their line, surrounding the King to plead for their jobs.
He stood resolute. “Tell me what you know, or leave.”
“There is nothing to tell, Sire!”
“Please, we don't know who tampered with the Master Alchemist's lab.”
Then an Argaiv man muttered, “He probably did it himself to be rid of us.”
“What did you say?” The King went to stand in front of the winged man.
He backed up, his gaze going from the King to me and back. “Nothing, Your Majesty.”
“No, say it.”
“It's just that none of us would work against him. We all want Eberein saved. So either it was Lord Turgov or the Master Alchemist himself.”
“And you think he would sabotage his own work just to make me release all of you from my service?”
The man shrugged.
“Why would he need to do that when he's already bested you? You don’t threaten master Sevarin. It's clearly the other way around.”
“Sire, Turgov was the only one upset with Master Sevarin. It must be him.”
“I cannot condemn a man on 'must be.' Did any of you see Turgov enter the Master Alchemist's lab? Or did he say something to you about avenging his nephew?”
The alchemists looked at each other.
“There it is again!” The King narrowed his eyes at them. “I smell deception. You know something.”
A Shanba woman sighed and stepped forward. “Your Majesty, all we know is that Turgov was very upset about his nephew. He said some things about the Master Alchemist, but they were things people say when they're angry.”
“Such as?”
The Shanba shrugged. “He said he wanted to kill Master Sevarin. That the Master Alchemist was deceiving you. Things like that.”
“Did he say he would get even?”
“He said that Master Sevarin would fail eventually, and you would see the truth. But, Sire, he was angry. People say things they don't mean when they're angry.”
“Yes, but someone switched the ingredients on Master Sevarin's worktable, turning Turgov's threats from an angry venting into fact.” He looked around at the alchemists. You can stay. For now.” He strode out of the room.
I followed him from the meeting room and down the corridor, waiting until we were out of earshot to ask, “Can you really smell when someone is lying?”
Falken chuckled and slid his gaze my way. “No, I can smell when someone is sweating, and that could indicate deception, but I can't smell a lie.” He leaned closer. “Don't tell anyone. It works wonders when I'm after the truth.”
I smirked. “Speaking of which, are we going to speak to Turgov next?”
“He can wait. I need to assemble that audit team and then make that announcement.”
