‘I like her,’ Irsha said while I strongly considered using my poisons on the obstinate creature.
‘That doesn’t help us, though,’ I said, taking a step forward. She jerked in Irsha’s grasp, and his grin twisted into a stifled groan when she elbowed him in the gut.
‘You little shit.’ He twisted her arm back. The ripping of her cloak was loud in the quiet stable, and several documents fell to the dirty floor. My breath caught at the sight. The longer I looked, the more anger built in my core. Those schemata, the runes on them, were so similar to Tova’s research, to what was carved into the srebrec pillars. This wasn’t some petty thief; this was someone who knew the secrets I was trying to uncover.
The world faded into silence as my power, subdued by the srebrec and the long journey, rose to the surface at the sight of a sketch before me. I was confronted by a picture of the void cube, painstakingly drawn with an inscription I didn’t understand. Next to it was a string of numbers, and next to that was a strange equation with the alchemy symbol of aether. The woman’s pupils widened at whatever she saw in my face. She backed intoIrsha as if my assassin could protect her. ‘You’ve seen it before,’ she said while I calmly collected all the papers.
‘I’ve seen it, I fought its horrors, and saw the death it brings. I’m the Deadly Nightshade, and you will tell me who you are and where you took this from. I don’t give second chances, and I swear to the gods above and below, if you lie to me, I’ll make you suffer,’ I said with ice-cold certainty. Too many people had died to let her escape without a full explanation, and many more would suffer if I didn’t get to the bottom of this. Even if it meant me getting captured, I would accept the burden of dirtying my hands for the sake of this kingdom.
‘You can’t make me suffer any more than my father did. I’m Inga Tivala, and I believe you’re the woman fucking my fiancé.’ Her haughty tone, chin raised as if she were challenging me, only added to my bewilderment. I huffed in humourless laughter. What are the chances… What are the damned chances I would meet my rival in a dirty stable in a ghastly town?
‘Load her onto the horse, then we’ll find a place we can talk undisturbed. Lady Tivala and I have a lot to discuss,’ I said through clenched teeth. Inga didn’t protest when Irsha lifted her onto his horse. She was calm, far too calm for the circumstances and for being captured by not only the woman who’d claimed her betrothed but also the person who could make her disappear in the blink of an eye.
I wonder what else is hidden under this thick, woollen coat of yours, and why the only living descendant of the Tivala bloodline is being chased by her own guards.One thing I knew for certain, though, is that I’d found my key into Tivala’s castle.
Chapter 31
Roksana
Our luck was running out. Irsha’s expertise allowed us to escape the town despite the guards’ diligence in searching. Now, we were crouching in a ditch beside a dirt track. The smell of wet mould, earth, and something slowly rotting made it difficult to breathe.
Still, the dirt and cold were the least of my problems.
Inga didn’t complain, her backside firmly planted on Irsha’s saddle while she munched on the horse’s carrot.
‘We can’t stay here,’ I said, turning to Blade.
‘They will go away eventually. We just need to wait,’ Irsha said, on guard near the path.
‘No, they won’t. My father will skin them alive if they return empty-handed. You should have let me go when you had the chance.’ Inga’s smirk made me grit my teeth. She might have gotten on my nerves, but the woman had become crucial to my plans.
‘How did you get them?’ I asked, because if we couldn’t escape, I could at least get a little information.
‘The same way I get everything,’ Inga said. ‘I pretend to be a stupid female who brings tea and mead to her father’s office.’
‘And… he fell for it?’ I looked at her with respect. I’d only ever heard that Inga Tivala was a spoilt heiress, no better than her dead brother… Well, maybe less murderous.
‘Of course he did. I’m a woman. Sweet pea-brained little thing who cares for her father so much.’ She modulated her voice with breathy affection, batting her eyelashes at me. She finished these theatrics with a deep sigh, her shoulders sagging. ‘I didn’t manage to copy everything, though. The Tangrans realised someone was touching their schemata, and my father locked it in the safe.’
My excitement over the discovery instantly cooled. Inga didn’t have the complete schemata. Not only that, she’d likely made mistakes in her haste to copy them in secret, and mistakes in magic often proved deadly. Inga’s cheeks flushed red, and her eyes narrowed in anger.
‘You think it’s the doodling of a foolish child, don’t you?’ She scoffed, shaking her head. I shrugged, and that angered her even more. ‘I spent hours studying the original. I’d have finished it if these things weren’t so complicated. Why am I even explaining? Your kind will always think I’m good for nothing.’ She crossed her arms across her chest, glaring at me.
‘Sana never said that,’ Irsha said, smiling at her. ‘Instead of huffing like a pissed-off badger, tell me how you escaped your father, and how you planned on avoiding the guard posts by the pillars?’
I observed her reaction, calculating the odds. If she knew a safe route, I was going to take it. Inga’s shoulders slumped, her entire posture hunched, making her even smaller than she was.
‘Those pillars. They’re working already? The Tangrans said it would take weeks, even a month or two, until they’re fully charged.’ Her voice, filled with uncertainty and fear, wobbled atthe end. ‘My maid… She raised me, but she has magic. I told her to go… that it was safe because they aren’t working yet.’
‘They are working, and I don’t think your friend can pass them. I certainly couldn’t if not for Irsha,’ I said softly, because the woman in front of me was no longer a haughty heiress but someone who realised she might have sent a loved one to her death.
‘Well, Nana wasn’t some powerful mage that half of Truso is fawning over, so…’ Denial was a powerful weapon, but it wouldn’t save this Nana’s life.
‘Does your daddy know his precious daughter’s a thief who’s conspiring against him?’ Irsha said from his post.
‘What do you think, shit-for-brains?’ she said before turning towards me. ‘He certainly knows you killed my brother, and he’ll never forgive you.’
Here we go again. The woman was all spikes, but we needed to move this along. ‘Oh, I know that,’ I said, and her eyes widened at my lack of reaction. ‘You don’t seem to hold the same resentment?’
