Seven
Isabel
???
Once the dukeleft, I shifted my focus to Marc. Considering how benign our conversation had been, he had resorted to skirting the truth intriguingly often. I wanted to understand why. Was he like my father, with a compulsive need to lie? Did he enjoy the challenge of pitting his wits against the truth-telling enchantment on the castle? Or did he truly have something to hide?
“Here.” Marc held out a leather-bound journal. “I’ve recorded His Grace’s discoveries in this journal. You can read it while I dig up the contract.”
I accepted the journal, keeping my expression as bland as possible.His Grace’s discoveries. I wondered what discoveries Marc had made that he hadn’t recorded. On the one hand, if the secretary had an agenda at odds with the duke’s, I wanted to wish him well. Though I might have temporarily overlooked my animosity a few times while the duke and I spoke this morning, I couldn’t forget that I was here under duress. I also couldn’t forget that, unless I found a loophole in the contract, my only chance at returning to my life was helping the duke. So if Marc knew something about the curse that he had hidden from his employer, Iwanted—needed—to figure it out.
I flipped through the journal. Only about a dozen pages had been filled, so I went back to the first page and began reading.
I name you a beast. Let your nature be true. Until the day you find someone who admits their love for you in your beast form, I curse you to wear the form of the beast that matches your heart.
The duke had said he still didn’t think it was the exact wording, but it was more detailed than the version he had given me when he told me about the curse.
I looked up to find Marc watching me, a folded sheet of paper in his hands. I set down the journal. “Is that my contract?”
He handed it to me. “Yes.”
“The duke said all contracts dissolve when he passes them through the node, and a copy is made in the archives. Since the same thing happened with the curse, why can’t we find the original wording in the archives?”
“It would take years, if we were lucky. The magic that creates the scrolls also organizes them. We don’t know where it is.”
“No one has ever taken the time to inventory the archives? Wouldn’t that be helpful?”
“It would if the archives were static. Scrolls move every time the duke passes a new contract through the node. There are five hundred years’ worth of contracts to sort through.”
“Then how did you find this?” I waved the paper, which, come to think of it, wasn’t a scroll.
“That is a copy made specifically so we wouldn’t lose the contract completely. You’ll notice it is unsigned.”
I wanted to ask more, but the magic wrapped around me suddenly tightened. I pressed my free hand against my sternum, but the pressure wasn’t actually physical. Whatever the contract my father had signed said, I apparently wasn’t upholding my end. I set the paper down and picked up the journal once more. The pressure eased.
Fine. I’d focus on the curse for now, but I would be reading that contract, whether the node wanted me to or not. I’d take it with me. I could put up with a little discomfort in order to find an escape clause, but I didn’t want to do it in front of Marc.
I flipped to the next page in the journal, aware of Marc’s eyes on me as I read. I read about the Truths the earliest dukes had written, turning Rose Castle into the enchanted manor it was today. The spells stretched the known limits of magic, turning truth-telling into a power that reshaped reality around the node. Each Truth controlled a tiny aspect of life in the castle, and when invoked, it imposed its truth on the world. From the ability to summon food out of thin air, to self-lighting candles, there were dozens of spells in place meant to make living here more comfortable.
I looked up. “I get the impression that this is not a comprehensive list of Truths.”
“As far as anyone knows, the first duke never documented the Truths he created. His descendants used the Truths they knew about, but over the generations, it is likely many were forgotten. That list is the Truths Duke Felix is aware of.”
“And their limitations,” I muttered, looking over the pages once more. Limitations like a full pot of tea being served with four cups. Meals could be conjured in an instant, but the ingredients had to be on castle grounds, and only certain recipes. I pretended to read a little more, waiting until Marc relaxed back in his seat before asking my next question. “What other Truths are you aware of?”
The secretary stiffened, and I fought back a smirk. He really thought he had gotten away with skirting the truth. As if I wouldn’t pick up that it was only the TruthsFelixwas aware of listed in the journal.
Marc paused long enough that it didn’t take any truth-reading to know he intended some sort of deceit with his eventual answer. “There is a Truth that gives the duke limited control of the weather.”
I considered whether or not I should push for more. That wasn’t the only Truth Marc knew that wasn’t listed in the journal. But Iwasn’t my sister, with the ability to force him to talk. Better to let him think he had succeeded in fooling me. It meant he wouldn’t expect it when I next sprang a question on him.
I finished reading the journal, agreeing with the conclusion on the final page that Lady Cecily's curse was most likely a variation on a Truth rather than the more typical magically binding contract. Nowhere in the journal, however, did it explain how she might have gained access to a locked node.
Snapping the book closed, I realized that there was more at stake than one man getting stuck in the form of a cat. “The Node Wars ended what, four centuries ago?”
Marc leaned back. “Closer to five.”
“And in all that time, there has never been even a hint of someone bypassing a blood-lock?”
