“What scroll?” Marc asked, jolting me back into the present.
Tsy save me, I was not some blushing ingenue, to be distracted by a simple compliment. “A Contract of Inheritance.”
“Of course. Did His Grace also mention that he found nothing of use in that contract? It was one he was already familiar with, having signed one himself.”
My focus sharpened. Felix had found nothing of interest, but Marc hadn’t suffered the same limitation, it seemed. “He did mention that. Still, I’d like to look at it for myself.” I stood up. “Actually, can you show me where it is? Knowing where it is filed in the archives might help, too.”
“I don’t think you will learn anything from where it is filed.” Marc was telling the truth, but there was still a discordant note under his words. He didn’t think I’d learn anything, but he still didn’t want to show me. “The archives are a little claustrophobic. You’ll be more comfortable waiting out here.”
“Narrow passages don’t bother me.” I gestured toward the archives. “Lead the way.”
Marc stood, clearly out of excuses, and walked toward the shelf-filled corner of the room. I wondered why he didn’t want me to enter the archives with him. It wasn’t because he was afraid I was claustrophobic. Though I wasn’t usually one for small talk, I figured in this instance I should consider such a conversation part of questioning a suspect. Still walking behind Marc, I tried to sound only mildly interested when I asked, “What were you doing before I interrupted?”
He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Working.”
His contract with Felix required him to show any single signature truth scrolls he found after signing, but did not actually require him to search for those scrolls. Felix didn’t want to tip his hand and let Marc know that he suspected the secretary was working against him, but I wasn’t Felix. I had already questioned Marc about hiding his knowledge of a Truth from the duke. Pushing more wouldn’t betray that Felix knew something was going on.
“I thought your job is to find scrolls for F— His Grace.” I mentally cursed at my near slip. Hopefully, Marc hadn’t noticed. “How are you finding scrolls while sitting at your desk?”
Marc followed the twists of the archives without hesitation. I lost my sense of how to exit within moments. Not that it mattered. Even if the secretary decided to strand me among the rows of scrolls, I could summon Felix and get him to lead me out.
Not that I expected Marc to go that far. He still thought he could deceive me, despite my magic.
“I must also read many scrolls. I don’t spend every moment of the day in the archives.”
I didn’t bother to point out that he hardly needed to read the scrolls if he was really doing what Felix had asked. He only needed to look at the signatures on the bottom of a scroll and then move on. Asking a few questions as I followed him had made sense, but it wasn’t the reason I had insisted he take me through the archives.
I wanted to get a feel for the magic on the scrolls. The secretary finally slowed, informing me that the scroll was in this section, but he wasn’t positive exactly which cubby, so it might take him a minute to locate it. I took the time to concentrate on the spells woven into parchment. Or maybe there was no parchment, just magic? There were certainly enough whispers of power around me to believe that the scrolls were nothing more than a manifestation of magic.
I ran my fingers over the nearest scroll, trying to tease out the notes that made up this one piece of the archives. The problem was, everything was the same note. Every wisp of power had the same pitch, too sharp for pure truth-telling, too flat for truth-reading. But there wasn’t just one sound. The power came in different tempos and timbres, overwhelming my senses, though no single strand was powerful enough that I could even hear it without concentrating.
I thought the scroll under my hand had a rich timbre. Or maybe it was the buzzy sound that left a pins and needles sensation in my fingertips. I pulled my hand back, flexing my fingers. I didn’t know what I was sensing.
“Aha.” Marc pivoted away from the shelf, brandishing a half-unfurled scroll at me. “Here it is.”
I accepted it from him, mildly surprised he had given it to me at all. I had expected him to make an excuse about not finding it, especially after he warned me it might take a bit. If he had, I would have accepted the excuse and made my way back to this shelf later, since he hadn’t lied when he said it was nearby.
It was probably for the best that I didn’t need to resort to such measures, I realized as we made our way out of the archives. Even without the distraction of conversation, it was hard to memorize the path we took through the shelves.
When we exited the maze, I considered following Marc back to his desk and asking some pointed questions. A few wouldn’t be an issue, but if I pushed too far, I might ruin Felix’s plans. So, I wouldn’tsettle in for an interrogation, but perhaps I could startle a single answer out of him.
“What was the last contact you had with Lady Cecily?”
Mark jerked around to face me, his face pale. “What? What makes you think I’m in contact with her?”
Tsy save me. Until that moment, I hadn’t truly thought he was. I had simply hoped to surprise a straight answer out of him about how he knew she hadn’t always had a tie to the node. There would be no straight answers coming now, but that was all right. His reaction had already told me more than I would have thought to ask.
“That’s not what I said,” I murmured placatingly. “His Grace said you found him after the transformation. I wondered if you had run into Lady Cecily as she fled the castle.”
Thank goodness I had enough unanswered questions floating around my head that my words were the truth. If I managed to misdirect even half so skillfully as Marc, I wouldn’t ruin Felix’s chance at demanding answers once he mastered truth-telling.
“I was too shocked when I realized what had happened to notice much else.”
Marc hadn’t answered my question, but he had told me the truth. Even if he was working with Lady Cecily, he hadn’t expected the duke’s transformation.
I nodded and lifted the contract wrapped in my fingers between us. “Thank you for finding this for me. I’ll see you at luncheon.”
I had lots to think about before then.
