He raised an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting that she’s working with the goblins?”
I tried to sound as tactful as possible. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
He shook his head. “We all helped to extinguish the fire. I can’t see that she was out of place as she did this.”
“But what of her blade? She still carries that goblin knife with her.”
“That is because she finds it effective and nothing more. Do not worry over my sister. We were raised together. I know her better than anyone else, and I believe her intentions to be loyal.”
I sighed. I couldn’t say his reaction surprised me. The psychologist in me suggested I tell him that sometimes the people we knew best were the ones capable of deceiving us the most, but I held my tongue. It wasn’t my place to interfere in his relationship with his sister.
When we made it to my cabin, I noticed the door wasn’t closed all the way. I pushed it open and peered inside, although it was too dark to see anything. I lit the lantern, and the room came into view. The cabin was in shambles. Mattresses were overturned and gutted. Feathers covered the floor. Our clothing and weapons were heaped in haphazard piles. My stomach sank. I was starting to see the real reason for the fire.
As I entered the room, I tiptoed around the piles of clutter, searching for my gray scarf, but I found no sign of it. Kull entered behind me.
“I can’t find my scarf,” I said.
“Your scarf?”
“Yes, I spellcasted it with an illusionment spell. If there were magic users aboard, they would have sensed it. Anyone looking for the orb would have been drawn to it.”
“So you set a trap?”
“More or less.”
“Then this proves it—our suspicions were not unfounded,” he said. “There is an infiltrator onboard.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Who is the infiltrator?” I asked as I picked through the discarded pile of clothing.
Kull and I stayed in the cabin, searching through the mess left behind. Someone attracted to the scarf’s magical enchantment had been here, and so far, I hadn’t found my scarf, which meant they must have taken it.
“I’m almost certain that I wasn’t followed through the portal,” I continued. “Geth swore he would have me followed, but I thought I’d escaped him.”
“Perhaps that is what Geth wished you to believe,” Kull said.
At this point, whoever had stolen my scarf would be upset. They’d hoped to find the orb hidden by an illusionment spell, but whenever they released the enchantment, they would be disappointed to find my scarf instead of the orb.
“Whoever has taken my scarf will have realized by now they’ve been duped, and they’ll be one step closer to finding the real orb,” I said. “This isn’t good.”
“I agree. We must find this infiltrator before they can accomplish their goal.”
Heidel appeared at the door. I gauged her reaction, careful to notice even the slightest appearance of guilt.
She stared, open-mouthed, at the ransacked room. “Who has done this?” she said.
“We don’t know,” Kull answered.
She picked through the pile. “Have they taken anything?”
I eyed her as I gave my answer. “We’re not sure yet.”
Her face grew panicked as she knelt beside us. “I kept my best weapons beneath my mattress.” She hastily dug through the pile. “Where are they?”
As Heidel searched, I did the same and found a few of my Faythander texts, my pack, my mirror, but still no sign of my scarf. Ket and the elven princess appeared at the door. Ket’s eyes widened as she stepped inside, and the princess’s face took on a worried expression.
“What has happened?” the princess said.
“Kull and I found it like this a few minutes ago,” I answered.
“Why would anyone do this?” Ket asked.
“They were obviously after my weapons,” Heidel answered. “Although,” she paused and counted the number of knives and short swords laid out in front of her, “they seem to have spared my collection.”
Ket knelt and helped us shuffle through the mess. “This is very odd,” she said. “I do not know of anyone aboard the ship who would do such a thing.”
“I agree,” Kull said. “I have observed the members of the elven party, the Wults, and the crew aboard. I cannot see that any one of them would have an interest in this room.”
“Perhaps,” the princess said, “they were looking for something hidden by magic.” Her gaze snagged on mine.
“Magic?” Heidel said. “Impossible. Magic is useless right now.”
“Not necessarily,” the princess answered.
“We should notify the captain,” Ket said.
“I’m not sure it would do much good,” Kull answered. “It is unlikely he would concern himself over a ransacked room.”
I dug through the mess and found my leather pants, a few of my shirts and books, and two knit scarves, though I still saw no sign of the gray scarf. My mind kicked into overdrive. Heidel seemed honestly surprised to find our room torn apart. She may have been acting, but the truth was, she’d been above deck, not below, when the scarf had been taken.
I eyed her from my spot on the floor as she collected her weapons. If she’d taken the scarf, why would she have torn the entire room apart? Wouldn’t she have focused on my stuff and no one else’s?
No, whoever had taken the scarf had been attracted to its magic. They would’ve had to tear the room apart to find it. That left me with only a few options, and it meant that whoever had taken my scarf had been a magic user.
“I shall scour the boat,” Heidel said. “Whoever has done this has intruded on our privacy, has meddled with our belongings, and I will not stand for it. I will find this coward, whoever he is.”
“Yes,” Ket agreed. “But the question remains, why did they do this?” She seemed casual as she scanned each of us, although I saw the intensity in her eyes. She knew one of us must have been hiding something of importance.
I considered admitting they’d come for what they believed was the orb, but then I thought better of it. For all I knew, Ket could have been the one responsible. I kept my mouth shut.
“Olive,” she asked, “what do you think they were after?”
“I can’t be sure.”
“Perhaps they were searching for my Illumina crystals,” Princess Euralysia said.
Ket raised an eyebrow. “Illumina crystals?”
“They are crystals that only grow in the sunfire mines on the eastern coast. Their powers come from deep within Faythander. Once magic touches the crystals, they absorb the energy and are able to store it within themselves. Usually, such items are worthless, but with the loss of magic, I suspect that the crystal shards have become much more valuable.
“The crystals were family heirlooms, and up until now, had little value to anyone else but me. Now, things have changed. I suspect someone has stolen them for their powers.”
I shot her a sideways glance. “Aren’t Illumina crystals extremely rare?”
“Yes, they are rare, but not worth much. The crystals had been made into a necklace long ago by my ancestors, and I only wore it to elven ceremonies. It has some significance among elven royals, but not to anyone else. I would be very upset if someone has stolen it.”
“If you only wear it to elven ceremonies,” Kull said, “then what purpose did you have in bringing it here?”
“I—” she cleared her throat and looked away. “I thought it might be useful—with the magic missing.”
“But given your current condition,” I said, “it doesn’t seem that you’ve been using the crystals, have you?”
“No,” she answered. “I was not.”
“Why?” Heidel asked.
“Because I… I… ” Her eyes wandered the room as she searched for an answer. “To be honest, they are more than a trinket. I had meant to use them when we reached the islands, where I believe they will be needed
. I am sorry, but I cannot tell you more than that. Only, I do wish you would help me find them, as they may have simply been misplaced.”
“You have taken a great risk by bringing such an item here. How do we know these magical crystals will not harm us?” Heidel asked.
“You have no reason to fear them.”
Heidel crossed her arms, not seeming convinced.
“Whatever the case,” Kull said, “I do not like this situation. We cannot trust anyone on this ship. We must all be cautious.”
“Agreed,” Ket said.
We continued organizing our things in silence. I grabbed a bedsheet and spread it across my mattress, when I heard something fall onto the rug. Scanning the floor, I found a narrow strip of leather lying near my feet, so I picked it up and inspected it.
It looked like the sort of thing someone would use as a hair tie. I was in a room with three other women, and any one of them would have used a hair tie such as this, but why did this hair tie seem so familiar? As I held the cord closer, I detected the faint scent of mint mingled with lemongrass, a scent that I recognized—the fragrance of my father’s tea. Was this his? If so, what reason did he have to be in my cabin?
“Do any of you know if my father tried to visit?”
“I haven’t seen him,” Heidel answered.
The two other women gave the same answer as Heidel. None of them had seen my father in the room, so how had his hair tie gotten in here? I didn’t have time to waste, so I put the tie in my pocket and left the room with a brief good-bye, then headed for my father’s cabin.
As I made my way through the hallways, I wondered what reasons my father might have had for being in my cabin. Had he been trying to take the orb? If so, why? He’d spoken once of his unique position and had admitted that he felt it was his duty to restore the magic. But what position could he possibly hold that was so important? And why did he feel it was his place to restore the magic?
Geth had accused him of being the leader of the Gravidorum. Was it possible?
If my father were the Gravidorum’s leader, and if he had found the scarf, I had to know. It was only a matter of time before he discovered the real orb.
I found my father’s cabin on the second level and knocked on the door. The boat swayed beneath me as I waited, and I listened to the sound of waves crashing into the hull. It was only a few hours shy of sunrise. Would he be awake this early? He’d always woken up at an insanely early hour, but this was pushing it. After a pause, the door opened an inch and my father stared through the crack.
“Olive?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk,” I answered.
He hesitated. “It’s quite early.”
“I know, but this is important. May I come inside?”
“Yes,” he said, “of course. Come in.”
He opened the door and led me inside. Despite his illness, he’d managed to keep his room orderly. It annoyed me a tiny bit. Books were lined neatly on the room’s shelves. His bedsheets were without a wrinkle. He’d even placed a tablecloth onto one of the small tables and neatly arranged the chairs around it. A ceramic cup and saucer sat atop the table, and the familiar scent of his mint tea filled the room.
Father sat in one of the chairs as I sat across from him. He poured a cup of tea and handed it to me. I took it, though I didn’t take a sip. Instead, I pushed it aside and fumbled in my pocket until I found his hair tie.
When I pulled it out, he stared at me quizzically.
Pushing it across the table, I decided to forego the small talk. Chatting with him bored me anyway. “This was in my room,” I said.
“Was it?”
“Yes. I’d like an explanation of how it got there.”
He picked it up and stared at it. “It is a generic leather tie commonly used by elves. It could belong to anyone. Did you ask Princess Euralysia?”
“I didn’t have to. I know it belongs to you.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. It smells like you.”
He shot me his condescending look—narrowed eyes, lips drawn tight—an expression that made me feel as if he were smarter than me and he knew it.
“You’ve come to visit me because you’ve found a common hair tie?” he asked. “One that you believe belongs to me because of its scent. I fail to see the seriousness of this conversation.”
“Because it was in my room and it had no reason to be there.”
He took his time as he sipped his tea.
“Something of value has gone missing,” I said. “I thought you might know where it is.”
“Ah,” he said. “I see. What was this valuable item? A hair comb that smells of Wult body odor?”
“Ha. That’s really funny.” I couldn’t believe it. Had he just made a joke? Perhaps this wasn’t my father at all—for all I knew, I could be speaking to a goblin in disguise. “I can’t tell you what it is.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Then how do you expect me to find it for you?”
“I don’t want your help,” I said. “I want an explanation. Why were you in my room?”
“You are jumping to conclusions. You say you found this hair tie in your room. You suspect that it belongs to me, but it does not. I will ask you politely why you are accusing me of being in your room when I have never stepped foot inside.”
He was lying. This was a first. I was sure he’d never lied to me before. He’d always dodged the truth or withheld information, but he’d never told me a bald-faced lie. “Father, why are you lying to me?”
He arched an eyebrow. “I am not—”
“You are.” I crossed my arms. He could push, but I could push harder. I took the hair tie from him and placed it on the table’s center, directly between us. “I still have half my magic. I can do a possession spell right now and find out if you’re telling the truth. Shall I?”
He flinched.
Aha, I was getting somewhere. Holding my hand palm down over the hair tie, I readied a spell. My magic flowed within me as I called it to the surface. It came sluggishly as usual, and I wasn’t sure I could control it long enough to complete the enchantment, but I was hoping I didn’t have to.
Closing my eyes, I prepared to conjure the magic word when my father stopped me.
“Olive,” he said. “It will do no good.”
I opened my eyes.
His shoulders sagged. “What I did was for good reason.”
I blinked. “Are you admitting to being in my room?”
He took his time before answering. “Yes.”
“Why would you lie to me?”
“I felt it necessary. I would rather not involve you in my personal affairs. Elven politics are complicated and have become quite dangerous.”
“What do politics have to do with the orb?”
He threaded his fingers together. “Orb?”
“Yes. The orb. You were trying to find it, weren’t you?”
“No.”
“But you just admitted to searching for it in my cabin.”
“I admitted to being in your room. I admit to taking something, but it was not the orb. One day, you will realize that what you see is not always the truth. You believe I was in your room to steal the orb, although your assumption could not be more wrong.”
“Then why were you there?”
He sipped his tea. “I was there to retrieve an item that belonged to me.”
“What?”
“My memory charm.”
“Memory charm? Why didn’t you just ask me for it?”
“Would you have given it to me?”
“I—” Would I have? I’d considered other uses for it. It was a far-fetched plan on my part, one that involved Kull—a solution to our current problems. My life would have been much less complicated if Father hadn’t taken it from me.
“Possibly.” Probably not.
“That memory charm is a powerful talisman—more powerful than you realize. If it had fallen into the wrong hands, the consequence
s would be unimaginable.”
“Yeah, I get it. But why did you have to tear my room apart to find it?”
“I didn’t.”
“You didn’t?”
“No. When I entered your room, it had not been touched, and I left it the same way. Whoever else entered your room did so after I left.”
I rubbed my forehead, feeling a headache throb. “When, exactly, were you in my room?”
“I went there directly after finishing my evening meal.”
After the evening meal, which meant that whoever had tried to find the orb must have come after dinner and had most likely been there during the fire. Heidel had helped to put the fire out, so it couldn’t have been her. And it hadn’t been my father. Who else would have had reason to search for it?
“It was important for me to have the charm in my possession,” Father said. “Soon, after the magic has been restored, I will use the memory charm to journey back to Earth Kingdom in order to erase your mother’s memories of Faythander.”
“I still don’t understand what the big deal is,” I said. “What’s so horrible that she isn’t supposed to remember?”
“I cannot tell you—”
“Stop,” I said, feeling my anger rise. “You entered my cabin without my permission. You took the charm. You’re planning to take away my mother’s memories just when I feel I have a chance to get to know her. She’s been irreparably damaged by your mind-altering spells. Stop playing these stupid games with me. I want to know the truth about my mother. Why is it necessary to take away her memories?”
He eyed me, as if seeing me for the first time. Sighing, he stared at his cup of tea without speaking. “You are right,” he finally admitted. “I have become accustomed to guarding the truth, but perhaps the time has come for you to know who your mother is.”
“Who is she?”
He paused. “Your mother is a witch.”
My blood ran cold. “Witch?”
He nodded. “As you know, witches are born both in Faythander and Earth Kingdom, although true witches from Earth Kingdom have become very rare. Many of them were burned to death in ages past. Ironically, witches born in Faythander suffered a similar fate. Most species fear witches, for they do not wield magic as other species do. As you know, dragon magic is green and elven magic blue. Pixie magic looks pink, and goblin magic is gray, but when a witch uses her magic, it not seen as any of these colors. Witches wield black magic.”
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