Turning the key in the lock, Hagen stepped over to the bed where Lucient was sitting with his head cradled on Sharlee’s breast. He took Lucient’s arm and shook it.
“My lord! My lord! My lord!” The last was almost a shout.
Startled, Sharlee and Lucient stopped their murmuring together and looked up at him.
“Did you give the smokeweed meant for Splendance to Blazeann?” asked Hagen sternly.
“Oh, Lady!” Lucient clutched his cheeks “Do you...? How do you...? Does everyone know?”
“No,” said Hagen grimly. “I’ve simply put two and two together. Did you tell anyone else?”
“I meant it for a joke, to teach her a lesson, for revenge. She was being such a dog. I never meant... I never meant to kill.... And poor Rafie. He never did anyone any harm. Oh, Lady of Light.” He burst into tears again.
“Did you tell anyone else?”
“Only Rafie. He was supposed to suggest a pipe to her after they pleasured last night. He knew it had been spiked, but neither of us.... He thought it would be funny if she was too smoked to... He must have been curious and tried it himself and... And he’s dead too and it’s my fault...”
He burst into tears again.
“A joke. A stupid joke. I never meant...”
I stared at Hagen. My thoughts were struggling with two and two as well but they couldn’t seem to find the equals sign.
“I believe you,” Hagen told Lucient. “That weed’s obviously more dangerous than any of us knew. Where’s the rest of it? Is this it?” He picked up a smokeweed jar.
“No, Sirrah Hagen, this is it,” said Sharlee. “I cleaned out the jar and put the tainted stuff in here.” She put a little painted box into Hagen’s hand.
“And Lord Lucient didn’t have any?”
“No!” gulped Lucient, moping his face
Hagen huffed decisively. “Right. Well. We need to keep this news secret for the moment. For your own sake, don’t tell anyone about your ‘joke,’ Lord Lucient. Especially not Chatoyant.”
“What are you saying? Why not Chatoyant?” asked Lucient.
“Think about it,” said Hagen. “Chatoyant gave that smokeweed to Blazeann. It’s possible Blazeann’s accident was actually meant for your mother.”
We all stared at him, faces frozen at the horror of it all. Did he really mean someone in our family had deliberately tried to kill another member of their own family? Someone we had once shared a nursery with had tried to kill her own aunt? The household Matriarch, no less?
“Lady of Light!” I cried. “You think Toy meant to...?”
Chatoyant had always seemed very ruthless. She’d seemed so confused this morning, not in control of things at all. But if she’d been expecting a death, it wouldn’t have been Blazeann’s. Not after all the effort she had put into befriending her.
“We can’t know. She might be innocent in this. It could be Flara. Or Lumina. Maybe even Blazeann herself. They would all benefit from Lady Splendance’s death.”
“They’d never have Flara back!” cried Lucient.
“Or it could just have been a mixture of alcohol and smokeweed mixed with Open. That’s why you all have to keep quiet. You especially,” he said to Sharlee. “You now know too much and if it comes out, things could go badly for you. And your little one.”
Was that a threat or a warning? I couldn’t tell.
Sharlee looked up at Hagen with wide scared eyes, her hands clutching at her belly.
“I will not let that happen, my dear,” said Lucient, squeezing Sharlee’s shoulder.
“You’d best take care of what your mother smokes in future,” Hagen told him. “And everything she eats or drinks.”
He turned to me “And you...”
“My mouth is sealed,” I said. “But I really hope you’re wrong, because... It doesn’t bear thinking about.”
“I will have the smoke weed tested by an alchemist,” he said. “If the Lady blesses us, I will be wrong. But I don’t think I am.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
WHO COULD HAVE blamed Lucient for wanting to take revenge on Blazeann? But for such a prank to end like this… Fate had played a very cruel trick.
Lucient and I sat together for most of the morning, stunned to quiet murmuring by the events which were still raging outside the door.
True to his word, Lucient did not smoke, but he did drink most of a bottle of wine. Frozen Hell, I even joined him in a glass, though technically it was still before breakfast for me. The thought that someone might have plotted to kill Auntie Splen sent a horrible shivery feeling creeping along the back of my neck. I mean, we weren’t the most harmonious family, but this...
Despite what Hagen had told me, I really wanted to confide in Eff when she poked her head in at the door to check on us. The idea that the mages had taken to poisoning each other was so frightening. Where might it stop?
But Auntie Glisten’s stentorian tones called Eff away to some kind of hostly duty, and I thought better of sharing the secret before she returned. I’d tell her when everyone was gone.
The idea comforted me. I felt able to leave Lucient with only Sharlee for company and go and see if there was anything I could do to help. Going down the stairs, I saw Hagen leaning against the bannisters on the third floor chatting to one of the local maidservants. I remembered that I had unfinished business with him. Thinking of Klea and her letter, such a nice, predictable, unsinister problem, lifted my spirits. No doubt Klea would have been most unimpressed to know that. I wondered if she had any idea what was going on up here.
To my surprise, Hagen left the maid and joined me on the stairs.
“Don’t let me interrupt you,” I said. “You looked to be doing so well with her.”
“Jealous?”
“Oh, searingly,” I said, pleased to discover I’d got the sarcastic tone of voice right. Now how to get the truth out of him?
As we reached the bottom of the Eyrie stairs, I was comforted to see that the tables had already been set for luncheon. Someone was keeping things running in an orderly fashion, even though the world was turned upside down. Probably Thomas. He took comfort in such things. Habit made me stop and run my eye over the place settings.
“So will the family leave tonight as planned?”
“Yes,” said Hagen. “Lady Splendance will not hear of salting or pickling Lady Blazeann’s body, so they need to get back to Elayison quickly for her funeral.”
I must have shuddered, because he touched my arm and said kindly, “How are you?”
“Still having trouble comprehending.”
He squeezed my arm. “I—”
“Hey! You! Ghostie!” shouted a voice from above. A distinctive husky male voice: Illuminus.
Fright seared down my spine. I would have run, but a force had seized me and I was pulled backwards into the air and up into the gallery.
Below, Hagen’s face was wide eyed with shock. I opened my mouth to scream, but a hand was clamped over it before anything could come out. My ankle banged painfully against the banisters as I was yanked over them.
Illuminus gripped me against him, arm around my waist, and twisted my arm round behind my back. His stubble stung me as he thrust his mouth against my ear. He was hovering above the first floor balcony.