Page 32

NIGHT

T here was something wrong with Emryn. She was doing a good job hiding it, but she was stiff in bed at night and was back to dreaming after nights of nothing but rest.

She hadn’t been dreaming, but the return of the dreams that made her toss and turn in her sleep was the first sign that something was wrong.

“Emryn?” He asked as she woke and pulled away from him. “What is it?”

“Just dreaming,” she whispered. “I am sorry to wake you.”

“I was already awake,” he told her, reaching out to pull her to him. “Will you tell me what’s wrong?”

She signed, rubbing her face against his chest. “I’m getting letters.” She said. “Supposedly from my parents, who are overjoyed to find me again.”

“And?”

“And no one alive has twenty sets of parents.” She sighed again. “I’d burn them, but the last set had poison woven into the paper and I’m afraid to do it again.”

“Wait.” he sat up in their bed, pulling back to look down at her. “Emryn, you were sent poisoned letters, and you didn’t tell anyone?”

“I forgot,” she said, shrinking from him. “It was right before I saw you with Ruby in the garden and that entire thing. I’ve been poisoned before, Cas. Healers are often targeted when we can’t save someone.”

“You’ve been-” He truly didn’t know how to parse that. That she’d been threatened in her work so often that the poison in the letters she’d been sent hadn’t registered on her mind as something important to tell him.

“I’ll have the palace guards take the letters.” Cas said, lying back down with her in his arms. “We’ll investigate where they’re coming from and stop them.”

“Don’t burn them without very tight shields in place.” Emryn said as she started to slide back toward sleep. “I’d honestly hand them to the college of magi and let them play with the way that the poison is embedded.”

“That’s a better idea.” He stroked her head, knowing by now that she enjoyed that. “I’ll call the college in the morning.”

She went slack against his side, breathing evening out and slowing. He waited until she was fully asleep and rose, tucking one of the bed pillows into her arms to help her rest.

He was going to call Asan. That poison was a direct threat against the royal house and he wasn’t going to be able to rest until he saw the issue into more capable hands.

He went for his mirror, tracing the symbols in the handle and laying it on the floor as it went milky.

Asan stepped through a few moments later. His old teacher wasn’t much for sleep and looked as put together as was possible.

“Cas?”

The story spilled out, borne on the back of his worry for his wife. “And she didn’t tell me, Asan.” he took a breath. “She says it’s happened before.”

“Show me the letters,” Asan said calmly, not addressing the rest of Cas’ panic. “I will take them and figure out how they were sent.”

“I don’t know where they are.” Cas shook his head. “Probably on her desk in her sitting room.”

“You did well to not touch them.” Asan said thoughtfully. “There is a non-zero chance that the poison in the letters is actually targeted at you, Cas.”

“What?”

Asan laid a hand on Cas’ shoulder. “Think, Cas, what better way to get to you than to threaten your wife?”

“I don’t want to acknowledge that you’re right.” Cas said. “But you are likely right.”

“I know,” Asan said dryly. “Let’s go and see the letters, and then we can discuss what the queen is planning in the city.”

“That was Emryn.” Cas said, still full of pride for his wife. “She was magnificent, Asan. You should have seen her face down the council.”

“I have,” he smiled. “Now, to business.”

Cas took Asan through to Emryn’s sitting room, to her desk, but the top was clean, no papers to be found.

They were in one of the drawers, in a folder labeled ‘fake letters’, and Cas could almost feel the danger radiating off the file.

Asan looked concerned as well, reaching out to surround the file in a bubble shield. “I will take this back to my tower, and see what I can divine about the poison and its origins.”

“Thank you, Asan.” Cas nodded to his teacher. “I will inform Her Majesty in the morning about what has happened.”

“And tell Emryn I said hello,” Asan said, holding the bubble in his hands.

“I will,” Cas replied. “I am going to go back to bed. I’ll see you in the next days for you to tell me you were right.”

“There is every chance,” Asan chuckled. “I will see you soon.”

And then he was gone, back through the mirror and Cas put it back in its velvet box before he went back to bed.

Back to cuddling his wife, knowing that the letters and the mystery that they represented were in much better hands now.

He naturally told Emryn what he’d don as soon as they woke the next morning, as they were walking Brutus in the garden.

“It’s a good idea,” she agreed, and he relaxed a bit. “I never would have thought that the poison would have been directed at you, but the First Wizard makes a very sound point.”

“Emryn, are you alright?”

She nodded, smiling up at him. “When he’s all business, he’s the First Wizard. When he’s giving you greetings for me, he’s Asan.”

“I see,’ Cas smiled back. “He did tell me that he says hello.”

“Then he’s Asan,” Emryn giggled. “sort of how I was never simply Emryn when I was working, always Healer, or Healer Emryn.”

“It makes sense,” he bent to pet Brutus, which didn’t require as much bending as it used to. “So, we should go and speak with the queen, tell her about the letters. It’s going to mean that your correspondence goes through the college for testing.”

“Other than those letters, I haven’t had any.” She shook her head. “And I don’t expect any, so that’s no concern.”

“Let’s go talk to Mother then.”

He’s expected her to be concerned, and she was. Had expected her to demand his plan, and he gave her everything that he’d done, including telling her the things that Asan had said.

And as he’d told Emryn, her Majesty came down, that all the correspondence directed to them would go through the college of magi and be inspected.

“Yes, Majesty,” Cas bowed, happy that she wasn’t demanding that the issue be heard by the council. It was far better that this be kept quiet.