Page 17

17

D aisy had come to kill them all.

Those impossible words rang and reeled through her screaming skull, as something crunched and seized deep in her belly, in her chest. Something like terror, like agony, like wild spiralling grief.

Filak had done this. Filak had trapped her. Tricked her. Taunted her. And now…

A serious accusation. Come to kill them all.

It kept thudding like a strike, like a juddering blow to Daisy’s head. So dizzying that she could only stare at this woman, at her dark searching eyes, her tight grim mouth. This woman who… believed this. Come to kill them all.

Because Filak had told her this. Filak had done this.

Daisy’s wet eyes somehow found his, still so shadowed and strange. He’d done this to her. He hadn’t only wanted to hurt her and humiliate her. He’d truly wanted to… to destroy her. Maybe to have these people punish her, kill her, while he watched, and laughed.

Suddenly Daisy couldn’t bear to look at him, at any of them, and she dropped her eyes, dropped her head. Her shaky hands groped at the wall behind her, rough against her fingers, but she couldn’t feel any pain now, not even through the sharp scent of blood. Only the searing, agonizing misery, and the bitter dread of the waiting, as she stood here weak and exposed in this horrible empty silence.

Because they were all waiting for her to speak. To defend herself. Weren’t they? Maybe to add to the entertainment, to Filak’s enjoyment of her destruction. And Daisy would not give it, not now. Not after she’d already been so humiliated, so defeated, so stupid …

But she still couldn’t stop the tears silently squeezing from her eyes, streaking down her cheeks, dripping off her chin. While her numb hands gripped tighter at the wall, what would they do now, how painful would it be, why wouldn’t it just stop …

“This is absurd,” cut in a shaky voice, and when Daisy raised her wet eyes, it was Julian , lurching away from Filak , coming to stand beside her. “ Daisy cannot have done any such thing. She is an artist, and now she is a Ka -esh, also.”

Daisy’s dull, hitching thoughts couldn’t follow — how did Julian know she was an artist? Had Filak told him, just now? And why would Julian call her a Ka -esh ?

But then Rosa swept over to Daisy’s other side, and squeezed a gentle hand against her arm. “ Yes , precisely,” she said flatly. “ And we’re certainly not about to take accusations from Filak as truth now, are we?”

She shot a dark, disapproving glare in Filak’s direction, but Daisy still couldn’t bear to look at him, could barely breathe over the grief still choking her throat. He’d wanted to hurt her. To destroy her.

“These accusations are not only from Filak ,” cut in the big menacing orc — the one the woman had called the captain, his voice deep and deliberate. “ The reports from our scouts uphold Filak’s claims, also.”

What? That didn’t make sense, of course it wasn’t possible… right? But Daisy’s horrified glance upwards found the orc looking grim, decisive, utterly certain, while several others nodded, including the woman beside him. All of them accusing Daisy , attacking her, soon about to hurt her, while Filak watched.

But Rosa pulled her small body taller, and gave Daisy’s arm another reassuring squeeze. “ Look , I’m sure this can all be explained,” she said firmly. “ Just be honest, Daisy , and we’ll get this sorted out. And no matter what, Filak will not touch you again, and we can promise you that. Right , Jule ?”

The woman — Jule — shot a brief look toward Filak’s frowning face, but then she nodded, short and decisive. “ Of course,” she replied. “ Now , Daisy , do you recognize these?”

She thrust something out between them, something that looked like a stack of rumpled paper. And it took Daisy far too long to focus, to find an answer in her churning miserable thoughts. The papers were — her art. Her drawings, the ones she’d been working on, for Lew’s next book. The belladonna, the cascabela , the ricinus .

“Yes,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “ They’re mine.”

And gods, she hadn’t even seen Filak take them from the apartment, and had he somehow planned to use her art against her, all this time? Did he truly hate her work that much? Hate her that much?

“And you work closely with the botanist Lew Wallace , yes?” came Jule’s next question. “ He’s your long-term research and publishing partner?”

Daisy’s eyes darted up at that mention of Lew’s name — how would they know Lew , why would they care? — but after another squeeze from Rosa to her arm, she somehow jerked a nod. “ Yes ,” she said dully. “ For four years now.”

This Jule’s eyes went even more forbidding, her breath exhaling harsh. “ Then I’m sure you’re aware,” she continued, “how Lew Wallace is actively working to isolate and extract large quantities of powerful poison from these plants. Enough poison” — her voice hardened — “to kill every person in Orc Mountain . Every last orc, human, and child .”

What? No . Daisy’s body jolted, while the room slowly tilted around her. Lew ? Actively working? Enough poison to kill everyone in Orc Mountain ?

“N-no,” she said blankly. “ Of course not. That’s — impossible.”

Jule’s brows rose, and her gaze dropped to the stack of Daisy’s drawings still in her hand. “ Is it?” she asked, colder now. “ Even with all the deadliest known plants in the realm?”

Daisy blinked again, because — no. Of course they weren’t. Well , the belladonna, perhaps, and the cascabela — the yellow oleander — and its deadly seeds. And … oh… the ricinus . With its highly poisonous castor beans, beans that Lew had once said could be processed into the most concentrated and versatile poison in the world. Poison that could be drunk, eaten, inhaled…

Daisy’s head was shaking, her heartbeat skipping, her eyes darting back up to Jule’s face. “ I … I didn’t,” she croaked. “ I’m not…”

But Jule’s expression hardened further, and she thrust out something else toward Daisy . Again , something familiar. Lew’s notebook .

And good gods, Filak had stolen Lew’s notebook . And Lew used his notebooks every single day, they contained all his research, all his plans, drafts of everything he published. And now Lew would think Daisy had stolen it, damn it, damn it —

“I’m afraid it’s all written out in detail here,” Jule said, her voice clipped. “ Methods for growing, harvesting, and extracting these poisons. Calculations about quantities and timelines. Locations near Dusbury where large fields have already been planted and harvested. And even detailed plans for dissemination into Orc Mountain . It looks as though” — her lip curled — “underground airborne delivery of the ricin was isolated as the most promising prospect. Choking us all to death in our own home .”

What? No . No . It was impossible. Lew had come to Dusbury to do research , he’d only ever brought up poisons in the context of his next book, he’d mentioned the ricin’s properties only that one time, but… but…

Daisy’s head was beginning to pound, and she groped for a solution, some possible explanation. “ There must — be some mistake,” she managed. “ You’ve — misread the notebook, maybe. I mean, Lew writes it in his own shorthand, I can’t even understand it, I don’t know how anyone else could…”

But her voice faded under Jule’s hard, angry laugh. “ It’s not special shorthand, it’s Kraitish ,” she snapped. “ And Filak speaks Kraitish fluently, and was easily able to translate it for us.”

No. No , that wasn’t possible, it wasn’t . But then again — Daisy’s eyes briefly closed — Lew had mentioned Kraitish before, hadn’t he? Something about studying it at the university, years ago?

Beside Daisy , Rosa huffed a strange sound, and reached forward to snatch the notebook from Jule’s hand. “ Oh ,” she said, after a moment’s flipping through it. “ Yes , it’s all in Kraitish . It’s so rarely spoken outside of the northwest, I’m sure it was a good way to…”

She didn’t finish, angling an uncertain look up toward Daisy’s face, and Daisy gazed blankly back at her, and then down at the notebook. The notebook Lew had lied to her about, the notebook that apparently included detailed plans about how to kill an entire mountain of people…

Daisy’s head pounded louder, as a distant shrieking awareness finally forced its way into her thoughts. The project , gods damn it. The top-secret project. The mysterious eight weeks here in Dusbury , all the things Lew had refused to tell her, whatever he’d been doing with Sybil …

Had it really been… this? Poison ? Mass murder ?

“But… why?” Daisy finally asked, her voice cracking through the silence. “ Why would Lew do such a thing? He’s a scientist, a scholar , we research, we write books , that’s all .”

But it sounded weak even to her own ears, and pathetic, and foolish, and stupid. So , so stupid, oh gods, oh gods…

“Well, according to this notebook,” Jule’s cold voice went on, “this project has been going on for well over a year, and it’s being funded by Lord Nash . I presume you know who he is?”

Lord Nash . Daisy blinked, but slowly nodded — Lord Nash was the most powerful lord in the northern province of Albajar , and over the past few years, he’d become an increasingly influential member of the realm’s ruling Council . And Daisy had even met him at several scholarly events, a tall handsome man perhaps in his early fifties, who had seemed to take quite an interest in Lew’s research…

Gods damn it, damn it, and Daisy’s eyes squeezed shut, as more memories paraded through her reeling brain. Lew had met with Lord Nash at least a few times too, hadn’t he? He’d always thought Nash a clever, cultured man, with intriguing ideas, who had ushered Albajar into a much-needed economic expansion, and…

“And Lord Nash ,” Jule’s inexorable voice continued, “has offered you extremely generous compensation for a successful stealth attack on Orc Mountain . An attack that can be publicly proclaimed as a tragic self-inflicted accident, rather than an act of war straight from the realm’s Council . In flagrant violation of the established peace-treaty between orcs and men!”

The fury shuddered through her voice, ringing against the stone all around them, and Daisy bowed her pounding head, rubbed a stinging sticky hand to her eyes. Gods curse Lew , because it did make sense, it did. The secrecy, the timing, the reason to even come to this backwater in the first place…

And if Lew had needed to keep everything secret, then including all those plants in his next book would be an obvious cover too, wouldn’t it? Explaining why he’d been studying them, why he’d had samples and drawings — and perhaps capitalizing on any public interest in poisons after the attack, too. And even bringing Daisy here would have been part of his coverup, damn him, damn him.

Daisy barely heard Rosa speaking beside her, or the answer from Jule , followed by an unfamiliar deep voice — but then something moved before them. And when Daisy blinked up, it was one of the new orcs, broad and bare-chested, wearing multiple jewels and piercings, and watching Daisy with unblinking dark eyes.

“You scent… surprised by all this, woman,” the orc said, his head tilting as he studied her. “ Did you not know of this plan, and this attack upon us?”

Daisy would have shrunk away, covered her face, but Rosa’s grip on her arm felt far too strong, the orc’s eyes far too intent on hers. So intent she couldn’t seem to find the strength to look away, and instead she could only shake her head, fight to speak over her thundering heartbeat.

“I didn’t know — any of it,” she croaked. “ Lew wouldn’t tell me what the project was, and I would have never thought it was — this . I would never condone something like this, I would never want to hurt anyone, or kill anyone.”

But it again sounded so paltry, so pathetic, and Daisy shook her head, silently pleaded with the orc’s watching eyes. “ I swear to you, I didn’t know,” she gulped. “ I swear. I — I’m just Lew’s artist, just his illustrator. I’m not even very good, I’m barely even a real artist, he didn’t — he didn’t even want me.”

And oh gods, why was she saying such things, telling such shameful truths to all these strangers? But she was already dragging in more breath, holding her prickling eyes to the orc’s watching face. “ I should have known,” her strangled voice gulped. “ I should have guessed. I was so, so stupid. Just like with Filak , I thought he liked me too, but —”

Her voice tripped, as more bitter, horrible comprehension crashed through her thoughts. Oh . Oh . Of course.

“But,” she whispered, “it was only about this for Filak too, wasn’t it? Only about him getting the information he wanted from me. Trapping me, and — defeating me.”

And of course that was true, of course that explained everything — and suddenly the sobs tore out of Daisy’s throat, harsh and helpless and humiliating. It had all been a lie, it had all been about Lew , about Lew’s horrible plan to attack the orcs. The way Filak had found her, touched her, caressed her, taken her. Daisy mín. Sólin mín.

Daisy couldn’t stop weeping, her hands trembling against her face, her ugly sobs echoing through this dank awful room. She should have known. So , so stupid.

The room’s silence suddenly felt awkward now, tight and tense and strange, and finally Rosa loudly cleared her throat. “ Well ,” she said. “ Now that this is settled, can we please get Daisy up to the sickroom at once? And arrange to have that kraga removed as soon as possible?!”

There was another instant’s uncomfortable silence, and then Jule stepped forward, her hand over her heart. “ Of course,” she said firmly. “ We’ll do whatever we can to make you comfortable, Daisy . And ” — her voice dropped — “our deepest apologies for cornering you like this. I know it’s not an excuse, but this has been — quite an upsetting discovery. We were certain you were helping Mr . Wallace , and doing — research. Reconnaissance .”

Oh. They’d all really thought Daisy was an enemy. And — and maybe that should have been comforting, maybe it offered some paltry explanation for everything Filak had done…

But Daisy only felt numb. Cold . Empty . And when her eyes slid to Filak’s face, she couldn’t follow that twist on his mouth, the strange shifting look in his shadowed eyes.

But beside her, Julian moved. Or rather, Julian’s hand moved, making swift, purposeful motions in midair. And Filak’s eyes flicked to watch, his mouth twisting tighter, his swallow bobbing in his throat…

And then — he lurched forward. Forward , toward — Daisy . His clawed hand swiping out, his mouth speaking swift and hoarse and urgent. As if he still wanted to attack her, to hurt her, oh gods, oh gods…

Daisy yelped and cringed backwards, hurling both arms up over her face, as her heartbeat screamed in her ears. No , no, not again, please…

But — a shout. A thud. A scuffle of bodies and feet. And when Daisy risked a terrified glance up, Julian and the big jewelry-wearing orc were both gripping Filak’s arms, dragging him backwards. While Filak just stared at Daisy , his eyes so hollowed and empty in his stark white face.

“Right, then,” said Rosa , a little too brightly. “ Let’s get you up to the sickroom, sister, shall we?”

Daisy numbly nodded, and allowed Rosa to march her forward. Past Filak , past his glinting staring eyes. Strong enough to wrench a vicious shudder up her spine, but she kept her gaze straight ahead, her hands clutched tightly together.

No. No . Filak had kidnapped her, and trapped her in a dungeon. Filak had accused her of attempted murder . She needed to forget him, to be finished with him, forever.

But even so, she could still feel his eyes, prickling stark and powerful into the skin of her back. Sinking in almost as deep as that mark over her heart, like a vow, a promise, a threat.

Nei, Daisy , it said. Mine .