Page 11 of The Tribes of Magic (Paragons #3)

MAGICAL SIGNATURES

“ W hat makes you think Seriana and Fenris weren’t bewitched?” Kato looked skeptical, but I was so sure.

“I’ve been thinking and, well, did they sound like they wanted to stab themselves?” I asked.

“Not especially.” The skepticism slowly began to fade from his face.

I pressed on. “If they’d been bewitched, they wouldn’t have sounded so terrified. They would have believed they wanted to stab themselves.”

“You have a point.” His gaze lifted in thought.

“That’s why I’m wondering about the knives. Is it possible they could have been enchanted somehow to—I don’t know—turn against their bearers?”

“Objects can be enchanted to do all kinds of things,” Kato said darkly.

“And if you examined the daggers, you could tell if they’d been enchanted to make Seriana and Fenris kill themselves?”

“Yes.” He rose from the bench. “Follow me.”

I accompanied him back to the ballroom. When we arrived, Seriana and Fenris were still on the floor. And the knives were still lodged inside their chests. According to Wyxl, the magical races were more civilized than humans, but after seeing that, I had a really hard time believing it.

“Prepare yourself,” Kato said quietly, his eyes scanning the room.

“Prepare myself for what?”

“To cast a shield around us.”

At least that was a spell I’d done enough times to know it would probably work.

But my stomach tightened anyway. “Do you expect we’ll be attacked?”

“Not yet. But shortly.”

“By whom?”

“By the vampires guarding those daggers.”

I looked at the ring of vampire guards stationed around Seriana’s and Fenris’s bodies.

“I summon you,” Kato said in a deep, commanding voice, his gaze locked on to the knives.

They shot across the room, like they were on invisible strings, and he tugged on those strings, drawing the knives right into his hands. Telekinesis was so cool.

The vampire guards were less impressed. The moment the knives snapped into Kato’s hands, they charged at us.

I barely threw up my shield in time to throw them back.

I cobbled it together from a chaotic assortment of chairs, silverware, and glasses.

A few of the Court members gasped in alarm when their drink glasses were sucked right out of their hands.

Beside me, inside the shield, Kato said, “I need a few minutes.” He was already examining the knives.

“A few minutes. Ok. Got it. No problem.” I winced when one of the vampire guards shattered a glass with his fist.

On second thought, maybe glass didn’t make the best material for a shield. I would have realized that if I’d been thinking clearly instead of panicking.

Duchess Dellondré’s voice called out from the other side of my inelegant shield. “Whatever you’re trying to do, it won’t work! And tampering with the evidence only makes you look guilty.”

“We’re not tampering with the evidence,” I told her. “We’re examining it.”

The small army of vampires slammed into my shield with a resounding crash.

I cast a hasty, sidelong glance at Kato.

“I need more time.” He flipped the daggers over.

“I’m not sure how much time I can give you,” I told him honestly.

I cast a spell to snatch one of the vampires’ swords as he drew it, using it to plug a very visible hole in my shield. Which caused all of the other vampires to draw their swords—and me to snatch them too.

“Swords are made of metal, dummies! And my spell eats metal for dinner!” I taunted the vampires.

Admittedly, that wasn’t very mature of me. But it did make the vampires growl and start kicking their own swords, all of which had been assimilated into my shield. And that was pretty funny.

“Gaians! Cease this lunacy at once and surrender!” Dellondré looked like she was about to blow her top.

Kato smiled at me. “Got it.”

“Evidence?”

He nodded crisply.

I let out a flat, deflated hum, and the pieces of my shield crashed to the ground, like they’d all at once collectively discovered gravity.

Kato looked down at the sea of debris. “Remind me to teach you how to unravel spells properly.”

I blushed.

“Seize them!”

Dellondré’s vampire guards charged forward. I thrust my hands out in front of me.

“Wait!”

The guards froze.

“How dare you use your foul magic on us again!” Dellondré hissed at me.

“I’m not doing any magic right now.” I observed the Duchess cooly, my arms pressed to my chest.

Furious, Dellondré turned to the guard at the front, the one in the gold armor. He flinched, ever-so-slightly, which signaled to everyone in the room that I was indeed telling the truth.

“I think he genuinely doesn’t want to do your bidding anymore,” I said helpfully.

Dellondré gave me a terrible smile, then she turned to snap, quite literally, at the gold guard, “Did you not hear my command, Captain?”

“I did, Your Grace. It’s just that…” He exchanged wary looks with the other guards.

“You’re afraid. Of a little girl.” Dellondré sneered at them. “Fine. Then I’ll take care of her myself.”

She grabbed a sword off the ground.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Kato warned her.

Dellondré’s smile turned even more acidic when she bit out, “Yes, well, you are not me.”

Kato looked totally unbothered by the show she was making, which must have really annoyed her.

“Savannah Winters did not kill Queen Seriana and Prince Fenris, and I have proof.” Kato lifted the knives—and his voice—as he turned to the members of the Court.

“Don’t you want to know who the real killer is? ”

“We already know.” Dellondré stomped toward me.

Her guards wilted in her presence, peeling away from her path.

Duchess Diadora cut in front of her.

“Get out of my way, Diadora.” Dellondré articulated every syllable. Her words were knives, and she was scraping each one against a sharpening stone, in preparation for battle.

Whereas Diadora’s voice was as calm as a sleeping lake. “No, Dellondré. I wish to see this evidence. The Court wishes to see this evidence.”

“Fine, but I’m holding on to this.” Dellondré lifted her sword, tapping it to her opposite shoulder. “For later.” The frosty look she shot me was a promise.

My stomach did another somersault.

“You may address the Court, Sir Kato.”

“Thank you, Duchess Diadora. Honorable members of the Court.” Kato bowed to them.

“Some people would have you believe that Savannah Winters used magic to bewitch Queen Seriana and Prince Fenris. But it was not bewitchment that forced them to kill themselves; it was these .” He deposited the knives on the table that held the chocolate fountain. “They’ve been enchanted.”

“Even if that’s true, Savannah Winters still could have bewitched Queen Seriana and Prince Fenris!”

“This proves nothing!”

“We saw her do it!”

The calls from the Court did nothing to rattle Kato’s nerves. He continued, his voice calm and collected, not betraying a sliver of emotion. “Your entire case against Savannah is based on nothing.”

“We know she’s guilty!”

“We saw her bewitch the whole Court!”

“But have you seen her enchant objects?” Kato’s brows lifted, inviting anyone to speak up and say that they had.

Instead, all he got were shifting skirts and uncomfortable coughs.

“Very well,” Kato said. “Since you have no further?—”

“This is ridiculous.” Duchess Dellondré cut him off, then she turned to address the Court. “This little girl has manipulated everything. And now she thinks she can escape justice by inventing some silly story?”

“Kato is the one who told you the knives were enchanted, not I,” I pointed out.

Dellondré tittered. “Of course she has him under her spell too,” she told the Court. “He would say anything she wanted him to say.”

“I can assure you my words are my own,” Kato said coolly. “My mind is my own.”

Dellondré made a derisive noise.

“Fine. You don’t believe me. So let’s ask an expert of your own to examine the evidence.

Would that satisfy the Court? Lord Daykan!

” Kato called out. “Would you kindly examine the murder weapons? I’m sure you will find I’m telling the truth.

These knives were enchanted to take control over Queen Seriana’s and Prince Fenris’s bodies. ”

Lord Daykan, the most famous Alchemist in the Many Realms and an esteemed member of the Court, emerged from the crowd. “I would be pleased to examine the evidence for the Court.”

“Proceed, Lord Daykan.” Diadora’s words cut off whatever catty remark Dellondré was about to make.

Daykan joined Kato beside the table. He picked up the first knife, turning it over in his hands a few times. “Hmm.” Then he took the second knife and repeated the action, over and over again.

“Have you determined anything, Lord Daykan?”

“Yes, Duchess Diadora. Yes, indeed. I’ve determined the Gaians speak the truth. These knives were enchanted. But not by either of them.” Lord Daykan pulled out a pair of bizarre-looking spectacles and viewed one of the knives through them. “The signature doesn’t match their magic.”

“Then whose signature is it?” someone asked.

“That’s what I’m still trying to figure out.” Daykan tapped the side of his glasses, flipping through various colored lenses.

Kato took a few steps toward the crowd. “I should point out to the Court that these are ceremonial knives, knives the culprit knew Queen Seriana and Prince Fenris would wear for a meeting of the Court—and only a meeting of the Court. A place where they would be among supposed friends.”

“Are you suggesting a member of the Court enchanted these knives to kill Queen Seriana and Prince Fenris?” asked a female Sorcerer in a very dragon-like black dress.

Kato nodded. “I am.”

“That is preposterous!” Dellondré exclaimed. “No member of the Court has ever attacked another when the Court was in session.”

Lord Daykan set the knives down on the table. “Unfortunately, Duchess Dellondré, that is a claim we can no longer make. The enchantment on these knives is Lord Zeryck’s work.”

Lord Daykan pointed at an Alchemist dressed in a very intricate gold-and-turquoise jacket with matching pants.

Lord Zeryck made a run for it, but he didn’t make it far. Diadora sang to a pair of bronze panther sculptures on either side of the door. They sprang to life and tackled Zeryck to the ground.

Diadora strolled across the room toward him, her heels clicking against the floor. “Now we will get answers. Lord Zeryck, why did you enchant the knives to turn against Seriana and Fenris?” She looked down on him, her hands stroking the heads of her animated panthers.

Zeryck struggled to speak through the bronze paw pressing down on his throat. “Trust me, it was nothing personal.”

“You betrayed your oath to this Court!” Count Qwintyn’s angry shout shook the walls. The Sorcerer was large, loud, and—apparently—powerful.

“I didn’t have a choice, Qwintyn,” Zeryck protested. “I received an anonymous delivery with the knives inside. And also instructions to enchant them so they turned against their bearers. I had to comply. They threatened my family.”

Duchess Diadora’s topaz eyes narrowed. “Who? Who made you do this, Zeryck?”

Zeryck shook his head—or at least tried to. The panther paw made the action difficult. “I don’t know. As I said, the note was anonymous. I was told to leave the enchanted daggers in a deposit box at Moonlight Park once I was finished.”

Daykan glanced at Diadora. “Do you believe him?”

“Perhaps,” she said, frowning. “In any case, I intend to get to the bottom of this, one way or another.”

Duchess Diadora headed for the exit, singing a few more notes to her panthers. They followed their mistress, dragging Zeryck after them.

The General moved into Diadora’s path. “Wait. This crime was committed on Gaian soil. The law states we have the right to interrogate the accused.”

“Your law,” Diadora said silkily. “Not ours.”

“But—”

“Two of our own are dead, General, and a third stands accused of killing them. This is a Court matter.” When he opened his mouth to speak again, Diadora lifted her hand to silence him. “This discussion is pointless.”

“I disagree,” the General said sharply.

“Of course you do, but that’s entirely due to your ignorance.”

The angry vein in the General’s temple twitched.

“I meant no offense, General. I meant only that you Gaians are unfamiliar with certain truths. Such as the fact that all members of the Court have been conditioned to withstand all common interrogation techniques. You will get nothing from Lord Zeryck.”

The General stood taller. “I assure you, there’s nothing common about our techniques.”

Diadora smiled. “Let me be frank, if I may, General?”

“I appreciate frankness.”

“As do I.” Diadora folded her hands serenely in front of her.

“So here’s the reality: your realm is a young, naive one.

You have no magic and little patience. The Court has both, not to mention centuries of experience shaping magic into an effective interrogation tool.

You have no chance of extracting the truth from Lord Zeryck using only mundane means. ”

“You would be surprised by how effectively my people can extract information from uncooperative prisoners,” the General replied.

Acid tinged my tongue. I pressed my lips together and forced it back down. I also had to force out the waterfall of images featuring Watchers extracting information from uncooperative prisoners. Sometimes an active imagination was a bad thing. This was one of those times.

“If your methods are as effective as you say, then what’s the harm in letting us have a chance with the prisoner first?” the General asked Diadora. “He’ll still be there for you if we fail.”

“You see, that’s what worries me, General. The Gaian Government has a history of misplacing dangerous prisoners. And I’m not prepared for you to misplace one of ours.”

“What does she mean by ‘misplaced prisoners’?” I whispered to Kato.

“I don’t know.” He frowned. “Perhaps she knows something we do not. I will look into it.”

The General told Diadora, “We have not misplaced any dangerous prisoners. You have been misinformed.”

“Have I?”

Diadora’s words weren’t a question. They weren’t even a challenge. They were a dismissal, clear and simple. And directly to the point. The General might have met his match in Duchess Diadora.

She gave him a congenial smile. “Calm yourself, General. Rest assured that we will get to the truth behind the murders of Queen Seriana and Prince Fenris. And when we do, we will of course share this information with our gracious hosts.”

“The Court won’t be sharing anything with us, will they?” I whispered to Kato.

“That would be very uncharacteristic of them.”

One of Diadora’s pet panthers growled at the General, which had exactly the desired effect. The General backed away. He was by no means a cowardly man, but if there was one thing that scared him, it was definitely magic.

“The Court is adjourned for the day. We shall reconvene tomorrow morning.”

With that announcement made, Duchess Diadora and her panthers dragged Lord Zeryck out of the room. And the rest of the delegates followed.