“Why would I help you?” Nikos blurted as if the mere idea was madness.
“Because someone has used you to make our kingdom vulnerable and now they seem to want you imprisoned or dead to cover their tracks. I can keep you safe. Where is yourskiá?” Riordan demanded.
“Lysander remained in Árgos. I told him to stay away when I saw the state of this apartment,” Nikos admitted.
“You will tell him to join you once we return to the city with you in my custody,” Riordan informed him.
Nikos pursed his lips, clearly not uninterested in his cousin’sprotection, but he was still reluctant.
“What will your protection entail?” he asked warily, but Riordan ignored him as he turned to Orion and me.
“We will take Nikos prisoner for the abduction of my father and return him to Kórinthos as our enemy expects. We will keep all of this between just the three of us and see who comes asking questions about him. Whoever is behind all of this will likely be eager for us to lay all the blame on Nikos,” Riordan began to muse aloud.
“So I am to be bait?” demanded Nikos in offense.
“Do we think that whoever is mobilizing the Fuath is the same person using Nikos as a scapegoat?” I asked.
“It seems likely,” Riordan admitted.
“Just how deep can this infiltration really have gone?” wondered Orion. “I am skeptical that we would not have heard or seen something if it was truly a large movement. It seems more likely that it is a select few who have a great deal of influence?”
“I know someone who could find out for us,” I said with a hesitant glance at my king.
“Who?” asked Orion in surprise, but my eyes stayed on Riordan who cocked his head at me in question.
“Castor.”
“Castor is myfirstsuspect,” Riordan objected.
“Castor did tell me that it was a mistake to unman the watchtowers,” Nikos spoke up unexpectedly. I turned to see he was gazing out the window as if he were recalling the conversation with a knit between his brows. If he truly was set up, then I could only imagine he must have spent the last few weeks going over every interaction to try and figure out who did it.
“But why would he say that?” Orion blurted at Nikos before he seemed to remember himself and composed his features again.
“He said that… none of the evidence was supported by his own intel,” he admitted and lowered his eyes like a sullen child who was caught in a lie.
I looked at Riordan in determination.
“He told me to be careful today. That is what he pulled me aside to say before we left,” I explained. I went on to explain the warning from Castor’s spies and about the strange green vats on the mountain.
“If it really was an accelerant… She would have been seen by everyone as responsible for destroying the city,” Orion pointed out gravely.
“Your enemy may be attempting to discredit your good reputation,” Nikos mused with intrigue, rubbing a finger over his lower lip in thought.
I raised my brows at his subtle praise, and Nikos rolled his eyes at me. “Tales of your saintly endeavours can be heard from Kórinthos to Siracusa, witch, do not presume these are my personal feelings,” he dismissed me.
“Castor is one of only a few in this kingdom with both the intelligence and resourcefulness to orchestrate such a clandestine revolt of this magnitude,” Riordan insisted.
“Perhaps it is a ploy to gain your confidence. He does seem intent on that,” Orion observed to me.
“But what would be the point? He cannot want me to discredit myself but then warn me about the trap.”
“The best plots are open ended enough to serve any number of goals,” Orion maintained patiently.
“We have the material in question?” Riordan asked, and Orion nodded. “We will know when we test it to see if it is some kind of accelerant,” he settled the matter.
I already knew it was. Some deep instinct that I could not put my finger on shouted that I had narrowly escaped becoming the villain of the day rather than a hero.
We searched the apartment for any clues left by Riordan’s father, even though the possibility seemed very unlikely considering how torn apart it was. Once we were assured there was nothing to find, Riordan put Nikos in shackles to transport him back to Ergastiri. He insisted on a very public display that had Nikos cringing in disdain, but we needed the enemy to think we were falling for their trap.
