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Riona faltered, guilt filling her expression. He saw her gaze drop to his mouth, where a faint, pale scar cut into the edge of his lower lip. “…Perhaps you’re right.”
Just then, the curtains at the far end of the theater parted. Riona released the sword and jerked away from Auberon, self-consciously running her hands down the front of her tunic, as a man stepped through the archway. She didn’t look at Auberon as she started down the steps from the stage. “Aeron,” she said, picking up a cloak she’d left on one of the theater seats and sweeping it around her shoulders. “I’m glad you came.”
Whatever desire he’d been feeling abruptly left him at those words. “What body?”
“We found the woman who served you the poisoned wine dead in an alley. At least, the woman we believe served you the wine. I suppose you’ll be able to confirm her identity, Your Highness,” the stranger said as he walked down the aisle. The candlelight revealed the pointed ears sticking out from his wavy hair, along with the mistrust with which he regarded Auberon. “I wasn’t aware we would have company, my lady.”
“Prince Auberon is helping me find the person who attempted to kill him. You will tell no one of this, and you will keep any opinions of his Erdurian blood to yourself.”
Aeron continued staring at Auberon, but he nodded. “I won’t say a word, my lady.”
Auberon bristled at the contempt in the elf’s voice, but said nothing as he set aside the prop sword and descended the stage steps. Aeron turned and started back toward the archway, Riona walking close at his side. Auberon trailed behind them as the elf led them out of the theater, along the King’s Road, then down several narrow, twisting streets. The night was clear, a blanket of brilliant stars sparkling high above the city. Yet their beauty dimmed when Aeron started down a close—one of the narrow, covered alleyways that were characteristic of Innislee—and the stench of decay and rotting meat washed over them.
“By the Creator,” Auberon hissed, lifting a hand to his nose. “How is it possible that no guards or city patrolmen have discovered the body when it smells like this?”
Aeron shot him a withering look over his shoulder. “We’re in the slums, which is occupied almost entirely by starving, out-of-work elves. Finding a body in one of the closes is hardly noteworthy to the city watch.”
He led them a bit further and stopped before a doorway that only came up to his shoulder, the door hanging on broken hinges. “This is where we found her. Lady Riona… You may want to wait outside.”
“No,” she said, although her voice came out strained. “No, I don’t.”
The elf nodded and picked up a lantern someone had left beside the doorway. He struck a match and lit the wick, turning the flame as high as it would go before leading them inside. The floor immediately dropped, having been dug out so whoever was inside could stand fully upright. It was a…flat, Auberon realized as he surveyed the room in the light from Aeron’s lantern, although he pitied anyone who had to live in such cramped quarters. It consisted of a single room with a dirt floor, a rickety table and chairs pushed into one corner alongside a wood-burning stove. On the opposite wall stood a simple wooden cot, where a figure was curled beneath layers of thick, ratty blankets. The putrid odor that emanated from it was nearly unbearable.
Riona reached for the blankets and wavered, looking as if she was about to be sick. Auberon stepped around her and pulled the covers back.
A cloud of flies burst from the corpse. Auberon bit back a startled cry as they shot past him and out the door. His heart hammered against his ribs as he examined the body, fighting to hold down his dinner. Aeron moved to the foot of the cot and held the lantern high, his face pale and grim under the flickering light. The woman lay on her side, facing away from them, her long brown hair spilling across the mattress. Her face was bloated and swollen with dark bruises, most of the delicate bones badly broken. Her head was bent backward at an awkward angle, and when Auberon leaned forward, he saw why.
The elven girl’s throat had been slashed from ear to ear, straight through the jugular. Auberon swallowed, feeling the blood drain from his face. “Creator preserve us…”
“It’s her, isn’t it?” Riona asked softly. “The servant?”
He nodded. Although her face was mutilated and mottled with bruises, he could still see a glimmer of the girl who had served him the wine that night.
“The castle had no record of where she lived,” Aeron said. “It was only through sheer luck that my man stumbled upon her body. Whoever was behind the attempt on your life used her to deliver the poison, then murdered her to ensure her silence.”
“We… We should search the room,” Riona added. “There may be something here that can lead us to the murderer.”
They began to rifle through the flat’s meager furnishings. Riona searched the few cupboards that made up the kitchen, climbing onto one of the chairs to see if anything was hidden on top of the shelves, while Aeron and Auberon quickly peeled back the rest of the blankets to further examine the body. The elf was clad in two layers of tunics and pants, an attempt to guard against the dank chill of the flat, and the rest of her body was untouched. She had first been killed, and then her murderer had mutilated her face in an attempt to keep her from being identified.
He was weary and heartsick by the time they emerged from the close, frustrated by the fact that they’d found nothing of note. A small chest at the foot of the bed had held her servants’ livery and a few other changes of clothes, along with a small bag of coins, but that was it. There were no notes, no vials of poison or weapons, no evidence of any payment from the murderer for her aid in the poisoning. They’d even gone so far as to examine the walls for loose stones where the elf might have hidden any evidence of her involvement in the attempt on his life.
Nothing.
No one spoke as they made their way back to the Royal Theater. When they stepped through the curtained archway into the theater proper, Riona slung off her cloak and flung it over the back of a chair, then slumped into one of the seats in the first row. “Send anonymous notes to the royal guard and city watch that the body has been discovered,” she said to Aeron in a quiet voice, “and then get some rest. I’m sorry for dragging you out in the middle of the night.”
He pressed a hand to his chest, just over his heart. “You do not have to apologize. I am yours to command, my lady.”
Aeron bowed and left, not even bothering to shoot Auberon a hateful look as he passed. Once he was gone, Auberon sank into the seat beside Riona’s, wishing he could scrub the night from his mind. “I think that elf’s in love with you,” he teased, trying for a lighthearted tone.
“He’s not,” Riona responded, the words flat. “His wife died of a wasting sickness three years ago, and he hasn’t been the same since. He still loves her. It’s part of the reason why he has such hatred for the nobility. She…” She stopped and shook her head. “He wouldn’t want me to speak of his affairs. Just know that he can be trusted.”
“I can see that. I think he’d fall on his own blade if you commanded it.”
Riona met his gaze, something haunted and defeated in her eyes. “I think serving me is the only thing that keeps him from falling on his blade most days.”
Auberon fell silent, having no response to that. The quiet of the theater was a heavy, somber thing, filled with the horror of what they’d seen that night. Another body. Another brutal murder. Riona was so careful to play the polished court lady at the banquets, but he could see now the toll that the senseless deaths were taking on her. She had faced execution and survived a tyrant’s reign in Beltharos only to find her own court festering with corruption. When he could stand her sorrow no longer, he stood and offered her a hand.
“We will find the person responsible for this, Riona,” he said, and she looked up in surprise at his use of her name—no title, no teasing quips. “But as we’ve seen tonight, we live in a world rife with weapons and bastards who know how to use them, so you should learn how to protect yourself. Which is why you’re incredibly lucky to have my expertise at your disposal. I’m an excellent teacher.”
