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His restraint demonstrated why he had been a successful ruler for decades. I didn’t like the decisions he’d been making since learning about mesmerization, but he was capable of putting aside personal insult when it was politically necessary, and he was willing to consider the good and stability of the kingdom over personal revenge. He had proven that when he accepted the Triumvirate putting his son aside in favor of his nephew, and it was that trait I was placing all my hope in.
“Of course I wasn’t involved,” Anka said. “That should have been apparent. I suppose I wasn’t deemed trustworthy enough.” She gave Amara an unimpressed look.
“Nonsense, Aunt,” Amara said briskly. “It wasn’t a matter of trust. I couldn’t ask you to get involved in something like this.”
“If you didn’t know about this ahead of time, then what do you mean?” Colton frowned in Anka’s direction. “Are you saying you sensed she was lying when she threatened the king? Because I got no such impression.”
Anka shook her head. “This is why I keep telling you that a regular healer is not the same as a law keeper—and why our affinity needs to put greater emphasis on proper truth telling training for all our apprentices.”
I could tell from her tone that it was an old argument between them.
“Master Anka, please explain yourself,” the king said in a warning tone.
“It’s a classic strategy that wouldn’t fool any law keeper worth their salt,” she said. “The speaker says a series of true statements and allows the listener to assume that those statements are connected to each other.”
King Marius frowned. “So in this instance…”
“Delphine said that you intended to destroy her life. True. She said that she needs hope for the future. True. She said that Colton activating a wall would give her hope. Also true. And then she said that without a reason for restraint, she might as well kill the person who was persecuting her. That’s true, of course. Freed from all restraints, humanity has shown itself to be perfectly capable of murder. But most of us have restraints already—small matters like self-respect, value for life, and morality for starters. Plus in this case, you’re both her king and the father of the man she loves. There was no chance a person like Delphine was going to kill you. She needed restraints to prevent her, yes, but she already had those. She just allowed you to assume that only hope for the future would be enough of a restraint to hold her back. In fact the two truths were never related.” Anka looked to me. “Am I right?”
I nodded, impressed.
“But she said I was going to die if Colton didn’t succeed in blocking her,” King Marius said, looking from Anka to me with narrowed eyes.
“Actually,” Anka said, “I think you’ll find she said someone would die but never specified who. I believe it was herself she expected to die if she failed in her purpose here. Again, it was all the manipulation of assumptions. It was quite neatly done for a novice.” She nodded respectfully in my direction.
“Yes, you’re right on that point, too,” I said, my whole body shaking with the aftereffects of my earlier bravado.
Nik pulled me against him, and this time I didn’t try to stop him.
“I know none of us wanted to punish Delphine in the first place—not when her only crime was being forced to learn a skill she never wanted.” Drake met everyone’s eyes one by one. “I’m the one who told her that we were looking for another option—a way to mitigate the threat without punishing an innocent person.”
“Please don’t blame Master Drake or any of the others,” I said to the king. “It was my idea. And I went into it knowing that threatening the king might be enough to see me executed, regardless of the outcome. I certainly knew that if I failed—meaning my skills remained an unmitigated threat—then my behavior here would certainly ensure my death. It was always my own death I was referring to, never yours. And while I know it’s shameless of me, I beg you to forgive my actions now that you know you were never in any danger from me. Master Colton can make a wall—and hopefully soon other healers as well—so you have a way to protect yourself and others from what I can do. I’m hoping that will give you the reason you’ve all been looking for to choose a different path.”
“Of course it will,” Nik said in menacing tones, glaring at his parents. “No onewantsto hurt you, Delphine.”
“I’m not sure I’m following.” Evermund had one arm wrapped around Airlie’s waist, but his eyes were sharp as they jumped from person to person. “I don’t suppose someone could explain what we walked in on?”
“It’s quite simple, really,” Airlie said. “The king and Triumvirate decided that Delphine should be locked up for the rest of her life without any physical contact for the crime of knowing how to mesmerize.”
Evermund looked at Nik. “You were right.”
I twisted so I could look up into Nik’s face.
He looked grim as he replied. “It’s better than I feared, to be honest. But you can understand why we needed to hurry.”
“Is that why you disappeared?” Airlie asked. “You must have ridden day and night to fetch Evermund and get him back this quickly.”
I frowned at Nik, taking in the lines of exhaustion I hadn’t noticed earlier. Airlie had said all along that Evermund might succeed where she had failed. How hard had Nik driven himself in order to bring back the one person he thought could help?
“I talked to Amara,” he said, focusing his reply on me. “And we agreed this was the most helpful thing I could do.”
I felt a pinch at the memory of what I had once—however briefly—thought him capable of doing compared to the reality of his mature response on this occasion. But the feeling was gone almost as soon as it appeared. Nik had shown me in every way possible that he had forgiven me, and it was time to leave that tragic situation in the past where it belonged.
I looked across at Amara. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wasn’t sure they would get back in time,” she said, “and I knew how hard this was going to be to pull off. I didn’t want you to think there was any other hope in case it made you buckle when the moment came.”
“So you all hatched a plan to save Delphine?” Evermund asked. “By threatening the king?” He sounded skeptical, and I couldn’t blame him.
