Lying.
‘There’s the greatest man in the city!’ another said, pointing at me.
Lying.
I stumbled away from the room, then fled back down the hallway. Grandpa Smedry waited for me, still sitting on the floor. ‘So,’ I said, sitting down next to him. ‘It’s all lies. Nobody really looks up to me.’
‘Lad, lad,’ Grandpa Smedry said, laying a hand on my shoulder. ‘They don’t know you. They only know the stories and the legends! Even that lot in there, useless though they tend to be, have their good points. But everyone is going to assume that because they’ve heard so much about you, they know you.’
They were wise words. Prophetic, in a way. Ever since I left the Hushlands, I’ve felt like every person who looked at me saw someone different, and I wasn’t any of them. My reputation only grew more daunting after the events at the Library of Congress and the Spire of the World.
‘It’s not easy to be famous,’ Grandpa Smedry said. ‘We all deal with it differently. Your father gluts himself on his fame, then flees from it. I tried for years to teach him to keep his ego in check, but I fear I have failed.’
‘I thought . . .’ I said, looking down. ‘I thought if he heard people talking about how wonderful I was, he might actually look at me once in a while.’
Grandpa Smedry fell silent. ‘Ah, lad,’ he finally said. ‘Your father is . . . well, he is what he is. We just have to do our best to love him. But I worry that the fame will do to you what it’s done to him. That’s why I was so excited that you found that Truthfinder’s Lens.’
‘I thought it was for me to use on the Librarians.’
‘Ha!’ Grandpa Smedry said. ‘Well, it could be of some use against them – but a clever Librarian agent will know not to say any direct lies, lest they get caught in them.’
‘Oh,’ I said, putting the Truthfinder’s Lens away.
‘Anyway, you look better, lad! Did the old family remedy work? We can try again if you want . . .’
‘No, I feel much better,’ I said, holding up my hands. ‘Thanks, I guess. Though it was nice to feel like I had friends.’
‘You do have friends! Even if you are kind of ignoring them at the moment.’
‘Ignoring them?’ I said. ‘I haven’t been ignoring anyone.’
‘Oh? And where’s Bastille?’
‘She ran off on me,’ I said. ‘To be with the other knights.’
Grandpa Smedry snorted. ‘To go on trial, you mean.’
‘An unfair trial,’ I spat. ‘She didn’t break her sword – it was my fault.’
‘Hum, yes,’ Grandpa Smedry said. ‘If only there were someone willing to speak on her behalf.’
‘Wait,’ I said. ‘I can do that?’
‘What did I tell you about being a Smedry, lad?’
‘That we could marry people,’ I said, ‘and arrest people, and . . .’ And that we could demand a right to testify in legal cases.
I stood up, shocked. ‘I’ve been an idiot!’
‘I prefer the term “nigglenut”,’ Grandpa Smedry said. ‘Though that’s probably because I just made it up and feel a certain paternal sense toward it.’ He smiled, winking.
‘Is there still time?’ I asked. ‘Before her trial, I mean?’
‘It’s been going on all afternoon,’ Grandpa Smedry said, pulling out an hourglass. ‘And they’re probably almost ready to render judgment. Getting there in time will be tricky. Limping Lowrys, if only we could teleport there via use of a magical glass box sitting in the basement of this very castle!’
He paused. ‘Oh, wait, we can!’ He leaped to his feet. ‘Let’s go! We’re late!’
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