too hard on him.”
Will gaped at her.
“I’m serious. You give him too much credit for the image he presents. Maybe he projects strength and confidence, but he’s only human. That’s how he was raised. Underneath, he’s struggling. We’re facing a demon invasion and you’re not here, so he’s left holding the bag and he knows he can only hold it together for so long before everything comes apart.”
“Did he say that?” asked Will.
“No, Will. Pay attention. I’m translating for you. That’s how he feels inside. It’s what he won’t say, not to me, not to anyone.”
“Damn,” said Will. “You’re doing better than me if you can tell all that from just looking at him. I usually draw a blank.”
“You’re too close.”
“We aren’t close at all,” said Will.
She sighed. “No, you’re too invested. He’s your father, and you’ve got a lot of strong emotions tied to him. That’s why you can’t see him clearly.”
He couldn’t really argue with that. Before he could agree, Selene surprised him with another revelation. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you before you went to find the trolls, but after you left Cerria, I started a full audit of your accounts. You’ll never guess what I found.”
The change of subjects confused him. Will stared at her for a moment before replying, “Money?”
She sighed. “I found a particular transaction not long after you were granted title to the Arenata estate. You made a large donation to the Mothers of Terabinia in the amount of five thousand six hundred and thirty-five gold crowns.”
“I did?” Now he was even more confused.
“No, dummy,” she said, exasperated. “You didn’t. That’s the point. Doesn’t that number sound familiar?”
It did. Frowning, he asked, “Wasn’t that the amount that someone left for the Doster family to find? The assassination money?”
She nodded.
“Are you saying someone in your charity wants me dead?”
Selene rolled her eyes. “There are only a few people with access to the charity accounts.”
Will squinted at her suspiciously. “Are you sure none of them are out to get me?”
“I can assure you that neither I nor Laina wants you truly dead, though you do have your moments.”
“Oh.” That set him back. “The two of you can’t be the only ones with access, though.”
“You’re right, but the fact is that the money was never received. I checked the books myself. The log entry in your account book was fraudulent.”
“So, who did it?”
She smiled. “I took it all the way to the Royal Bank and insisted on seeing their records. The coin was paid out of your account and the log entry in their book was obviously forged. Such a large sum would require the approval of one of the bank’s senior directors, but none of them signed it. That leaves us with only a few possibilities.”
Will was tired of the game and wished she would just give him the answer, but he continued to play along. “Which are?”
“Only the bank chairman or the deputy chairman could get access to those books and authorize such a sum be released without being forced to put his name on it. Even then it would probably cause rumors that would reach my father’s ears.”
He whistled. “You think the king gave approval for it?”
“Or simply turned a blind eye,” said Selene. “That’s very much his style. I would bet everything that it was either the chairman or the deputy chairman who actually hatched the plan. Both of them are senior officers and greater peers of the realm.”
“Who?” he demanded, tired of waiting.
She told him, and Will felt a shock go through him. “That can’t be right. One is impossible and the other—I trust him! He wouldn’t.”
Selene shook her head sadly. “It could have been either of them. Think about it. There’s nothing we can do right now; Lustral is dead and the other can’t be confronted until later.”
He gave her a dour look. “Thanks. How am I supposed to sleep? I’ll be turning this over in my head all night.”
“This will keep your brain busy,” she announced, holding up a sheet of parchment covered in neat writing with a tidy diagram in the center.
The spell looked complicated, but less so than Will had expected. “Is it sixth-order?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I thought it would be harder.”
Selene smiled. “The first version was eighth-order, maybe more, but there were several repetitive sections.” She pointed to one part of the spell formula. “See here? I routed it back to this portion twice to keep it shorter and more efficient.”
Will had to study