“I gave him a tonic,” Arkady said, and Theron muttered, “Tasted bloody awful.”
Judah felt as if her heart had stopped.
The Seneschal stood up. “I’m glad you’re well, Lord Theron. The people will be much relieved. Thank you for indulging us. Would you take some refreshment before you leave, Arkady Magus?”
Of course Arkady would take some refreshment before he left. He always did. He barked at his apprentice, who scurried to his side, taking up Arkady’s satchel as well as his own—but was it Judah’s imagination, or were all three men leaving faster than they usually did? Normally, Arkady took every opportunity to fawn over Gavin and Elly or be horrible to Judah. This seemed too simple. Too clean. The door closed and only the four of them were left in the room. Theron wanted to go back up to the workshop immediately. He’d figured his device out, he said; he’d had a breakthrough. Elly was pleading with him to stay and eat, or at least change clothes. Gavin was offering to go down to the baths with him.
The moment we leave.
Maybe the poison was already in Theron, working its way through his body. Maybe she was letting him die by sitting here, frozen with indecision.
Maybe the poison was in her hand.
She stood up. She would tell them quickly. Theron could decide for himself, when he knew everything. Look how much trouble they’d created by not telling Elly everything.
Give it to Lord Theron. All of it.
Judah opened her mouth to speak.
“Oh,” Elly said, sounding surprised. “Theron, your nose is bleeding.”
And it was: a thin but steady stream of blood that grew even steadier as Theron reached up to touch it. He squinted at his bloody fingers in puzzlement. Then he collapsed.
Elly cried out. So did Gavin, maybe. Judah couldn’t tell. Elly pulled Theron’s head into her lap as his entire body began to shake. Gavin tried to take off his brother’s glasses. Judah knelt next to him. Fumbling with the cold bottle and its impossibly tiny cork with fingers that felt huge and clumsy. The moment we leave. Theron’s breathing was loud and frightening, as if he were being choked from the inside. His eyes were wide but unseeing. The whites showed all the way around the blue. Elly and Gavin were calling his name. The cork flew out. Judah said, “Hold his head,” surprised at how cool she sounded. She grabbed his chin and forced his mouth open, emptying the bottle into it. The liquid was clear and thin, like water. Then she held his mouth closed again and he choked and gagged and she thought, what if I’m killing him, what if this is me killing him right now?
His spine arched. The heels of his boots slammed against the floor. His eyes rolled back in his head and then closed. He went limp.
In the absence of his terrible breathing the silence was nightmarish. Elly seemed to be holding her breath and Judah could not breathe, either. I’ve killed him, she thought, once again stunned by how easily she could think that.
Then Theron inhaled, a great ragged whoop. His next breath was easier, and the one after that. Soon he was breathing normally. His eyes remained closed.
“What just happened?” Elly turned to Judah. “What was that? Where did you get it?”
“The apprentice. He said to give it to him as soon as they left.” Over Theron’s inert body, still lying half in Elly’s lap, Judah met Gavin’s eyes. “He knew.”
Elly brushed Theron’s sweat-drenched hair away from his forehead. “Arkady tried to poison him.” She seemed to be testing the idea, speaking it aloud to see if the words sounded true. “Why would he do that? Why would Arkady want Theron dead? The Seneschal said they wanted to make sure he was healthy, because—” Her eyes widened. No fool, Elly. “Because there are rumors in the city that he’s ill. That he’s dying.”
It was awful, watching the pieces fall into place in Elly’s mind. Judah found the tiny cork, and jammed it back into the mouth of the empty bottle. Which just felt like glass, now. Not cold at all.
“Who wants Theron dead?” Elly’s voice was flat and furious. “Why?”
Judah didn’t answer. Gavin’s eyes were fixed on his unconscious brother. Parsing it out, as Judah had before Theron collapsed, trying to figure out how much to say. Tell her, Judah thought to him, even though that wasn’t the way the bond worked. Tell her everything.