She grunted aloud as she proved wide of the mark again. She was on the wrong track here. Kashkari did spend part of his year with the rebels, so he would want something the rebels couldn’t easily guess either, in case someone nosy stumbled upon his notebook.
She walked several times around the worktable. Kashkari had gone to Eton to keep Wintervale safe, but all the variations of Wintervale’s name fell flat. She consulted Princess Ariadne’s diary, but no new visions were revealed. She did find, tucked into a pocket on the back cover, a letter from Lady Wintervale to Titus, written years ago, when the latter first began his career at Eton. But it was no use to the problem at hand.
You will best help him by seeking aid from the faithful and bold, came the long-ago advice from the Oracle of Still Waters. Could it be? Fidus et audax, which had been the password for the wardrobe in Wintervale’s room, was in fact—Titus had told her later—the Wintervale family motto.
Could Kashkari have taken that as his password, because of what he believed to be his prophesied connection with Wintervale?
“Fidus et audax,” she said.
The notebook opened. And on the page it opened to was written, I remember now where I saw a book exactly like the prince’s volume of fairy tales: on the shelves of Royalis’s grand library, when I last worked there.
Iolanthe nearly dropped the notebook. She didn’t need the tiny Atlantean whirlpool symbol at the corner of the page to know who had sent the message.
Mrs. Hancock.
Where are you? she wrote back.
No answer came.
If she were Mrs. Hancock, she would be careful too, especially if she received a reply that wasn’t in Kashkari’s handwriting. Iolanthe almost identified herself to Mrs. Hancock, but that would be too risky, if the notebook were to fall into the wrong hands.
Or was already in the wrong hands.
Her head pounded. What was really going on? What would Titus, Kashkari, and Amara do once they found out that they could not proceed as they’d hoped? And what was her role in all of this? Did she merely pass on the information to Dalbert and hope for the best or . . .
She got up and walked back into the parlor. Master Haywood sat in an armchair, his hands in his lap, staring straight ahead.
Her heart pinched, but she only said, “If you can show me where it is, I would like to see Wintervale’s funeral notice.”
Titus had taken their emergency satchel. But fortunately for her, his preparedness was world-class, and in the laboratory there were duplicates of almost everything—including, thankfully, another plain spare wand, since she planned to leave Validus behind. She found a satchel similar to the one they’d used and stocked it with remedies, tools, and everything else she could fit inside.
Master Haywood, his face grim, did the same, filling the bag he’d brought with him from his apartment in Paris.
“You don’t have to come,” she told him.
“I want to.”
“You don’t want to. You would rather stay behind.”
“So would you, Iola. We are none of us that brave.”
“At least I made my decision long ago, after careful consideration. You are just being rash.”
He stopped and turned to her. “My dear girl, you may criticize me on anything else—and goodness knows I have failed on many fronts. But for nearly seventeen years now my life has had no purpose other than to keep you safe. When I destroyed your light elixir, it was an attempt to keep you safe. When I said nothing and let the prince and his friends go, likewise. And now I am coming with you, because nothing matters more to me than your safety. Maybe I am being rash, but my decision too was made very, very long ago.”
She swallowed. “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”
His voice softened. “Only if you also forgive me for overstepping my bounds.”
She set aside her bag, wrapped her arms around him, and laid her head on his shoulder. “I want so much for you to have years and years ahead. Good years—too many were stolen from you.”
“I want the same—but not because I had anything stolen from me. I was the one who threw away those years we could have been happy together. I want to do everything right by you, should we be given another chance.”
She touched his face. “You have always done everything right by me.”
He hugged her fiercely, then kissed her on her forehead. They finished