“As much as I do. The entrance through the mountain’s peak, the doorway hidden in the forest that leads to a passageway behind the living quarters here in the Palace, and the third entrance.”
Prince Conrad glanced along the table. “And we’re sure this is the truth?”
“It’s the closest thing we’ve got,” the Queen said, shaking her head. “Captain, advise your soldiers to focus their power on those entrances draw reinforcements from the other gateways in ”
“Queen Lana!” Acantha blurted out, stepping forward hurriedly. “Apologies for speaking out of turn, but we should be very careful about what we say in front of him.” She jerked her head towards Cato. “This Haspar has been listening to everything Cato has heard through some secret magical means. Isn’t that right?”
That was a question that was meant for him, he reasoned, feeling the spell open his mouth before he could think any more about it. “The artifact embedded in my body is connected with Haspar, yes, and it’s possible he’s used it to surveil me during my time here. My consolation is that doing so is difficult, time-consuming, and resource-intensive, so he certainly would not be listening constantly. Right now, though, my connection to the artifact is inert.” He shifted his hands, hearing the manacles clank behind him—and drawing such a stab of pain from his wrist that he caught his breath. “Haspar will be unable to reach me, unable to detect me while these manacles are on.”
“Good,” Acantha said darkly. “Then they stay on.”
She was right to do it, he knew that. He also knew that the longer the manacles stayed on, the more unwell he was going to get. What kind of a death was he headed for, he wondered? It was a question that had occasionally bothered him late at night, but it had never felt this existentially close before. If the growing pain in his arm was anything to go by, it wasn’t going to be good.
Queen Lana leaned forward, looking at him intently. “I’d like to hear a few more truths, now we know that’s what we’re actually hearing. What does your coven want with this place?”
“I was sent to retrieve a gauntlet,” he explained, his voice spilling out of his mouth. “Haspar seems to think it’s an item of great power, though I couldn’t detect it.” There was something oddly freeing about telling the truth. Was it the spell making him feel like this, or was it the knowledge that he could finally let go of his compulsion to curate and decorate every word that he said? He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt like he was having an honest conversation—at least, not a verbal one. It was honesty that he’d felt with Acantha, when the two of them were alone in his bed…
“And was that your mission when you returned a second time?”
“Partially, yes. Haspar was furious with me when I returned to our home in the Fog empty-handed. Angry that I’d failed to retrieve the gauntlet, angry that I’d been caught, angry that I’d left without destroying all memory of my presence here.”
“You can do that?” Queen Lana looked horrified, and he saw Acantha turn a little to look at him, her expression unreadable.
“Yes. An artifact in my staff allows the removal of memories. Very useful, for a thief, and the reason for my arrogance.” He hadn’t intended to share that part, he thought, swallowing against the suddenly uncomfortable loose grip of the collar around his throat.
“Did you use it? Have you interfered with anyone’s memories here?”
“No. The only mind magic I’ve performed here was the spell with which I knocked Captain Acantha unconscious the day I escaped.”
“Why not?” Alpha Seth surprised him with the question. “Why didn’t you wipe our memories of you?”
“I couldn’t,” he said, caught off guard. “I did try, but I couldn’t bring myself to clear Acantha’s memory of me.” He didn’t want to say what he was about to say, but there was no use fighting against a truth spell as powerful as this one. You might as well have tried to hold back the rising tide with your hands… but that didn’t stop him trying. He held his breath, felt his face flushing, knew he looked as ridiculous as the scholars had looked that afternoon they’d spent testing the capabilities of the collar—but sure enough, his voice spilled free anyway. “I think even then I had fallen in love with her.”
That drew an audible reaction, at last, from a crowd that had hitherto been breathlessly silent. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see Acantha’s reaction, not wanting to be there… and for the first time in a long time, he wished Haspar had left him to die in that gutter all those years ago. At least then he wouldn’t have brought all of this chaos and devastation to a community that didn’t deserve it.
At least then he wouldn’t have humiliated the only woman he’d ever loved in front of everyone she knew.
“You’re in love with her?” That was Queen Lana’s voice, and despite his fervent attempts to sink through the floor, his mouth was still moving, damning him with every word.
“Yes. That’s why I had to come back, why I talked Haspar into mounting this attack on your home. I told him about all the powerful artifacts you have in your Archives, told him about the Queen’s ability to manipulate the magic of the Fog, helped him come up with a plan to steal the artifacts and take Queen Lana prisoner. Everything happening here, everything that is about to befall this community is my fault. I deserve death. I deserve worse.” There were tears running down his cheeks, too numerous to be held back by his closed eyelids. “It’s what I’ll receive at Haspar’s hands once he arrives, no question. Unless you’d prefer to carry out the sentence yourselves. I only ask that you believe me when I tell you that absolutely none of this is Captain Acantha’s fault. I have never met someone so diligent, so dedicated to her cause, so unflinchingly committed to protecting others. She is the strongest person I have ever known. Please don’t allow my misdeeds to reflect poorly on her. She saw through me at every turn… she predicted my underhanded tactics, she prevented me from carrying out any of the preparations I had been instructed to. And I know she will keep you all safe now. If anyone can fight off Haspar and his coven, it’s your Captain.”
He couldn’t bring himself to look at her. His body was shaking with the effort of trying to hold back the diatribe he’d just spouted, and he could feel his face burning with humiliation. It felt like the world’s worst joke… like getting drunk and making an ill-advised confession of your feelings to someone, but induced by magic and with none of the ambiguity. Everything he’d said was true—nobody could deny that. Acantha herself had tried the collar and would know how impossible it was to lie. All he could hope for now was that what he’d said hadn’t hurt her any more than he had already.
“I can be useful to you now,” he said softly into the ringing silence that followed his awful speech. “Let me tell your soldiers everything I know of the artifacts at the coven’s disposal, prepare them at least for some of what they could be facing. And when the attack comes…” He exhaled shakily. “When these manacles are removed, Haspar’s control of me will be restored. You need to make sure I’m dead before that can be allowed to happen.”
There was an uneasy murmuring in the crowd, and he could see the discomfort in the faces of his captors when he finally opened his eyes. But Cato, for the first time in a long time, felt only a sense of numb, hollow peace.
“Please,” he said softly. “Please don’t let me do any more damage.”
Chapter 19 - Acantha
Acantha’s carefully cultivated numbness was beginning to falter. The discovery of Cato’s betrayal had been bad enough… but to hear him confess his love for her in front of the entire court was almost too much to handle. She’d stood rigid, drawing on every scrap of discipline she’d developed through her long career to hold herself together, and even then, her salvation had come in simply pretending she couldn’t hear what Cato was saying. It wasn’t real. None of this was real. They were lines from a play, he was talking about someone else, she wasn’t really here—whatever she needed to believe to get through this moment unscathed, she’d do it.
It was a small mercy that nobody asked her for comment on what Cato had said about being in love with her. She had no idea what she could say. A thousand miles away, she could vaguely sense the potential for being angry with him for saying such a thing… but she knew as well as any of them that the collar had a way of encouraging you to speak the whole truth, even if it meant including seemingly irrelevant details.
Like being in love with her. Like the whole reason for his return being that he wanted to see her again, to make amends for betraying her the first time. Great move, she thought faintly. She couldn’t wait to see how he apologized for this second betrayal. She felt so numb that she barely registered what he’d said about his own impending death. Much easier to focus on the useful part of his rambling. He knew about what weapons the mages would be bringing with them. Weapons, that was something she could understand.
She wanted to wait long enough that it wouldn’t seem like she was fleeing the Throne Room because of what Cato had said about her, but there wasn’t any time. She needed to fetch her deputies, bring as many of them as possible to hear what they’d be up against so they could start preparing their soldiers for the attack. There was so little time… she took her leave from the Queen and strode quickly out of the room, not looking back, not so much as allowing Cato to enter her field of vision.