The Powder on the Sweets
"What? A guard knight?"
"Human, are you doubting my skill? I am magnificent."
The eagle spread its wings in a threatening fan and growled. Evelynn wilted at once and apologized.
"That isn't what I meant... I was only startled."
Hmph. The eagle snorted. Watching the beast's temper, Evelynn turned to Arthurs.
"His Grace said there were four guard knights. Then where is the last one?"
Arthurs pointed out the window.
"Clinging to something out there, most likely. Concealment is their specialty."
"So Sir Bellina, Arthurs, the one outside, and... that eagle are guarding this place?"
Arthurs scratched his head.
"Yes. There are far more knights guarding the Annex, but the ones His Grace handpicked for the escort are four."
"That isn't four. It looks like three people and one animal to me..."
Before Sophie could finish, the eagle snarled again.
"Shut your mouth, insolent human."
"Ah—young master! You mustn't go over there!"
At some point Liber had wriggled free of Sophie's arms and was toddling toward the bird.
"Ah-boo-boo-boo-boo!"
Whether he had fallen for the talking bird or not, his squealing was no ordinary excitement. Liber rubbed his face against a wing.
"Little human, you're getting spit on me. Go away."
The eagle grumbled, yet it did not shove him off. Those yellow eyes, insolent beyond measure, softened ever so slightly when they rested on Liber. At the sight of baby and beast getting along, Evelynn burst out laughing.
"I'll be counting on you from now on, Sir Eagle."
"Hmph. A human who knows manners."
The eagle, caught in an awkward little laugh, growled again.
"Little human, my feathers are not for eating!"
"I'm sorry."
Evelynn hurried over and scooped up Liber, who was chewing on a feather.
"Sophie, have them bring the snacks again."
"Yes, my lady."
Sophie, who had been clearing the fallen snack bowl and spoon from the floor, dashed outside at once. At the eagle's sudden appearance, Evelynn forgot reality for a little while and smiled, bright as anything.
Ilya's brow dug into a deep furrow. After sending Renee and Naz away, he had meant to go to the Annex, look in on his two little whales, and fall asleep—but the man seated across from him shattered that plan.
"Whether by annulment or by divorce... return my poor sister to me."
"And why... should I?"
Odin stared straight at Ilya as he spoke.
"What happened at Tatar is regrettable, but... the child herself is blameless, is she not?"
Ha. Regrettable. So that was all it amounted to—merely regrettable. On the surface Ilya kept his face composed, but inside it felt as though fire were racing through every vein in his body.
"If I cast out a blameless wife and make the child a bastard, do the knights who died in the gorge come back to life?"
He snarled it as if he were spitting blood.
"Tell me the real reason you want to take my woman, Odin Mardus."
"I can no longer leave my sister in the enemy's camp. Are you not abusing her, Your Grace?"
"Abuse?"
"The rumor is everywhere across the empire that Your Grace treats my sister like a whore! That child is the golden treasure of House Mardus!"
Odin ground his teeth as well.
"Where do you mean to sell my wife—no, your sister? Or have you already sold her off?"
Ilya said it while steadying a breath gone ragged with rage. Odin shot to his feet.
"What kind of nonsense is that!"
"I asked how much you were paid to sell my wife. Go and tell my dear father-in-law. If he wants, I'll pay several times the price."
Every trace of expression vanished from Odin's face.
"That child can do something far greater than warming Your Grace's bed."
Ilya glanced down at the scabbard at his hip. This is a nuisance, and so is that. Should I simply kill him? A cruel whisper goaded him on.
"If Your Grace continues to hold out, House Mardus will petition His Majesty the Emperor to mediate."
The Emperor. He had wondered what the man was leaning on, to be so brazen. So that was it. Ilya laughed aloud.
"Evelynn Azantis is my only wife, sworn before God. I fail to see what His Majesty could do."
"Soon she will no longer be Evelynn Azantis. She will go back to being Evelynn Mardus."
"You lot don't seem to grasp the weight of a sacred marriage vow. Then again, you were never the sort who knew anything of God."
The jaw trembling with rage, the face twisted out of shape—the sight of them was satisfying. Into the office, where a suffocating silence had settled, a knight came running.
"Your Grace!"
Ilya rose and went to him.
"Your Grace, I think you ought to go to the Annex. Right now..."
Before the knight could finish, Ilya turned a glare on Odin.
"Ought you not go and see?"
Odin lifted his wine glass and smiled, languid. Ilya barely crushed down the killing intent surging in him.
"Not bad."
"You flatter me."
Watching Ilya's back vanish at speed, Odin shrugged.
While Ilya was locked in a war of words with Odin, Evelynn was preparing to feed Liber his snack. A servant came in pushing a tray.
"Snack, snack!"
Savory milk, and colorful sweets made of dried sweet fruit—at the sight of them Liber lit up and lunged for the tray.
"Young master, not yet."
Sophie lifted him with a stern face, and Liber thrashed both legs in a furious flurry.
The servant smiled and set a silver spoon into the milk. A moment later he lifted a little and swallowed. He even cut the sweets on the silver plate into bite-sized pieces, tasted them, and nodded to Evelynn.
"Mama, snack."
Unable to wait any longer, Liber began to yell. Evelynn smiled and reached for the cup—and in that instant her hand struck the servant's, and the sweets spilled across the floor in a rush.
"Ah, young master!"
Liber crawled at lightning speed, snatched up a fallen sweet, and tried to put it in his mouth.
"Little human, no!"
The eagle launched itself and seized the sweet in its sharp talons.
"Waaaaaah!"
Robbed of his treat, the child wailed as if his heart would break.
"There's something in the powder dusted over the sweets!"
At the eagle's sharp cry, Arthurs had a blade at the servant's throat in a heartbeat. The man hunched his shoulders and could only repeat that he was innocent.
Arthurs hesitated at that piteous voice, and in the gap the servant began to pour white foam from his mouth. He retched and hastily covered it with one hand.
"Hey, are you all ri—"
Something no bigger than a finger joint wriggled into sight past his lips. In a flash the servant dropped low and spat a hidden blade into the very palm that had been covering his mouth.
The speed outstripped any ordinary knight. In the moment Arthurs faltered, the keen edge flew toward the child—and at the same time Arthurs's sword cut across the man's back. Red blood sprayed like a fountain, and still the servant screamed as though he felt no pain.
"Die! Blood of Mardus!"
"No—Liber!"
Evelynn and Sophie, neither waiting on the other, caught the child against them and turned their backs on the servant. Before them the eagle flung both wings wide in threat. Clang! Bellina, rushing in, knocked the hidden blade aside with her sword.
"Arthurs, don't kill him! The one behind this—"
As Arthurs raised his sword again, Bellina shouted in alarm. Arthurs clenched his eyes shut and hurled his body at the servant.
Crash! With the dull shock of body meeting body, the servant flew and slammed into the wall. Something broke, and blood trickled from his mouth.
"He bit his tongue."
Bellina, dragging in rough breaths, muttered it with an empty look.
"Because I hesitated, my lady and the young master..."
Arthurs pounded his own head with a hand like a bear's paw. The boy's eyes were bloodshot red.
"You are only an apprentice knight. The responsibility is mine. And everyone is safe, so it is all right."
Bellina patted his shoulder, as if to tell him to take heart.
The eagle standing before Evelynn spread its wings wide and growled a threat.
"Holding the little human and showing your back—do you mean to die in his place?"
Evelynn clutched the child who had cried himself to sleep, and seemed to hear nothing at all. Ilya crossed the room in an instant and came to her.
"Evelynn, come to your senses!"
He seized his wife's shoulders and shouted. She looked back at him with a dazed face.
"Your... Grace? There was poison... in the food Liber eats."
"Are you all right?"
Ilya searched her from the crown of her head to the tips of her feet. Nowhere in those eyes could she find a shred of worry for their son. Evelynn murmured, hollow.
"You... really don't care at all... about our son."
He had no answer.
"It's all right. I already knew."
"Evelynn, I—"
Even if the child had died, this ruthless man would not shed a single tear. It felt as though a great hole had been torn open in one side of her heart.
In the middle of the night an uproar broke out at the Annex. Knights swarmed in, searched the rooms of the menservants and maids, and several suspicious ones were taken away.
After the physician had come and gone, Evelynn took a sleeping draught and fell asleep. Ilya sat in the drawing room, clutching his throbbing head.
"The physician says it's a commonplace poison. The sort one can obtain easily anywhere."
"I see."
"And the culprit was the elder brother of a guardsman who died... at Tatar Gorge."
Ilya's face twisted.
"If there's someone behind this, they sent that man on purpose."
Naz, wearing a look of resolve rarely seen on him, opened his mouth.
"Your Grace, I say this as commander of the knight order."
"Speak."