The Deepest Blue(74)
Tense, Kelo waited for him to collapse to the ground or start foaming at the mouth, but he didn’t. He just started to talk. And talk. Before long, Kelo had learned the official’s every dirty secret—and the man had a disgusting array of them—but not who held Queen Asana’s loved ones.
Kelo finished the portrait, working as quickly as he could so he’d be done with this odious man sooner. It was a challenge to keep his contempt for the man out of the lines of his work. If he hadn’t been handsome, it would have been much trickier, but luckily or unluckily, his ugliness was within, hidden behind a strong and symmetrical face. “Would you like to see it?” Kelo asked politely.
The man blinked. “You’re remarkably fast.”
Lady Garnah’s potion must be wearing off, he thought. At least he’d timed it well.
Kelo managed a weak smile. “Thank you for coming.” With his uninjured hand, he turned around the portrait, and the man gushed his praise. Kelo was happy to see him go.
Lady Garnah emerged as soon as he left. “Pity we didn’t poison him.”
Secretly, Kelo was inclined to agree. Then he banished that thought in horror when he realized Garnah might be right that he was suited for this kind of work. He quickly set up for the next portrait, while Lady Garnah stirred a new beverage. He had the unnerving sense that the poison-maker guessed his thoughts and was amused.
The next model came in, and Kelo repeated everything: the praise, the offer of a beverage, the questioning while he sketched the portrait. This courtier was less vile than the last, but Kelo still learned more than he wanted to about affairs within the woman’s family.
By the end of the day, Kelo was thoroughly disgusted by humanity and no closer to learning who held Queen Asana’s family. He glared at the row of portraits as if it were their fault.
“Don’t despair,” Lady Garnah said, as she bottled her special beverage. “We hunt the long hunt, as they say in my home forests. Actually, I don’t know if anyone says that, but it sounds like something a gruff, burly hunter would say.”
“Every hour we waste is another hour Mayara is in danger.”
“I’m sure she’s having a delightful time. All your islands are tropical paradises.”
He snorted. “With death lurking around every corner.”
“Death always lurks around every corner,” Lady Garnah said, steel in her voice. “You can die for arbitrary, stupid reasons just as easily as you can die in a grand gesture. The key is how you live before that moment.”
“This—drugging people, listening to their torrid secrets—is not how I planned to live,” Kelo said. He’d created such beautiful portraits of people with such ugly souls.
“Maybe not. But you have to admit, it’s terribly entertaining. So many secrets! So much drama! Imagine the blackmailing potential of all that you’ve learned today. You could be a wealthy man, if you played it right.”
“I have no interest in wealth. I just want Mayara back.”
She rolled her eyes. “Eh, more for me, then.”
He fixed her with a glare that he hoped looked imposing, even though he found Lady Garnah, beneath all her ruffles and ridiculous hat, to be the most terrifying person he’d ever met. “We have one purpose and one purpose only. Don’t jeopardize it for personal gain.” He was certain she’d laugh at him.
And she did, a full belly laugh that shook her shoulders. When she caught her breath again, she said, “Silly boy. I don’t care about wealth. If I did, I’d sell my potions for a fortune. Or just use them on someone with a ridiculous amount of gold and take it for myself.”
He couldn’t tell if she was serious or not, so he elected not to respond.
“Cheer up,” she told him, patting him on the cheek. “Today was just the first wave. We saw the lower-ranking people. Once word spreads of the quality of your work, then we’ll begin seeing people with actual information. They’ll come. And we’ll learn.” She rubbed her hands together in gleeful anticipation.
Kelo hoped she was right. He wanted this over as quickly as possible.
QUEEN ASANA DIDN’T EXPECT THE ARTIST TO SUCCEED. SHE DELIBERATELY kept her hopes in check, careful to dismiss it from her thoughts while she went about her daily routine.
On the third morning after the covert interrogation began, she shut herself in her chambers and sat in the center of the floor. Her joints creaked as she lowered herself down and folded her legs. Placing her hands on her knees, she steadied her breathing.
She thought of her daughter.
She held the image of her as she’d last seen her, years ago, in her mind, and then gently packed it away. She sometimes let herself wonder what little Roe looked like now, grown into a woman, but today wasn’t a day for wondering.
Wondering felt too close to hope, and she didn’t dare feel that.
Freeing her mind, Asana swept her thoughts out of the palace, south through the sea. She let her awareness flow through the wild spirits, the ones not bound to her, sensing their unrest. When that unrest built into uncontrollable anger, they’d pick a target: one of her islands, and she’d spread word of a coming storm. Often, the heirs were able to dispel it before it even reached landfall. Not always, though.
She stopped that thought too.
She needed her mind fully relaxed to reach into the Deepest Blue, and that was where she had to go. It was the queen of Belene’s responsibility to keep the largest of the wild spirits safely asleep. It was the reason she couldn’t use her own power to subdue the storms, or to bend the wills of those who opposed her. She needed all her power for this task, which had to be repeated every few days.