The Keep (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #4)(59)

“Let me guess—strike one?” Alex asked, unexpectedly moved by the old man’s speech. For a moment, it seemed as if Caius had almost forgotten Alex was there with him, his mind lost in a bygone world with long-gone players.

Caius nodded. “Strike one indeed. Though, as I said, the king isn’t really in the habit of punishing other royals—or rather, he isn’t allowed. Even kings have to follow rules,” he said with a knowing smile. “He simply exiles them to a place where the others can forget they ever existed, and pops in every now and again, throwing his weight around to remind everyone who is in charge. Not to mention the little alarms he has hidden around the place, to alert him if I should slip up. Undoubtedly, that is what happened when you tried to break down my barrier magic.” He gave a conspiratorial wink.

“You’re not mad?” Alex asked, slightly confused.

Caius shrugged. “I have little time for bearing grudges. As long as nobody dangerous escaped, I have nothing to be angry about. The barrier is back up, and everyone is safe.”

The old man’s nonchalance surprised Alex, and his revelation about Julius’s means of ridding himself of errant royals made Alex think of the Head, no doubt exiled to Spellshadow to be kept out of the way, where he couldn’t be an embarrassment to anyone with his hybrid abnormalities. A place where everyone could just forget he ever existed. Had he not hated the Head, Alex knew he might have felt sorry for the hooded creature.

“So, the Head at Spellshadow Manor, he was an exile too?” Alex asked.

Caius frowned for a second before understanding shifted his features into a grim smile. “You mean Virgil—our little mixed disgrace? I was wondering if you might have learned his secret. Spellbreakers have always had a knack for seeking one another out, though I suppose he doesn’t exactly count,” he mused, tapping the side of his cup thoughtfully. “Yes, I suppose that must have been why they sent him to oversee a haven. Like me, an abomination—all of us, outcasts, though Alypia would no doubt argue she was still in favor.” He grinned.

Alex couldn’t help it—he was warming to this man with the easy grin and the frankly extraordinary revelations. He also couldn’t help but find it strange to hear the Head referred to by anything other than “the Head.” To give him a name humanized him somehow, making him seem less of a monster and more of an actual, tangible human being.

Virgil. Virgil. Virgil. Alex let the name roll around in his mind a few times, but no matter how many times he envisioned it, it still felt wrong.

“That girl, honestly,” Caius sighed, shaking his head. “Alypia has always been like her father. They are two vile peas in an equally vile pod, though I doubt she will ever reach the same lofty climes of cruelty as him. Ever since she was little, she would copy her father’s ways, punishing her brother and lording her power over everyone else, torturing the serving staff and such. I could never keep her in check. Who knows, perhaps I looked less frightening back then?” He laughed, pulling his cheeks back a little to smooth out the wrinkles. “Though I doubt she’d listen to me now, either.”

It was hard to imagine what Caius would have looked like when he was younger; he looked like the kind of man who had always been old, though he must have had youth on his side at one point.

“I imagine that’s probably why she hasn’t ceased her little breakthrough attempts. She thinks she can make me do as she pleases, but I’m afraid she is in for a rude awakening,” Caius remarked, surprising Alex.

“Wait, you already knew we were in Kingstone?”

Caius shrugged casually. “I told you, I don’t like to get involved—as long as nobody escapes and nobody begins to suspect I’m not what I say I am, I’m happy. Plus, no one can accuse me of not doing my job if I do it just well enough. Well, nobody but my brother, but as long as he gets to say his piece and do some suitably terrible things, it’ll keep him away for a while… Fear is a powerful tool. Never forget that,” he said with grim sincerity. “Though I wonder now what I should do with you… seeing as you’ve spoiled my rule of ‘nobody escapes.’” The joke worried Alex for a second before he realized it wasn’t coldly meant. Alex had to remember this wasn’t Julius he was speaking to.

Suddenly, a horrible thought came to him.

“Does Julius know about me?” he asked, the fear of such a thing dawning on him.

The old man shook his head slowly. “If he did, you wouldn’t be here now,” he insisted, and Alex did not doubt the truth in those words. “If Alypia and Virgil know what you are, I presume they intend to tie a little bow around you and give you to him as a gift. If you have escaped her clutches, as it appears you have, I would imagine the shame is currently keeping her from telling her father. He can’t abide failures. Either that, or she is still intent on serving you up on a silver platter. My money is on the latter, or perhaps a mixture of the two,” he mused.

Alex shuddered at the thought of being handed over like a piece of meat to that awful man. “I think I’d rather have neither.”

“And who could blame you! It’s far better you put as much distance between yourself and her as possible.” The old man smiled wearily.

He seemed jaded by the system that manipulated them all, and Alex could understand why, especially given Caius’s age and the injury that seemed to plague him. His was gait labored and his figure stooped, forcing him to lean heavily against the silver-topped cane whenever he was required to stand and walk. Without the stoop and the cane, Alex wondered if Caius might have stood as tall and proud as Julius. As it was, the old man seemed to be a victim of time, and the ache of old wounds; he definitely wasn’t sipping from any youth serum. Alex figured it would be rude to guess his age, but he knew the old man must be far older than he appeared, given what Alex knew about mages and how their magic extended their lives. Remembering the mention of Caius being several hundred years old, Alex assumed the man was in the realm of ancient. He realized that also meant Julius must be too, though that particular royal must certainly be in possession of some potent youth serum, now that Alex pictured the two old brothers side by side.