Page 38 of Garden of Poisoned Delights

”Yes, a sadist who still doesn’t know that an hour or two of sleep might be good for him,” Baz said. Emile smiled wickedly and tugged at Baz’s braid when he came close, pulling him to his knees.

“Oh, I could always be worse,” Emile said.

“Now you’re spoiling me.”

Emile’s grip tightened in Baz’s hair, and Baz let his eyes drift closed, content and warm at his lover’s feet.

* * *

It took nearly a week for someone to come looking for the baron.

Heavy snow fell over the baron’s former country home as two women in dark livery stepped down from their saddles. Eli was in the kitchen with the new baron, a young teenager named Roland who’d called for Eli’s help when his friend in the loomhouses had told him the other girls were starting to starve. Roland was a good-hearted boy, probably because he’d spent most of his childhood avoiding his father, and he was quickly charming the staff who hadn’t left in the baron’s sudden absence.

So when the officials came waltzing through the front door with a request to see the baron, Roland nervously stood up from the table and cleared his throat.

“Th-That would be me,” he said. His voice cracked in the middle of his sentence, and the two women looked at each other dubiously.

“He is,” Rey said. Eli, whose mouth was full of cobbler, listened as Rey’s subtle magic settled over the crowded kitchen. “The baron abandoned his title a few days ago, so his son inherits.”

“And why would the baron have passed down his title?” one of the women asked.

“Good question,” Rey said. “Funny story about that, really.”

Eli set down his fork. “Maybe he had a change of heart.”

Sure, it had taken Eli dragging the baron out of bed, tossing him into an open grave, and pretending that Eli could reach into his chest and rip out his heart with his bare hands if he wanted to, but the results were the same.

“Are you two representatives of the crown?” Eli asked. “Because I have a few questions if you are, like why the crown would let an entire village of teenaged girls starve half to death in winter when these loomhouses make the cloth for most of the noble fashions in Duciel?”

“What my friend means,” Rey said, giving Eli a warning look, “is that the Baron realized the error of his ways and decided his son was old enough to take over.”

“Did you see the state of the roads? The only way out of town is a toll bridge. No wonder they can’t get work elsewhere.”

Roland leaned toward Rey. “This is going to be like the grave thing, isn’t it?”

“Possibly,” Rey whispered back.

“What grave thing?” one of the officials asked.

“The man we work for is not responsible for another noble’s roads,” the other one said, a frown creasing her forehead.

“But he’s powerful enough to send people to ask when the baron goes missing.” Eli stood and gathered his coat from the back of his chair. “I’d like to have a word with him then, if you don’t mind.”

“And who are you?”

Roland went pale, and Rey patted him on the shoulder.

“We’re conscientious Starians,” Rey said, “doing our civic duty.”

Which was how Eli, Rey, and their deeply unhappy horse ended up trudging through a snowstorm and into the largest country estate Eli had seen. It was broader than Eli’s mother’s lands, which had sprawled over much of Eastern Staria before it was divided up between the lesser nobility. The grounds of the estate were lush with winter flowers and greenery, and Eli was fairly sure he spotted roses blooming by the windows, which made no sense—they should have died months ago, but the blossoms were barely touched by frost.

Unicorn grumbled to herself in a warm stable while Eli and Rey were ushered into the foyer, which was elaborately decorated in an eclectic mix of styles. There were Mislian charms hanging next to paintings of Starian landscapes, and a number of musical instruments leaned against stacks of books and decorative urns. Rey hunched miserably in his snow-sodden scarf and coat while the officials went scurrying off into the warm house, and Eli turned to start unwrapping Rey from his various layers.

“Hush,” he said, when Rey opened his mouth to protest. “You know you’ll be colder if they’re damp.”

“I’m colder now,” Rey said. He shivered. “What kind of place is this? I don’t recall visiting when I was here last. A bit off the beaten path, isn’t it?”

“Too rich for its own good,” Eli said. He nodded to the bellpull by the door. “That’s for servants. The oldest noble houses have bellpulls like that—they’re connected throughout the house so you can call servants into any room. We had bells like this at home.”

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