Page 61 of The Time Of Queens

“Lucius?” Vincent spoke my name as I suddenly let go of the innkeeper, making him fall back and land on the floor, now unconscious from the whole experience. One he would wake from with no memory of the encounter.

Without explanation, I walked from the inn and rounded the corner of the building. For what had the young girl said…? That she had found Dominic’s cloak with a bundle of clothing in an alleyway.

“Lucius, what are you doing?” Vincent asked, following me, as I scanned the area until I came upon an unused coal shed.

“I am working on a hunch,” I said, before finding what I was looking for and knowing I was free to do so, I travelled at supernatural speed to get to it. Then I picked up the discarded bundle of clothes I found tossed under the shed. One that thankfully offered shelter enough that the clothes had remained untouched against the elements. Otherwise, I would not have been able to detect the scent I did when I lifted it to my nose to inhale. And the second I did, I couldn’t help but grin.

Fuck the Gods above but it felt good always being right.

“What is it?”

I turned back to my friend and tossed him the strange clothes, telling him,

“Smell like anyone we know?”

He too lifted it to his face and took in a deep breath before his eyes widened in surprise.

“Tut tut, little maid,” I said, still smirking as I took in the rest of the area in hopes of finding more.

“I don’t understand, why would this be here? Why would it smell of her?” Vincent asked, still unwilling to believe what I already knew to be true.

“I believe someone has some explaining to do, for there was more here before it was taken,” I told him, giving him cause to raise a brow in question. And despite the enjoyment gained from toying with other, he was a friend enough that I spared him that by telling him,

“Your brother’s cloak.”

His eyes widened at that, as his mind started to piece together the clues left for us to follow.

“It… it can’t be… could it?”

“I follow the evidence, my friend,” I told him, before leaving the alleyway and seeing if there were any others I could rid of their memories. For I was not yet ready to expose those I held dear to me and the part they obviously played in this. Now, for just how long I could keep their involvement out of this, I didn’t know.

“But how? My brother would know if it was the maid, he would have felt it,” Vincent reminded me, once again, following me towards my horse.

“Perhaps you weren’t wrong in believing in some spell being cast, it just wasn’t the one you thought it was,” I surmised, making him recoil enough in his shock.

“You think the maid is masking who she is to my brother?” he asked, making me shrug my shoulders.

“It was like you said, you have never seen him acting this way. Perhaps her spell isn’t as strong as she hoped it would be,” I guessed, for I still had plenty of her secrets to spill.

“But to what gain? If she is his Chosen One, then why would she hide the fact? It makes little sense,” he argued in return and, well, he wasn’t wrong to do so, hence why I told him,

“That is the right question to ask, and one I intend on discovering before the night is over.”

“And just how do you intend to do that?” he asked, making me grin.

“Where I get most of my information from when hunting…”

“And that is?”

“Village drunkards… come on,” I told him with a smirk, remounting my steed and prompting Vincent to do the same. After this, we rode to the nearest public house, which was the next village over in a place called Abberley Common. There wewould find the Manor at Abberley alehouse. One that, even at this late hour, I was sure would still offer us something to go by. For the local drunks were usually the last men standing.

It was also usually where most stayed when the Hundred House was full, like the innkeeper claimed it to be. As for Vincent, he kept up, after first tucking the evidence we had found of the maid being involved into a satchel attached to his saddle. No doubt his mind was trying to make sense of all I had presented him with. After all, he had been against such a match from the start. And from what I had seen so far, he had given the poor beauty a hard time, despite such venom invoking his brother’s irk.

Of course, I had listened in to their conversation once they left the office, lingering below long enough to hear of the disagreement between them. He had been the one to advise him to let the little maid go and, no doubt, was berating himself now for such a mistake in doing so. And despite my job being first and foremost to protect my King, I couldn’t help the dark and malevolent pleasure I gained from knowing the brothers had butted heads like rams. For it was usually Sophia and her brothers’ shared Demonic nature that clashed. But that was one of the benefits from being a silent bystander by choice. I watched everything and everyone. I missed nothing, where others allowed emotion to cloud the truth playing out right in front of them.

Just like with the little maid.

For it wasn’t just her true identity she was hiding.

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