Page 59 of The King's Man 4

Constables close in on Eparch Valerius and he blasts magic, bowling them, Sparkles, and me back. I’m caught by a pocket of wind and carefully set on my feet beside Quin. Nicostratus leaps towards the eparch, captures him tightly, and blocks his meridians.

He snarls wretchedly. “You think you know everything. You have no idea what’s coming.”

I square my shoulders and step up to him. “You mean all the spectators you poisoned, timed to die during the game?”

His eyes glimmer with fury. The mask of philanthropist has shed rapidly.

“Something about the audience today niggled at me,” I explain. “The poisoned refugees, the commander’s unit, five hundred invited from the king’s father-in-law’s army. And then it hit.”

Quin channels magic; his wyvern clouds rapidly disappear and sunlight streams down on us. Glints and flashes come from all directions.

I sweep my arm toward the crowd, their buttons catching the light in a dazzling array of reflections. “These aren’t just spectators,” I say, my voice rising. “These are the king’s men.And you’ve poisoned them, just like the refugees.” My words ripple through the crowd, sparking gasps and murmurs that grow louder with every passing second.

“Dying like this is better than him gaining power and warring against his uncle! More lives will ultimately be spared.”

Constable Michealios finally looks like he believes. “You thought you’d get away with it.”

A twisted laugh bursts from Valerius. “Who says I won’t?”

“Ah,” I nod. “Of course. Everyone who took welcoming drinks will die here, not to forget the refugees. Only you, the prince, and a few planted ‘witnesses’ will be left. You know Nicostratus well enough to know he doesn’t drink when he plays, so it’s easy enough to set up. Originally you intended his head aklo to be the last left standing, because he’d lead back to Nicostratus, under house arrest already under suspicion of murdering the redcloaks. But Nicostratus was released early, and you pivoted with it. How would you explain his motive? Killing the high duke’s redcloaks—that makes sense, but these are his own men.” I lean in. “You can tell me. We’re all about to die.”

“Who says he’s to be the fall person? The high duke has promised the prince’s pardon. The prince killed these rebellious soldiers to stop an uprising against the young king.”

Quin and Nicostratus hiss. The constables whip their gazes around the pitch, on the lookout for anyone keeling over, for the wave of deaths to begin. One of them squeals in fear.

“I’d never betray my brother,” Nicostratus says, a dark mutter in the eparch’s ear. “I’d sooner kill myself.”

“That also works.”

I grit my teeth and slap the eparch. “You failed.”

“I know the antidote. Once you drop dead, I’ll save myself.”

I tap my foot. “Should we wait?”

“What do you mean?” Eparch Valerius stills suddenly, like something has occurred to him.

I smile.

He struggles against Nicostratus’s binds. “You don’t have enough vitalians! You don’t know the missing component!”

Quin steps forward. “He solved those problems.”

A baffled splutter. “He?Him?His meridians have been smashed. No way an insignificant youth without magic could—”

Quin slaps him soundly.

I ask for a rock, and a gust of wind delivers my request. I catch the hefty stone two handed, lift it, and ask Quin to smash it for me.

With a soft kind of quiet, he looks at me, and sends magic hurtling the rock into the air and more to splinter it in pieces.

“It might be broken,” I say, throat and cheek prickling where Quin still watches me. “Might be impossible to put back together.” I pick up a shard and press the sharp end under the eparch’s chin. “But it still has a purpose.”

“At most you’ve delayed their demise.”

“It was the fire that didn’t make sense. Why not bash you and leave? Why go to lengths to burn your garden? Baffling. Then today I overheard constables pitying you for losing your flowers. I was preoccupied with being arrested so I didn’t think too much of this, but it came together the moment I squared away my confusions around the commander.Masks, I heard Eparchess Juliana say. I thought, what kind of mask was used to get into the eparch’s place? And then I thought, why burn the garden?” I lift his chin with the rock. “I know the properties of a thousand plants and when I cross-checked the reactions it should have with the snake venom, what do you know? Gardenia root holds the key to the antidote.”

Eparch Valerius snarls. “There’s none growing on this outpost. By the time you get it—”

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