Chapter 6
A couple of days passed without anything unusual happening to Philip. At times, I was almost convinced I’d imagined the whole exchange. I hadn’t been able to figure out who either of the voices belonged to.
Granted, I hadn’t been trying particularly hard. I had kept my ears open while everyone else talked, hoping one of the voices would reveal himself. I hadn’t had any luck though, so it was time I start being more proactive. I liked Philip, and if he was in danger, I wanted to help.
And it wasn’t as if I had anything else to do. Tova had been speaking to me less and less. This morning, I’d only gotten a quick ‘good morning, see you in the dining hall’ before she left. And she’d literally only seen me in the dining hall. She hadn’t talked to me, hadn’t waved, just a quick glance confirming my continued existence. It bothered me, especially when she chose to have her meals with Niklas, but I tried not to show it.
I needed something else to focus on. I thought about the conversation. Not about the getting back at Philip part, but what came before that. The high voice had told the low voice that he wasn’t doing that badly, better than someone else at least. I couldn’t be positive, but I was fairly certain that I was the person he was better than. I was the worst in the class. There were other classes, more advanced than mine, but I didn’t think they were talking about someone in one of those. The people in them couldn’t be too horrible or they would’ve been kicked out by now. Also, I could’ve sworn I’d heard his voice before, so it had to be someone here that I’d overheard. Someone better than me, but still pretty bad at all of this.
I paid greater attention during practice. I watched everyone closely and put them in order from best to worse at our latest task. I picked the bottom five and decided to watch them for a day each to see if they’d do anything out of the ordinary.
The first one I almost ruled out immediately. I’d gone to the dining hall right behind him, and as soon as we entered, he said hello to his friend. His voice was much too deep to be the high voiced person I was looking for. But I stuck with him on the off chance that he was the low voiced person. I hadn’t recognized the low voice at the time, but maybe he’d been in my class all along.
I ate breakfast at the table with him and his friend. I found out their names were Edmund and Pascal. Pascal barely escaped my bottom five, but maybe he was worth looking at too, so I considered myself lucky that I could observe them at the same time. They didn’t seem to mind my presence. Neither spoke to me, but since they were near the bottom of the class as well, they didn’t poke fun like the others. I was able to merely listen in on their conversation, which seemed completely normal. Were they really innocent or simply saving the more distasteful conversations for a more private setting?
At practice, I made sure I got both of them as partners at one point or another so that I could keep watching. I made sure to note their words and actions toward Philip as well. At the end of the day, I had nothing. Neither of them seemed to have any problem with Philip, or anyone else for that matter. They went straight to sleep after dinner, so there was no more to observe from them that day.
I was mostly sure they were innocent. I wasn’t disappointed. What were the chances that my culprit would be the first person I looked at? I went to sleep, ready for suspect number two the next day.
The boy I watched on day two was a loner. At first, I thought that was promising. He didn’t seem to have any loyalties, so perhaps he wouldn’t feel guilty about hurting Philip. The problem was that was all I had. There was nothing else that led me to believe he was the one. While he wasn’t very talented, he was the picture of the perfect student in regard to effort. He really listened during practice and only seemed eager to improve. In the dining hall and barracks, he would stare off apparently at nothing, but I could see his muscles twitch like he was still practicing. I couldn’t even confirm whether or not his voice matched because he didn’t speak once all day. Finally, I got frustrated, so at dinner, I casually asked him, “What rank do you think we have to be before they start feeding us the good food?”
He looked at me blankly, clearly not getting the joke. I held out hope that he’d at least say something, but he just shrugged. I blew out a loud breath. I got up and waved him off like he was a bother even though he wouldn’t understand why.
Just like the two from yesterday, I didn’t think the high voice belonged to him. I let it go for the time being, vowing to look at him again if I found nothing else.
On the third day, my focus was on Alfred, an average looking boy with below average combat skills and way below average elemental skills. I found that out during our practice fight pretty quickly. He was a water fairy with the least amount of control I’d ever seen. He was trying to make the ground underneath me slippery, but instead, he created a rainstorm over both of us plus a few groups to either side. The field became so wet that all of us were slipping and sliding through the mud, including Alfred, who I was then able to catch in a net of roots.
I didn’t go over to him immediately. I remembered what happened when I tried to help that other guy out of the trench I’d put him in. But then Alfred looked over at me despondently and called, “I yield.”
I went over to help him for two reasons. One, he looked so sad that I could tell I wasn’t in for a repeat of the scene with the trench guy. And two, that voice… It sounded like the high voice.
“Alright there?” I asked as I approached.
“I suppose. Can you help me out of this?” It was definitely him. I had to stop myself from jumping for joy.
“Sure.” I made the roots retract back into the ground and held out a hand to help him up. Before I could say anything else, Philip was there, giving us tips and pairing us off with others for more practice.
I did not let opportunity pass me by at dinner though. I sat across from him. “How’d the rest of practice go for you?” I asked.
The corners of his mouth turned down in a frown as he thought back on it. “About the same. You could likely tell. Wasn’t it my rain that helped you win against that fire fairy?”
“Oh, yes, thanks for that.” A couple of hours after our fight had finished, I’d been paired with Tova. She always tried to go easy on me, but she still won every time. Today, I’d only won due to Alfred’s accidental interference. She’d been more annoyed at my winning than I’d expected, but I didn’t give it much thought. “We’d make a good team,” I said.
“Ha! Sure, but only if we make it past the bottom ranks.” He looked genuinely pleased at the thought until his expression turned as despondent as it had been when he was tied in my roots. “My brother says that will never happen.”
“Your brother?” I said it quickly, giving away too much of my interest. Perhaps he was the low voice. I kicked myself and tried to recover. “Why would your own brother say something like that?”
I needn’t have worried about giving myself away. Alfred launched into the story without anymore prompting as if he was happy just to have someone to talk to. “My brother, Erwin, enlisted three years ago. He was alright at this stuff. Not as good as Niklas and Emil, I mean,” he gestured to the guys that always made fun of me. Tova sat with them, and she was staring at me. I didn’t know why, so I smiled at her and then refocused on Alfred. “But better than me or you.” He paused for a second to glance nervously at me. I nodded, fully aware of my lack of skill. Looking relieved, he continued, “He was expecting to be placed as a castle guard. Not one of the king’s personal guards, of course, but one stationed around the grounds, still somewhat prestigious, you know. But instead, they put him on reserve for the scouts! He’s meant to be one of the fae patrolling the forests and fighting the beasts—a lot of the scouts get eaten, you know. So he’s one of the lowest of the low, the expendables! And not even one of the head scouts, but a back-up!”
He stared at me, waiting for me to share in his shock. “Wow, I’m guessing he didn’t take that well.”
“He did not. He’s still angry
about it. And he blames Philip for all of it. Says he’ll do the same to me.”
“What does Philip have to do with it?”
“He says Philip could have recommended the other officers to put him at a higher rank—Philip has done that for other recruits, he says—but Philip knows where he was placed and didn’t do a thing.”
“Perhaps Philip has his reasons, and they should discuss it.”
“They should, but I doubt my brother will say anything.”
“You don’t think he’ll do anything at all?”
“No, he is too passive. He won’t stop Gregor from doing something though.” He mumbled the last part, and when I looked up to try to catch what he said, he clammed up for the first time.
“Gregor? Who is he?”
Alfred was already shaking his head. “I really shouldn’t say anything. It’s none of my business. I don’t even really know what’s going to happen.”
I tried a few more times to get anything else out of him but to no avail. Still, this was better than I could have hoped for. I knew where I could find his brother, and whoever Gregor was, it sounded like they were friends, so I should be able to find him too.
When I got to the barracks, I was already planning on sneaking over to where the reserves stayed when they were on rotation. I had to put it on hold though, because as soon as I walked through the door, Tova was there to ambush me. “Oh, hello,” I said as I stopped myself before I walked into her.
“Hello,” she said. She waited a beat before speaking again. “I see you’re branching out.”
“What?”
“You made a new friend. At dinner,” she clarified. My mind was still elsewhere.
“Oh, Alfred, yes. He’s quite nice.” I realized as I said it that I actually meant it. I did like him. I’d just make a point not to tell him any secrets because it was way too easy to pull information from him.
Tova nodded slowly. “Well, that’s great for you,” she said, though she didn’t sound all that happy. Her mood today was confusing.
“Yes, I suppose.” I didn’t know what else to say. “How are your new friends?” I asked.
“Fine. It’s great.” Again, her tone failed to match her words.
I could only nod in response. “Well then…I’m going to get some sleep. Goodnight.” I inched around her, but stopped when she spoke again.
“Do you want to have breakfast with me tomorrow?”
I tried not to let the surprise show on my face. This was the first time she’d wanted to spend time with me in days. I wanted to get to the bottom of this thing about Philip, but I couldn’t pass this up. “Sure.”
When everyone had fallen asleep, I crept out of the barracks. It was a long shot that I would find anything tonight, but Erwin had already shown that late night meetings were something he did. I hoped I’d get lucky like I had with Alfred.
To my disappointment, everyone was sound asleep in the reserve bunker. I didn’t have to check the area to confirm Erwin was in there as well. His bunk was right up against a window, and in the moonlight, I could see the resemblance to Alfred. I waited a little while to see if he’d come out, but I knew he wasn’t going to tonight. I went back to my barracks and tried to squeeze in some sleep before breakfast with Tova.
In the morning, Tova was acting as strange as she was yesterday. We made awkward small talk for a little while. She kept looking over at her new friends a few tables over while they sneered at me.
“Are you sure you want to be here?” I asked her.
“Yes. I thought you were my friend,” she snapped.
“I am.” I didn’t say that she hadn’t been acting like mine lately. I didn’t ask when we’d stopped being more than friends.
“So where did you go last night?” she asked. She was failing miserably at looking casual.
I was a little surprised by her question, but I didn’t try to deny it. “How did you know I was gone?”
“I woke up and you were missing. At first, I wanted to go after you, thinking you needed help, but then…”
“Then what?”
“Do you have a new girl to go with your new friend?” she whispered.
I was taken aback. “No. Tova, no.” Truthfully, I didn’t know why she cared, but I still wanted to reassure her. And maybe I should tell her what I was doing. I thought she liked Philip. Maybe she’d be glad that I was trying to help. Maybe it’d fix things with us. I told her the basics of what was going on. “Today I’m going to see if I can sneak away for a while to watch Erwin, hopefully figure out who Gregor is.”
“Getting away always has been your strength. I suppose sneaking around and spying is a natural progression,” she muttered, not sounding as happy as I’d hoped.
“What’s the matter, Tova?” I asked, exasperated.
“You beat me yesterday. And now this. It’s like you don’t need me anymore.” She spoke quietly and wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“I could say the same about you.” She looked up at me, hurt. “But I don’t because, to me, our relationship has never been about one of us needing the other. I thought we simply liked each other.”
She didn’t say anything after that, but eventually she nodded. She’d get out of her bad mood and come around soon enough. If I can help Philip, maybe she’ll even be impressed.
I snuck away from the group around midday when we were switching weapons. We were all crammed inside a building trading one type of sword for another. I still didn’t know the difference.
I went over to the reserves’ barracks and hid behind the nearest building. There were a few of them milling about, and I definitely wouldn’t blend in, so I needed to stay out of sight. I didn’t see Erwin, and I was going to start peering through windows to see if he was inside, when he came out. It was my lucky day.
He nodded at his fellow troops but didn’t join their conversation. He was walking across the grounds toward the front buildings. Philip wasn’t there at the moment, but his office and living quarters were. I needed to go after him. But how to get there without notice?
There was a lot of open space between here and there. Someone would see if I just followed. If I took the long way around, I could lose him if he wasn’t going where I thought he was. I stared at the ground for a moment. I was still convinced that they must have some type of trap or barricade to prevent tunnelling here, but now was the time to test it.
I dropped through a hole I’d made and let the ground enclose over me. I started tunnelling. I almost thought I was going the wrong way due to the lack of obstacles. I opened up a hole above me ever so slightly so I could take a look and be sure. I was halfway across, and I could see Erwin still walking in the same direction.
Just as I closed myself back in, something ran into me from the side. Dirt was flying every which way, and someone was coughing. When the dirt settled, there was a man I’d never seen before glaring at me. I was caught.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“I’m sorry, I’ll go—”
“Stay on course,” he said.
I didn’t have a chance to get my question out before he was tunnelling again. He hadn’t apprehended me, so I suppose I could get on with my goal. I made it to the other side of the field, and looked around as soon as I was above ground. I saw a crowd of troops in the distance, more joining them as they popped up from the ground. Oh, I must have walked through their training course. No wonder there were no obstacles in this section. I quickly found Erwin as well. He made a series of quick knocks on the door to the frontmost building of the compound. It was where Tova and I had come through when we enlisted. A few moments later, the thin boy we’d met when we first arrived came outside to meet Erwin.
“I found out I have to go into the forest on the next round,” Erwin said in the same low voice I’d heard the other night.
“Why?! You’re too valuable for scout duty! This is insane!”
“I agree. I shouldn’t have been placed here. Now I’ve got no choice.” Erwi
n sounded resigned.
“It’s all Philip’s fault,” the boy said furiously. Could this be Gregor?
“Have you thought more on your plan?” Erwin asked. “If I have to face possible death out there, I want the man who put me there to pay.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear,” the boy said approvingly. I had no doubt now this was Gregor. “And yes, I’ve got the poppies. I’m doing it tonight.”
I was shocked. I nearly made a noise and gave myself away. I thought they were going to try to make Philip look bad or maybe even put him out of commission for a while. But poppies could kill him.
After a few more exchanges, Erwin left and Gregor went back inside. I wasn’t sure what to do now. I went back underground. That should be safe while I thought. I dug out some space to pace, but hit a solid wall. “There’s the blockade I expected,” I said aloud to myself. I studied it for a while. It wasn’t visible from above ground, so there must be some space above it. I found that space, about an arms length from the surface. It was low enough that no one would know it’s there from above ground, but high enough that anyone climbing over it in a tunnel would be noticeable.
I followed it with the tips of my fingers to see if it went under the building as well. I came to an odd place. There was a sharp turn in the stone wall, leading up. It went right up to the floor of the building. “Interesting…” I mumbled. I thought I knew what this was. This was not only a blockade, but it was hollow, thereby doubling as an escape route.
Gregor had said he was going through with his plan tonight. It was still early. I should have enough time to find a way in.
I found the way out sooner than expected. I wondered if the higher-ups in the guard knew it was this simple and counted on the Seelie not realizing this was an escape tunnel. They really needed to make this more complicated. Ah well, it was making my life easier for now.
I very carefully climbed out of my tunnel and into the stone escape route. I was fairly certain no one had seen me. When I got back to the building, I was met with a ladder leading to a door in the floor. I pressed my ear up to it and listened for several minutes before I got up the courage to lift it a tiny bit to peek out. No one was in here. It was an office, likely belonging to Philip or one of the other leaders that stayed on the compound.
Staying as quiet as possible and keeping to the shadows, I left the tunnel to have a look around. I only wanted to know where Gregor was and where he would be likely to plant the poison. The place appeared mostly deserted. Gregor was here doing the menial tasks while everyone else had important things to do outside. I couldn’t say I entirely blamed him for being unhappy in his position, but it was still no excuse for what he was doing. I found him in another office counting money.
I quickly went back the way I’d come and decided to hide for the time being. I couldn’t search the place for the poppies. It was too quiet, so any noise I made looking through things would be obvious. I’d have to wait for him to move.
It wasn’t until the sun began to set that anything of interest happened. Then a knock came at the front of the building, and I heard a muffled exchange before Gregor entered the hallway carrying a massive amount of food. It must have been delivered for the officers. This was the perfect time for him to act.
Gregor dropped off food in each of the offices, not staying long in any, except the last one. I crept to the door, staying low. Gregor was pouring wine into a goblet. When he finished, he pulled a sack out of his pocket. It contained a powder the same color as the wine. He sprinkled it in. He’d ground up the poppies’ blossoms. A dose of the poison that concentrated would certainly kill Philip.
I’d seen enough, so I raced back to my hiding place before he turned. When I heard the door close between the front room and the hallway, I came back out. All I had to do was dump Philip’s wine.
Just as I made it to Philip’s office, the door leading out to the rest of the compound opened. I shut Philip’s door as fast as possible and hoped with everything in me that it would go unnoticed. And that it wasn’t Philip that had come in.
A door down the hallway closed, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Only it was too soon. I had the goblet in hand and was moving over to a potted plant in the corner when Philip’s door opened.
“Randolph? What are you…” Philip’s gaze drifted down to the goblet of wine in my hand. His expression changed to a mix of disappointment and carefully contained anger. “What’s in it?” he asked.
He knew there was poison. Perhaps he was aware that some people were unhappy with him, and this was the only conclusion he could come to in this situation.
“I admit I didn’t think you would be the type to do this. When you weren’t around this afternoon, I assumed you’d deserted. I thought you would have talked to me first, but I could also understood why you may not have wanted to. I did not expect you to do this. I thought we understood each other after our previous talks. So, tell me why.”
“Sir, I was dumping this. I know you have no reason to believe me, but that is the truth.”
“You’re right. I have no reason to believe you. Are you going to give me one?”
Should I tell him it was Gregor? No reason why not, I suppose. “There is ground poppy in this,” I said as I poured it out. “You might want to check what your desk clerk has on him before he leaves.”
He eyed me, unsure. “How will I know you didn’t put it on him?”
“He hasn’t seen me today,” I said.
With a nod, he said, “I’m going to lock you in here.”
And so he did. A few moments later, I heard a conversation coming from the front room. I couldn’t make out the words, but I assumed Philip was requesting Gregor turn out his pockets. It turned to yelling soon, and then a door slammed. Philip entered the office shortly thereafter.
He threw the sack of ground poppy onto his desk. “He didn’t even mention you,” Philip said. “Not once did he try to blame you, and I know that little rat would have if he’d seen you in here at all. So how’d you manage that?”
“I did not put it on him, sir.”
“I know that. How’d you get in here without him noticing? That’s the one thing he’s good for. As soon as anyone he’s not expecting comes in here, he makes a fuss, a loud, irritating fuss. There’s a reason he’s not in the guard, you know. We don’t take children.”
I couldn’t help but smirk.
“Back to my question. How’d you get in without sounding the alarm?”
“The tunnels, sir.”
He nodded. “I’ve been telling them for years they need to change that, make the system more like the one under the castle. It’s a maze down there…but you didn’t hear it from me.”
“Yes, sir.” I knew I should probably go at this point, but there was one last thing. “Sir, when I heard about his plan, I had actually been on my way to see you and request dismissal from the guard. I stayed until I could stop this. But now I think I should ask to be dismissed.”
He didn’t say anything for a minute. Then, “No. Your request for dismissal is denied.”
I was confused. “I thought, sir, that we understood each other, as you said. I am not fit for this.”
“Do you have anything important that you must attend to outside the guard?”
“No, sir.”
“Then I’m keeping you a little longer. Go back to your barracks.”
“Yes, sir.”
***