The Heart of Alchemy by James Wisher (e book reading free TXT) 📕

yesterday.” Wolfric blanched and Otto hastened to add, “A simple background check. Rest assured I was perfectly polite and no threats were made. I believe he expected me sooner.”

Wolfric sat, poured himself a glass of red wine, and drank it down in one go. “And how did you find the baron?”

“Evasive, but not outright dishonest. He’s hiding something, but whether it’s a threat or something embarrassing I don’t know. His servant claimed he had another meeting, but that was a lie. I think he wanted to end our conversation before I had a chance to learn more.”

“What do you propose to do about it?” Wolfric barely forced the words out.

“I would like, with your permission of course, to ask her a few gentle questions. Just to clarify one or two things.”

Wolfric chewed his lip then nodded. “She’s already terrified of you, so please, don’t upset her. The poor woman has already lost both her parents.”

“Yes, in a fire. Her uncle mentioned that. Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”

Ten minutes later the door opened again and Jade entered. She wore a pale-yellow dress and her hair was up in a bun. Two small pieces of silver jewelry, a ring and a necklace, were her only decorations. Not that she needed more. In her own innocent way, Jade could have given Sin a run for her money in the beauty department.

She took one peek at Otto and quickly looked away. Could she possibly be that frightened of him? Most of the things Otto had done that were apt to frighten someone weren’t exactly public knowledge.

Wolfric hurried over and helped his fragile flower into a chair. He sat beside her and Otto took the chair directly opposite. He shifted his vision to watch how her brain reacted to his words. He hoped for everyone’s sake she was exactly what she said, a noble girl that had fallen in love with an emperor. Based on all he knew about the nobility, Otto seriously doubted that was possible.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you at last,” Otto said. “Wolfric’s told me a great deal about you, though he may have underplayed your beauty.”

“Lord Shenk,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper. “Your reputation precedes you.”

No lie there, so far so good.

“I stopped by to see your uncle the other day, but other business cut our chat short. I was hoping to learn more about St. Croy Barony. I’ve never visited the southern provinces of Garenland. I assume it’s much different from the central district.”

“It’s much like Rolan. Before the war, we crossed the border all the time. Our neighboring baron was on good terms with Uncle. I even spent an occasional summer in Rolan, at a town called Blue Cove.”

“I’m not familiar with it,” Otto said. So far she hadn’t lied.

“It’s a fishing village on the coast. The clearest water you’ve ever seen. And the food was beyond compare. I should very much like to visit more often.”

“You said you spent some time there this summer since the war had ended,” Wolfric said. “Had it changed much?”

“Not at all. In fact, it was like the war never touched it.”

“I’ll have to take a trip there some time,” Otto said. “Assuming my work ever permits. One last thing and then I promise I’ll trouble you no more. Were you friendly with any Rolan nobles?”

She shook her head. “My parents didn’t approve of Uncle getting so close to nobles from another nation.”

That was a lie! Why she lied about it he couldn’t say, but she clearly just made that last sentence up. Otto forced himself to focus on what came next.

“By the time they died, things had become so tense, even Uncle stopped visiting his neighbors regularly.”

“Well,” Wolfric said. “Now that we’re all one big happy empire, hopefully he can resume his visits. If that’s everything, perhaps we should eat.”

“Excellent idea,” Otto said.

As soon as they were finished, he would have to pay a visit to Rolan. Whatever she was hiding, Otto meant to learn the truth.

After lunch with Wolfric and Otto, Jade made her way back to their rented villa. As she walked through Gold Ward, doing her best to project timidity and fear, she reviewed everything that had happened before and during the meal.

Otto was clearly suspicious of her. Jade’s best guess was that he imagined her as some sort of gold digger looking to marry well. Not an unreasonable theory given Wolfric’s position. If he had any inkling of her true purpose, Jade had no doubt she would currently be sitting in a dark hole awaiting questioning and execution.

But just because he didn’t suspect her true motives now, didn’t mean he wouldn’t figure it out. They needed to move and move fast.

She pushed the villa door open rather than wait for a servant. Ahmed needed to move his timetable up as well. Killing the wizard would give her a little more time to finish with Wolfric.

Baron St. Croy poked his head out of one of the doors as she stalked by. Jade just glared at him until he pulled back out of sight. The old fool had done his job. As long as he stayed out of the way, he might live through this. After all, no one had paid the Coiled Serpent to kill him.

At the top of the stairs she met Ahmed and led him to one of the unused bedrooms. When they were out of sight she said, “You need to move against Otto soon. He’s becoming suspicious of me. If we delay too long, he’ll figure out who we really are.”

“He was here asking questions earlier,” Ahmed said. “I don’t think the old man said anything incriminating and I cut them off as quickly as possible given my supposed position. As for moving soon, I still haven’t come up with a good plan.”

“What about taking the baby and using it as bait? That was what we talked about with our local contacts.”

“I know, but it’s not really my