“Anybody else, I would say no. Of course not. But you’re not anybody else. You’re the phuro. The seer. The manipulator.”
The smile faded into a more calculating look. It was chilling how quickly it happened. One moment she was the loving grandmother, and the next she was a hardened leader capable of squashing anyone who got in her way. I wasn’t concerned. I’d faced worse than her and come off the better. She wasn’t a villain, but she wasn’t someone I would trust. Not now. Probably not ever.
“I keep having to remind myself you’re smarter than they say,” she said. “It’s… surprising.”
I shrugged. “You can’t always believe what you hear.”
“Oh, I am aware,” she said. “But I don’t think you realize just how much is said about you, Sam of Wilds.”
“I am the future King’s Wizard. People know my name.”
She shook her head. “You mistake my meaning. Yes, they know your name. They whisper it amongst each other. But do you know what is truly said about you?”
“I don’t know that I care.”
She scoffed. “That’s certainly not true. Everyone does, no matter if they speak to the contrary. Especially you, who will be a leader amongst men. How can you say you don’t care about the will of the people?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You implied it.” She sat back in her chair. It creaked beneath her. “Most are in awe of you. Whether it be because of your magic or because of your rise from such… humble beginnings, there is a fascination with you. It doesn’t hurt that you carry with you a tongue of silver. There is an irony in calling me a manipulator when you are well-versed in the same, no?”
And as much as I wanted to disagree with her, to shoot her down, we both knew it would have been a lie. Because I did manipulate, even if I wasn’t thinking of it in that way at the time. I’d talked my way out of many a dangerous situation, turned the tables until I had the advantage. It wasn’t as nefarious as she was implying, but I wasn’t an innocent party in this.
I said, “I have my reasons.”
“I’m sure,” she said. “Better alive than dead.”
I didn’t reply.
“Most are in awe of you,” she said again. “But not all. There are… detractors. Those who think you have been given too much power too soon. That you are capable of destruction. Of bending the will of the King.” She smiled, but it was a cool thing. “Of murder.”
“I haven’t murdered anyone.”
“I am sure the Darks would disagree with you on that.”
“Lartin?” I said, outraged. “He had captured us. He was planning on attempting to ransom me because of who I was.”
“In exchange for?”
“Gold.”
“So he deserved to die?”
“I don’t—it was him or us.”
She frowned. “That’s a disturbing mentality to have for someone who will one day be an advisor to a king.”
“He was a Dark.”
“And some think Darks are only those who have lost their way.”
I laughed. “Is that what you think? They’ve made their choices. They’ve set themselves on a path where they know what will happen. There is no one to blame but themselves.”
“I wasn’t speaking of Lartin, though he does add to my point.”
I blinked. “Who the hell were you speaking of? I haven’t murdered anyone—”
“Wan. The Dark Hunter.”
“Wan,” I said. My skin felt cold. “I had nothing to do with Wan.”
“But you were there.”
“How did you—”
She pulled open a drawer of her desk and pulled out a bundled-up newspaper. She slid it across the surface of the desk until it was in front of me. I looked down at it. It was a copy of the City of Lockes Gazette, dated a week ago, just after we’d left for the desert dragon.
“How did you get this?” I asked. “They don’t distribute the Gazette all the way out here.”
“I have my ways. And I thought the story on the front page would interest you.”
I didn’t want to look, because this felt like another of her games. Like this too was an illusion. But curiosity had always been a weakness of mine, and I unfolded the newspaper.
The headline was sensational and accusatory:
DARK DIES IN CAPTIVITY WHILE BEING QUESTIONED BY SAM OF WILDS!
The article was pure speculation, and aside from saying that I was present and that Wan had died, was completely false. It said sources had revealed that Wan was under duress given the Wizard’s apprentice’s interrogation techniques and that Sam of Wilds refused to render aid when it became apparent that there was a medical emergency. It went on, making sure to skirt that fine line of fact and fiction, saying, although this has yet to be corroborated, what has been confirmed by the official spokesperson to the Good King is that Wan the Dark Hunter did indeed pass away while incarcerated. “Details will be provided once the investigation has been completed,” the spokesperson said. “Given the serious nature of the matter, the King cautions his subjects against conjecture, that the truth will come in due time.”
When reached for a comment on the matter, the president of the We-Hate-Sam-A-Lot Castle Lockes Chapter, Lady Tina DeSilva, said, “It is unfortunate that yet another person has met their end by the hands of Sam of Wilds. Allegedly. It is also unfortunate that people are just now learning what I’ve known for years, that Sam of Wilds is a danger to the populace and will stop at nothing until his machinations are fully realized and he has usurped the throne. Allegedly. Since I have my ear to the ground, I’ve heard that Wan the Dark Hunter met an end similar to that of Lartin the Dark Leaf, violent and bloody, which is no surprise, given Sam’s unending rage. Allegedly. And where is Ryan Foxheart in all of this? One might say he is complicit, but one would be wrong. In fact, if one says that at all, one should be dragged out into the street and tarred and feathered for having the audacity to say something so atrocious—ahem. Excuse me. What I meant to say is that an operation to rescue Ryan Foxheart from the clutches of Sam of Wilds should be mounted immediately and performed without regard to Sam’s life. Ryan is undoubtedly under some sort of mind-control spell because that is the only reason he would have left Prince Justin at the altar. Ryan must be returned where he belongs, at the side of the Prince, so they can be in love and have babies and hold hands and whisper how much they love each other and give each other forehead kisses, because everyone knows that forehead kisses are the sweetest and most adorable thing that has ever existed. Long live Rystin!”
It should be noted that a petition to have Sam of Wilds removed from his position as the apprentice to the King’s Wizard has garnered over ten thousand signatures….
I set the paper down.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.