The Fatal Gate by Ian Irvine

Author:Ian Irvine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Fantasy / Epic
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2017-06-27T04:00:00+00:00

42

HOW COULD I HAVE TRUSTED YOU?

Aviel did not enjoy one moment of the banquet, and the honour of being on the head table next to Janck was a burden. Because her mission had been top secret, few people knew about her brilliant achievement, and she did not know how to make small talk. The eyes of the room were on her and she felt sure everyone was judging her, saying knowingly that she did not belong there, mocking her. As soon as she finished the first course she slipped away and went to the room she was sharing with Lilis, to bed.

Aviel woke the moment Lilis came in and knew she would not get back to sleep. She lay still until she could tell, by Lilis’s steady breathing in the bed on the other side of the room, that she was asleep.

Aviel lit a candle and was looking through the grimoire for a scent potion that could only be used for good purposes when she noticed the marker Osseion had inserted before closing it yesterday. It marked Shand’s scent potion, the Afflatus Effluvium, and as she glanced at it she remembered something curious.

Shand had told her that his scent potion required nineteen different scents, smells and reeks, yet when he’d blended the potion there had been twenty phials lined up on the bench. Had he made a mistake? It seemed unlikely. Or added an extra scent to the recipe? Not even a master would make such a dangerous change without careful testing.

He had lied! But why would he deceive her about a scent potion she had no interest in ever making? She moved the grimoire so her candle light fell on it. The method was hard to read, the pages stained as if someone had spilled dark tea or black beer on them, and here and there were unidentifiable crusts the colour of porridge. She scanned the list of ingredients. Nineteen.

No, a twentieth ingredient was almost completely obscured by one of the crusted blobs. She poked at it with the tip of her knife and discovered that the crust was only stuck to the page on its right-hand side. Shand must have lifted it to read what was underneath then pressed it down again.

And the twentieth ingredient was Archeus of Eidolon! She let out an involuntary cry.

Lilis stirred. “Something the matter?” she said sleepily.

“Just read something I didn’t like.”

Lilis’s eyes fixed on her until Aviel felt the heat rising up her face. “That’s what happens when you pursue the dark side,” Lilis said jokingly, then closed her eyes.

Aviel did not smile; it cut too close. She reopened the grimoire and read the last ingredient again. Archeus of Eidolon. And Shand’s twentieth phial of scented oil had been a similar yellow-green colour.

She shot up in bed. You unutterable bastard.

Had Shand known from the beginning that he needed the Archeus to make his scent potion? She felt sure he had. He must have put the nivol method that used Archeus in with her other parchments because it was the only way to get some for himself.

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