The Familiars #4: Palace of Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page B

across.”
    “Black lichen? Tarantula teeth? Ghoul bile? I could keep going if you like.”
    “Yes, I’m sure you could,” Aldwyn replied. “I just have no idea what it has to do with me.”
    “They were found in your rooms,” the tarsier said. “Along with a copy of Wyvern and Skull’s Tome of the Occult .”
    “That’s ridiculous. Someone planted those things,” Aldwyn said. “Besides, doesn’t that seem a bit convenient? I mean, if I was really going to hurt the queen, why would I leave evidence of it in my room?”
    “Ah, so tell me, how would you hurt the queen?”
    “Now you’re just twisting my words,” Aldwyn said. “I wouldn’t hurt her.”
    “Whose idea was it to visit Agdaleen’s lair?” the tarsier asked.
    “That was months ago.” Aldwyn thought for a moment. “I suppose it was Skylar.”
    “Hm. Interesting. And her questabout? Where did she go again?”
    “The lost Xylem garden of Horteus Ebekenezer.”
    “Ah, the fabled garden filled with forbidden components.” The tarsier paused. “Have you ever questioned your good friend Skylar’s loyalty?”
    Aldwyn remained silent. He had.
    “Have you ever thought that Skylar was capable of hurting someone that you loved?”
    He had.
    “I’ll take that as a yes.”
    “But I was wrong,” Aldwyn said. “I had misinterpreted one of Gilbert’s puddle viewings. I never should have doubted her.”
    “Or maybe you should have.”
    “Are you finished yet?” Aldwyn asked.
    “No, I’m just getting started. Let’s talk about you for a moment. Orphaned as a kitten. A long history of theft. Street fights. There was even a bounty on your head by numerous fish and fowl shops in Bridgetower. They considered you their number one enemy.”
    “I didn’t hear a question.”
    “Do you ever miss your life of crime?” the tarsier asked.
    “No,” Aldwyn answered. “Not for a moment. I only did those things out of necessity. To eat. To survive. It’s not the same.”
    “Once a criminal, always a criminal in my book,” the tarsier said. “Tell me more. Malvern. He was one of Paksahara’s most trusted conspirators. And your uncle.”
    “Malvern betrayed me and my family. I was hardly on his side. His death at my paw should be evidence enough of that.”
    “So you admit that you are a murderer?”
    “It was self-defense,” Aldwyn said.
    “But you proved that you’re capable of killing.”
    Aldwyn was getting more and more frustrated. He didn’t like this one bit. And even though it was tempting, clawing the tarsier’s eyes out certainly wouldn’t help his cause.
    “You haven’t even told me,” Aldwyn said, holding back his anger. “How is Queen Loranella?”
    “Concerned that perhaps you and your companions didn’t finish the job?”
    “Please,” Aldwyn said. “Please tell me that she’s all right.”
    “The best healers in Vastia are by her side. They’ve been able to keep her in the Wander, between this life and the Tomorrowlife.”
    Aldwyn exhaled. Relief flooded him. No matter the predicament he was in, at least she wasn’t dead.
    The door creaked open and one of the other crimson-robed Truth Seekers entered. She walked up to the woman sitting across from Aldwyn and whispered in her ear. As suddenly as she arrived, she was gone.
    “Gilbert has confessed,” said the woman. “This interrogation does not need to go on any longer.”
    “It’s a lie,” Aldwyn said. “I don’t believe it.”
    “Perhaps his conscience was heavier than yours,” the tarsier said.
    “No. You must have confused him. Or tricked him. There was nothing for him to admit to, because we didn’t do anything!”
    “This much I do know,” the tarsier said. “There will be leniency for those who cooperate. If you insist on withholding the truth, your punishment will be severe.”
    No threat, whatever the consequence, would make the orphan cat confess to a crime he didn’t commit. Growing up on the streets of Bridgetower, honor was all that