When the hour had grown late, Esau offered to escort me to my rooms. At first I declined. I hadn’t been assigned guards since the episode with Goel. When he insisted and when Perl frowned, I remembered her comment about curses and not wanting to be a target of her ire, I agreed.

The campus atmosphere hung silent and empty. Moonlight glistened off the ice-coated trees. Only four more days until the full moon. My hand found Valek’s snake and I twisted the bracelet around my arm.

When we were halfway to my rooms Esau said, “I need to tell you another thing about Curare.”

“There’s more?”

He nodded. “The stinging nettle plant was the reason I sent the shipment of Curare to the Sandseeds before I finished all my experiments on the drug. The plant grows in the Avibian Plains and the sting causes unbearable pain for many days. It’s usually the children who wander into a patch without realizing it. In low doses, Curare is excellent for numbing the wound. It had never occurred to me that someone would use high doses of Curare to paralyze the entire body.” Esau frowned, running a hand through his shoulder length gray hair. “Later I discovered another side effect that seemed minor at the time. But now…” Esau stopped and turned to me. “At high doses the Curare will also paralyze a person’s magical abilities.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. That meant Curare could render even a Master Magician completely helpless. Tomorrow night was the time of the secret exchange. Since I had taken over Goel’s body with my magic, I planned to take over Ferde’s, believing that, even if I was incapacitated by the drug, I could still use my magic. It now seemed imperative that I avoid getting shot with Curare.

My father must have seen the horror in my eyes. “There is an antidote of sorts,” he said.

“Antidote?”

“Not a complete reversal, but it does free the magic and return some feeling, although it creates some new problems.” Esau shook his head in frustration. “I haven’t been able to experiment with it fully.”

“What is it?”

“Theobroma.”

That explained the new problem. Eating the brown sweet would open my mind to magical influences. My mental defenses would not work against another magician, even one weaker than me.

“How much Theobroma would I need?” I asked my father.

“A lot. Though, I could concentrate it,” he mused.

A chill wind blew through me, shivering I pulled my cloak tighter as we continued our walk.

“It wouldn’t taste as good, but it would be a smaller quantity,” Esau said.

“Can you do it by tomorrow afternoon?” I asked.

He stared at me. A worried concern filled his kind eyes.

“Are you going to do something that I shouldn’t tell your mother about?”

“Yes.”

“Important?”

“Very.”

My father considered my request. When we arrived at my rooms, he gave me a hug. “Do you know what you’re doing?”

“I have a plan.”

“Yelena, you managed to find your way home despite the odds. I’ll trust that you’ll prevail again. You’ll have the antidote by tomorrow noon.”

He stood in my doorway like a protective bear while I searched inside. Satisfied that I was safe, he said good-night and headed back to the guest quarters.

I lay in bed and mulled over the information Esau had given me. When my shutters swung wide, I sat up, grabbing my switchblade from under the pillow. Valek climbed through the window with a lithe grace, dropping without a sound onto my bed. He locked the shutters then joined me.

“You need to leave. Too many people know you’re here,” I said.

“Not until we find the killer. And besides, the Commander ordered me to protect the Ambassador. I would be remiss in my duties if I left.”

“What if she ordered you home?” I turned so I could see his face.

“The Commander’s orders overrule all others.”

“Valek, did you—”

He stopped my question with a kiss. I needed to discuss many things with him. Goel’s death and the Commander’s offer. But once his body molded to mine and his musky scent reached my nose all thoughts of murder and intrigue evaporated. I pulled at his shirt. He smiled with delight. Our time together was limited and I didn’t want to waste the night on words.

When I woke in the semidarkness of sunrise, Valek was gone. But I felt energized. My rendezvous with Ferde was scheduled for midnight so I reviewed the plan as I went through my day.

Irys had wanted me to try to move objects again with my magic for my morning lesson. I had yet to manage that skill. But I asked if we could work on strengthening my mental defenses. If I had to resort to using Esau’s antidote, I wanted to be able to produce a strong enough barrier that might block his magic even while under the influence of the Theobroma.

Before dismissing me for the day, Irys asked, “Are you still feeling tired from your encounter with Goel?”

“A little. Why?”

She gave me an ironic smile. “You’ve been pestering me about the search for Opal every day for the last week. Yet no questions today.”

“I assumed you would tell me any news.”

“We’ve reached a milestone!” Irys declared. “You’re learning to trust us.” Then the humor in her eyes dulled. “No news. We don’t think they are in the Citadel or the plains so now we’re widening the search area.”