“I rather thought law enforcement and the Royal Guard would have such matters well in hand,” she said.
My lips twisted. “Except that no laws have been broken, exactly. And the matter is too sensitive to bring in unnecessary people.”
“Conall?” she asked, her voice barely a murmur. “Is that why Elsie came tearing into our dining room?”
I nodded. “One of the other servants found out about what’s been happening and didn’t have the wits to keep his mouth shut.”
My mother sucked in a worried breath.
“As far as we know it hasn’t spread yet,” I said quickly. “But that’s what I need to confirm.”
“You’ve been to Lucienne?” she asked, but it wasn’t really a question.
I nodded. “She’s going to deal with the mages he works for.” I grimaced. “I wouldn’t want to be them right now.”
“So you know who it was who was indiscreet?”
I shook my head. “Not exactly. But the servant in question is junior steward to the Armed Forces’ officers.”
Mother winced, obviously thinking much the same as I had when I found out. We fell silent, me concentrating on finding my way back to the room where I had left the two servants. I almost sighed with relief when I recognized the door, coming to a stop outside it.
“Aunt Lucienne doesn’t want him to see anyone but me. We don’t want to alert him to how serious a matter this is.”
My mother turned to me. “So how does this work then? Do I need to do anything?” She immediately corrected herself. “No, of course not. So I guess I just stand here?”
I opened the door one down from the one we wanted, pulling back when I found a cleaning cupboard. I tried the next door along and revealed another meeting room, almost identical to the one occupied by Elsie and Oscar.
“You come in here,” I told my mother. “You’ll easily be close enough. And I’ll come and get you when I’ve finished.”
She followed me into the room, seating herself in a chair near the single window. When she fixed her eyes on me, the curiosity showing in her expression, I forced myself to swallow. I had done this enough times for it to come easily now, but I still hesitated. This time felt different.
“Connect,” I finally managed to croak out.
My ability didn’t share my hesitancy, connecting with her energy as easily as it had always done with others. Knowledge and understanding flooded my mind, and for a moment, I lost myself in it.
I had connected with powerful mages before but never like this. My mother had adjusted to her ability, learning to tune out her awareness of the energy of everyone around her, just as I had done. But that was where the similarities in our senses ended. Now that I was connected to her, the presence of a palace full of people sprang to my mind in a stronger, more acute way than I had ever experienced before. It took every bit of my self-control not to reach for them, greedily draining their energy. How easy it was for my mother to do such a thing.
I had experienced taking the energy of others, but even connected as I was now, it was hard to fathom what it would be like to take energy from so many at once. It was one thing to know my mother was more powerful than any other, but another thing again to experience it for myself.
Only my brothers and I could control our abilities with spoken words as our mother could, but I couldn’t pull power from the air as she could and shape it any way I willed. With my own ability, I was limited in ways she was not. Wearing her ability as if it were my own, I had to bite down on my tongue to keep from speaking and unleashing the vast power that now stirred so readily to my command.
I broke the connection, gasping, and staring at my mother with wide eyes.
“How do you contain it?” I asked. “It’s so…much. I was terrified to say a single word.”
She smiled a little ruefully. “Practice, of course. My ability didn’t come to me all at once any more than yours did.”
I took a shaky breath. “Did you feel anything?”
She nodded, a thoughtful look in her eye. “I felt a connection between us. But I can’t be sure I would have felt it if I hadn’t been prepared and paying attention. I certainly couldn’t have guessed, just from the sensation, that you had accessed my power.” She shook her head. “Yours is a remarkable ability, Verene.”
“Mine?” I gaped at her. “What about yours? I’ve never felt anything like it. Mother, you have so much power.”
Her lips twisted into a somewhat mocking smile. “And yet I seem to encounter so very many problems that can’t be solved with brute power alone. It’s funny how that works.”
I rubbed the side of my head. “Yes, I used to think if only I had an ability, everything else would be so simple…It seems naive now.”
“I wish you could have stayed so youthful and innocent,” my mother whispered with a wistful look.
I bit my lip. Could I wish such a thing? Did I? If I could go back to before any of this and wish it all out of existence, would I?
I only had to think of Darius and the looming threat to my friends, family, and kingdoms to know I could never wish my ability away. If I could help defend them, even in some small way, then it would all be worth it.
“I don’t feel the connection between us now,” Mother said. “Don’t you need to maintain it during the interrogation?”
I winced. “I’m afraid of what might happen if I speak while I’m connected to you.”
“You can do this, Verene.” She met my eyes, her own warm and encouraging. “You’re a spoken mage yourself, remember. I’m certain you can control my power. You just need to believe in yourself.”
I barely refrained from rolling my eyes at her motherly encouragement. But at the same time, I drew strength from her short speech. She was right. I knew what it was to speak empty words and what it was to speak words that could slice through anything. My mother’s ability wasn’t as foreign to me as it had felt at first contact.
I drew a deep breath and once again connected with her. For a moment I let it wash over me, and then I withdrew a little, holding myself apart from her.
“You stay here,” I said, not so much as a wisp of power escaping. “I won’t be long.”
I slipped out of the room and into the next one. Oscar had relaxed considerably in my absence. He sat on the corner of one of the tables, one leg braced on the ground, looking down at Elsie where she sat in a chair.
But at sight of me, they both sprang up, bowing and curtsying in unison.
“Truth,” I whispered almost silently to myself.
Connected with my mother’s power, it was a simple matter to shape the one-word composition. If Oscar lied, it would show a flash of light in my eyes only, rather than the more traditional approach of a visible light in front of us both.
“Oscar,” I said, making my tone serious. “I understand that you are a loyal subject of the crown, and that is why we need your special assistance.”
He drew himself up to his full height, his chest puffing out.
“There is none more loyal than I, Your Highness. And I am ready and willing to perform any service of which the crown might be in need.”
I nodded gravely. “As you know, Her Majesty deals constantly with matters of great delicacy—matters which must be kept quiet from the general population.”