Chapter 331
Staring down at the fae before them, Lucien struggled to maintain his practiced courtly mask. He had worked hard to be able to keep his face impassive over the years. It had been something that had been necessary growing up in the Autumn Court, he had often needed to keep his thoughts and reactions hidden from Beron and his brothers. It had taken him a log time to be able to do so convincingly. It had also been a skill which had come in handy during his time as emissary for the Spring Court. Of course, Lucien had not always been good at it. It was widely known, everybody knew, that he had a hard time controlling his mouth, after all. He was, therefore, rather pleased with the way he felt he was controlling his face as he stared at the fae who stood before Helion and himself.
The fae blinked nervously, large black eyes flicking between the High Lord and Lucien. After a second those eyes stopped flickering back and forth, and he went to his knees, head bowed.
"Please," Helion said, sounding tired. "Don't bother with that…"
"Of course." The fae stood up, looking embarrassed, "I did not mean to… was that wrong?" He blinked nervously again, "I have not… I have not been to the palace before…"
"I know." Helion said, waving a hand, "You need not stand on ceremony right now. I have some questions for you."
"For me, High Lord?"
"Yes." Helion said, "One of my… I have been told that you may know some information that would be useful to me." Those black eyes widened and Lucien thought for a moment that the fae male might turn and flee, but Helion went on. "I would be very thankful, and generous, if you were to provide me with this information." Those black eyes widened again, but this time Lucien was sure there was a greedy gleam to them, and the fear was gone.
Tilting his head, and lifting that pointy chin, the fae male looked up at Lucien and Helion expectantly. "What is it that the High Lord would like to know?"
Lucien glanced at his father, wondering if he'd known that offering a reward would have had this impact upon the male. He suspected that Helion had known it would do just that.
"I'm told that you sold a quantity of faebane in the last several days…"
"Oh, yes." The male nodded, "A large quantity, it was."
"And who," Helion prompted, "did you sell it to?"
There was a pause then when the male blinked as he thought, and Lucien would have bet that he was weighing his options. He was evidently wondering who would give him the bigger reward; the High Lord for the name, or whoever it was for his silence. Eventually the pointed chin lifted again, the black eyes glittering.
"Toran."
"…Toran?" Clearly Helion no more knew who Toran was than Lucien did.
"Toran owns the shop that the Courtiers visit on their walk through the city." The male grinned up at them. "He bought enough to dose twenty fae."
Lucien doubled his efforts to keep his face under control. He hadn't expected that whoever had done this would have gone to such lengths as this. Fear spiked through him at the realisation that this had been properly planned, and whoever had Elain had put some time and effort into their plan. Instead, he turned away, running a hand over his face and up through his hair. He tried to listen to Helion talking to the male, tried to listen to his father dismiss him, but his mind was running wild. He wanted to run out the door and go and find this Toran. Clearly that would be their next step, and he didn't want to waste any more time.
By the time Lucien had turned back around, he was alone with the High Lord, and Helion's expression suggested that he was deep in his own thoughts.
"So…" Lucien said, "We're going to get Toran?"
"I will have him sent for."
"But…" Lucien tried not to explode. He wanted action.
"We cannot go ourselves." Helion said gently, "Whoever has done this obviously has resources of their own, and perhaps they have not yet gotten to their true target…"
Lucien blinked when he realised that Helion thought that Elain and Ashk might not have been the goal. Perhaps they were after the High Lord himself. It definitely would not do to have the High Lord and his heir wandering off into some trap. He sighed and nodded, not sure that they should trust anyone at all at this point.