Page 49 of Deceiving the Cursed Beast
“What were you debating?” Marc asked.
This was certainly a switch in roles. Isa stayed uncharacteristically silent at my side while Marc asked questions. He normally limited his conversation with me to discussing his duties and small talk over the meals we shared.
“The relative usefulness of the various enchantments on the castle.” I told Marc, realizing why Isa wasn’t answering. She didn’t know how much I wanted to keep secret from Marc, nor could she lie outright. I needed to shift the conversation so that she wouldn’t be forced to talk around the truth. “Isa insists that the truth-telling enchantment is more harmful than not because it gives people a false sense of how honest everyone is.”
Isa looked down at me and continued the conversation as if we truly had been debating just that. “You look closer at a person’s motivations when you know they can lie. Those motivations don’t disappear because of a truth-telling enchantment.”
“But they are harder to hide.” Marc held open the dining-room door.
Isa paused as she stepped past him, leveling him with a flinty look. “Meaning that people put more effort into hiding them and therefore should not be underestimated.”
Seeing the look Marc gave Isa once she had her back to him, I decided not to step into this conversation. Since I had yet to master the magic needed to make the secretary answer my questions, relying on Isa’s talents might be wisest. She could get the answers I needed simply by pricking his pride.
“If you are so fond of honesty,” Marc said as he took his seat opposite Isa, “then tell us what you hide because of the enchantments of the castle.”
She leaned forward. “You forget, I had no motivation to come to the castle. I was forced here. I am more interested in your motivations.”
“I found His Grace after the curse struck. The discovery was frightening, and I wanted to set things right.”
Isa’s expression didn’t change, yet I could see the intensity building as she listened to Marc’s answer. His explanation sounded simple to my ear, but Isa clearly heard plenty that he didn’t say. She understood his words in a way I couldn’t. But instead of following up on his answer, she looked at me.
Perhaps, if I had still been in human form, I could have silently conveyed to her my willingness to let her question Marc. She might have read the press of my lips as admission that I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to force him to answer my questions. She might have seen a raised eyebrow as permission to rely on her talents and continue the interrogation.
But a twitched whisker and slow blink clearly told her nothing.
“His Grace must have appreciated your interest in helping.”
Because I understood Isa in a way I never had understood my secretary, I could guess at what she had left unsaid. She didn’t let on that I now regretted relying on Marc. She didn’t say he had actually helped me.
I didn’t think Marc heard those unspoken caveats. He once more thought he had fooled Isa’s truth-reading. As I summoned our meal, I regretted that Isa had respected my desire not to let Marc discover I had doubts about him. Next time, I wanted her to push. He might not have to answer her, but even so, she would learn so much more than I ever could.
Twenty-Two
Felix
???
I watched Isawrite in a journal, her hand gliding over paper without hesitation, and wondered if she was actually writing her thoughts or just enjoying the ease of using the Truth-made pen.
I was supposed to be practicing truth-telling, asking Isa questions when I thought I had the spell properly cast, but I could not get the power to settle around her as I had once before. Granted, I had spent more time studying the shape of her lips and trying to decide the exact color of her eyes—russet—than actually focusing on the magic. Nevertheless, the first hints of a headache had just formed behind my eyes, and I released the node power.
“Even if I could master this power in the next five minutes, I will still be rubbish at questioning Marc.”
Isa looked up from her journal. “If you master the power, it doesn’t matter if you are rubbish at questioning. You can ask him directly what he is up to and he will have to answer.”
“And he can still hide the truth from me, even then. I think you should question him instead. You figured something out this afternoon without even trying.”
“I don’t know that I’d put it quite like that. I heard something that confirmed that your suspicions are well placed, but I didn’t uncover a secret.”
“But you could have if you hadn’t stopped pushing him. I know you did it because I didn’t want him to know I was onto him, but I think it would have been better if you had kept going. Next time, you should keep going.”
“I can only push so far without him realizing it is an interrogation.” She shrugged. “He’ll stop answering at that point, and there will be nothing I can do about it.”
“I understand. I still think you should do it. You are better at this than me.”
Isa looked away, and a faint hint of pink dusted her cheeks.
“I’ll try to truth-tell him,” I continued, wondering why such a straight-forward statement—I wouldn’t have even considered it a compliment, just a fact—made her blush. “But either way, I want you to do the questioning.”
