Weaver's Curse

Chapter 8- Theories

Amazingly, Toby had nearly made it over the Reganne/Zircon border without being caught. If his brother was searching for him, he was being discreet about it, which meant that he had to keep being careful.

He saw Allie, one of his first friends he'd made in the merchant caravan, chattering away at Kaedwyn and Isaan, they're newest hires.

Toby wasn't sure why Allie bothered; Kaedwyn was always rude to her, probably just because Allie happened to be friendly and a bit of a chatterbox.

Although who knows, maybe Kaedwyn has her own reasons. She does always seem to be checking over her shoulder.

Even so, Allie deserved a little more respect. He didn't like how Kaedwyn, and sometimes Isaan, looked at his friend like she was an idiot. She could be a little silly sometimes, but who wasn't?

He set down his box and stepped forward as he heard Kaedwyn reject Allie's offer to go grab some breakfast.

"Is that an open invitation?" he asked, grinning at her.

"Yeah, sure!" Allie said.

"Let's go before they run out of anything edible, then." He said. "Dill and Harry already headed that way."

They made it into the mess wagon before they ran out of bread, and they each took a slice. Today, they'd baked cinnamon into their rye loaves. It smelled wonderful.

"Ooh! Cinnamon!" Allie exclaimed, taking a bite.

"Very exciting." Toby agreed.

It was pretty good.

They sat down in a grassy place that hadn't been churned up by the wagon wheels, and Dill joined them, holding a wooden bowl full of porridge.

"I can't believe you're willingly eating that," Allie said. "Don't say I didn't warn you if you get sick."

Not long ago, Allie had filled in for one of the mess wagon workers and had reported with a horrified expression that they only leaned the porridge pot about once a month. Ever since then, whenever he'd arrived too late to get bread, Toby had skipped breakfast.

"They added cinnamon and apples today, so it's actually edible." Dill said, holding the bowl out for them to examine. "Want a bite?"

"No thanks." Allie said, drawing back.

"Fair enough." Dill said. "So are you excited about being in Zircon tomorrow?"

It's a good start, unfortunately, at least one of the princes might be able to recognize me.

Prince Ryle had visited Reganne a few years ago, and Toby had been forced to sit next to him during a banquet and endure several hours of his unpleasant company.

"Yes!" Allie said. "I've never even been out of Reganne. It's like an adventure!"

"I suppose." Toby said. "I haven't heard good things about some of the people there."

Between the prince being a little bitch, and the rumors about those other two...

"Oh are you talking about the conspiracy theories about the second prince?" Dill asked.

"Conspiracy theories?" Allie said.

"They say he murdered a woman." Dill whispered.

Yes, even though they did their best to cover that one up, whoever was distributing those flyers were pretty persistent.

A friend of Archibald's had brought one back from Blackhall Academy to look at, and if Toby remembered correctly, Salazar Malachite had also been accused of having the woman's death on his hands.

"I was actually referring to the conspiracy theories about the Malachites." Toby said.

"And what do those say?" Allie asked, eyes wide.

"It's widely suspected across the kingdom that they murdered their cousin, Sedine Malachite." He explained. Archibald had told them about that rumor after a few of Malachite's men came to the capital looking for any sign of the missing girl.

So far as Toby knew, they'd found none, and neither had anyone else. Sedine had disappeared overnight, presumably never to be seen again, leaving no trail to be followed.

That hadn't stopped the Malachite brothers and the second prince of Zircon from searching.

"You'll probably see plenty of missing posters with her name on them." Dill informed her.

"A lot of people suspect that those posters are to cover up the fact that she's been dead for a while." Toby continued. "And if she isn't, she probably won't survive long if they find her."

It was easy enough to demand a search for a girl long dead, especially if her body was probably hidden in an unmarked grave on your family property. All you had to do was direct anyone looking away from that spot.

"But why would they kill her?" Allie wondered.

That is the question, isn't it? She probably wouldn't pose much threat to their inheritance, since leaving your property to a daughter isn't the norm in Zircon.

"Who knows." Dill said. "I heard that it was orders from her father."

"But here's the other bit;" Toby said. "The woman the crown prince is rumored to have killed was supposedly Sedine's aunt. On her mother's side."

Or at least I think it was her aunt. It's been a while.

"Oh? They're connected?" Dill said, eyes lighting up.

"Do...You think the prince... also had something to do with her disappearance?" Allie asked.

Well, he and Salazar Malachite are supposedly friends...

"Maybe." Toby said. "A friend of mine who worked in Reganne's palace said the royals don't have a good opinion of him."

Allie nodded thoughtfully.

"I doubt we'll run into him." She said. "We're part of a successful caravan, but we're not that successful."

"Oh, was that a concern?" Toby asked. Didn't realize she was worried about that.

"Nope." Allie said.

Well I guess she isn't really worried about it.