Family of Lies: Sebastian (4 page)

Kevin knocked once and opened the door.

Lord Orwell quickly swept a map and pendant off the table and onto his lap. “There isn’t a point to knocking if you don’t wait for me to respond!” He stuffed the items into his pocket and ran his fingers through balding, sweaty hair.

“I didn’t know you still had enough power to scry,” Kevin said.

“That’s none of your concern. The two of you can leave. I just wanted to talk to one selfish brat of my loins.” Lord Orwell impatiently waved them away.

“You have enough power to scry but not enough to magically control three people.” White and green eyes turned to Kevin.

“I didn’t agree to an all-out fight,” Sebastian muttered.

“Neither did I,” Ophelia whispered.

“How dare you be defiant to a father trying to protect his youngest son!” Lord Orwell glared at Sebastian. “Have Prince Turren’s attackers been apprehended? Who knows if they’ll retaliate against you if they discover your identity.”

“Why did you insist I hide the truth from Mother?” Kevin asked.

“She would be blinded by the possibility of moving up in court circles. She wouldn’t understand the danger,” Lord Orwell insisted. “Is that all, ungrateful sons and daughter?”

“Yes,” Sebastian said before Kevin could speak again.

Kevin crossed his arms. “For now.” He turned on his heel but stopped midturn when Lord Orwell cleared his throat.

“I order all of you to remain silent, and that includes running off to tell your sister, Diana.”

“Y
OU
SHOULD
have heard him, Diana. Father lied through his teeth, but I don’t know about what.” Ophelia sat on her bed next to Diana.

“We need to see the spell on his map,” Sebastian said.

Diana rolled her eyes. “Obviously. But if we do find what or who he was scrying for, will that tell us what we need to know without his cooperation?”

“What about a truth spell?” Kevin asked, tossing a sack of dates from hand to hand.

“Ironically, truth spells are lies. They tell the mind that you want to reveal everything when you really don’t, so he would be immune to it,” Diana explained.

Sebastian looked at the door. “They sure are being quiet.”

Diana rolled her eyes again. “One little nature walk and the three of them bitched the entire time. Those bastions of endurance won’t lift a leg out of bed until supper.”

“I had to heal Pratchett of creeping sickness. He had reached orange by the time they got back home,” Ophelia said.

“Serves him right for being an ass,” Kevin said. “What’s our plan?”

“We drug the others and find the map before Mother gets home,” Diana said.

“Please don’t go overboard. We’ll be the ones cleaning up the mess if you do,” Sebastian warned.

“I’ll use a mild sedative. I save my nasty concoctions for our eldest sister, Alice.” Diana smoothed down her hair streaked with premature gray. It was pinned into a bun and pulled her skin tight, making the hawkish face even fiercer. “I admit enjoying that the herbs the boys picked are going to line their bowls tonight.” She swung her legs down and cheerfully whistled as she left the room.

Sebastian shook his head. “No one in this family is sane.”

Kevin snorted. “She might be scary, but she’s still afraid of Moth—” His chair toppled forward without warning, and Diana walked back into the room.

She snatched her bonnet off Ophelia’s dresser and tied it over her bun. “I forgot this,” she said and glanced disdainfully at Kevin sprawled on the floor. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

Kevin rolled over and rubbed his knee. “You insulted her too, so why only me?”

“I think she took Sebastian’s statement as a compliment,” Ophelia surmised.

L
ORD
O
RWELL
and Kraven dug into second bowls of soup. Sebastian leaned toward Diana. “Are you sure?” he said and glanced meaningfully at the two gluttons.

“I’m sure that they look like pigs,” Diana said when Demetrius looked at them suspiciously. “They could eat four bowls and they’d be fine,” she murmured when he turned away.

“If you say so,” Ophelia said from Diana’s left.

“You guys were chummy this afternoon. What were you talking about?” Kraven asked.

“Diana ran out of ferment weed and asked if we knew of any bunches growing in the wood,” Sebastian said.

“You said no, right? Because there isn’t any growing this late in the season.” Kraven smiled nervously.

Pratchett replied, “You mean that goopy blue stuff by the yellow-and-red flowers?”

Diana beamed at Pratchett. “I didn’t know. Thank you for telling me. We can make another run tomorrow.”

Sebastian shook his head at the idiot and continued eating his hopefully undrugged bowl of fish stew.

When Demetrius’s head started to nod and jerk back up, Sebastian yawned and pretended that he felt sleepy too. He laid his head on his elbow and watched the others fall into slumber one by one. When their father’s snores filled the kitchen, Sebastian raised his head. Ophelia, Kevin, and Diana blinked, surveying the others as he had done, and leaped to their feet. Sebastian searched their father’s pockets for the map and patted down his sides for good measure. “It’s not on him.”

Ophelia whispered, and a purple glow appeared around the outside door. “Mother won’t be able to get in, I think.” She wrinkled her nose. “At least it will delay her.”

“Let’s not waste time.” Kevin led the way upstairs again.

“Don’t touch the door!” Ophelia said as Kevin reached for the knob.

“Did that bastard booby-trap it?” Kevin asked.

“Yes.” Diana pushed past him and spread her hand over the wood. “A speechless spell amplified with a sliver of Nule bark hanging on the other side. That’s a problem. It’s going to take me time to deactivate it.”

“Wonderful,” Sebastian said while pretending not to sense the protection spell. “He’s just as paranoid as we are.”

“That bastard,” Diana growled and lowered her hands. “It’s from a damn tome. I need to get more supplies from my bag.” She stomped down the stairs.

“Second thoughts?” Ophelia asked them.

“I want to know what’s on that map more than ever,” Kevin said.

They didn’t wait long for Diana to return, but hours passed while Diana fooled with the spells. Their sister looked over her shoulder at the stairs.

“Those herbs last from five to seven hours. Why are you checking to see if anyone is up?” Sebastian asked.

“Father might have a better immunity than the others.” Diana’s gaze moved to the stairs again.

“How many times did you drug him?” Sebastian asked while looking over his own shoulder.

Kevin leaned forward, his shadow blocking Ophelia’s magelight. “Did you ever drug us?”

Sebastian kept his mouth shut because he wanted to hear the answer to the second question.

“Noooo,” Diana said. “Stop blocking my light or we’ll be here all night.”

“You’re ly—” Kevin cut off as the door creaked open.

“Diana is a brat.” Ophelia smiled. “We can still talk.”

“I never drugged you, Ophelia.”

“Then I take it back.” She walked arm in arm into the room with Diana, leaving Sebastian and Kevin behind, shaking their heads.

“I didn’t hear a denial about us,” Kevin groused.

“I wasn’t expecting one.” Sebastian stepped into their parents’ room and opened whatever box or drawer the others hadn’t been through. “Does he throw anything away?” Sebastian muttered after finding a dried gremlin skin under a jewelry display. Scales flaked off in his fingers, and Sebastian rubbed his hand on his pants. “Ugh.”

“Shut up. You’re not the one going through Mother’s undergarments,” Diana hissed.

“I found it,” Ophelia said and dangled a velvet bag bound with gold thread from her fingers. Kevin reached for it, but Ophelia held it out of his reach. “We need a key.”

“Shit!” Diana shouted. “Something just bit me.” She pointed her wand at the drawer, but Sebastian grabbed her hand.

“It will be hard to pretend we were never here if you kill the creature protecting Mother’s things.”

Diana yanked her hand free and kicked the drawer shut with her foot. “Fine. Ophelia, can you sense where the key is?”

“It’s downstairs. I think Father has it.”

“Great, so we’re supposed to go downstairs and search him when he’s likely to wake up any minute?” Kevin asked. “I’m calling it a night.”

“Quit being a coward. Sebastian.” Diana turned to him.

Sebastian sensed an inconvenient task headed his way and rushed for the door. A firm grip on his hair stopped him. “Ow, ow, ow, okay, I’ll go downstairs,” he said, and Kevin released him.

“Kevin and I will help him,” Ophelia said.

“Why both of us?” Kevin asked.

“Because I’m doing most of the work,” Diana said.

When they sneaked into the dining room, the rest of the Orwells were still facedown on the table or in their bowls. Sebastian adjusted Kraven’s head so he wouldn’t drown.

Kevin went through their father’s pockets and came up empty. “Should we strip him?”

“No!” Sebastian hissed, knowing who would end up with the dirty job. “Ophelia.”

“I’m searching, I’m searching,” Ophelia said as she eyed their father from head to toe.

“Ophelia, it does not take you that long, stop being nosy,” Diana ordered.

“Fine, check under his tongue.”

“Sebastian’s the youngest.” Kevin stepped away.

“You can’t make all decisions based upon who is the youngest,” Sebastian said, now standing alone after his three siblings had moved back.

“It’s worked out for years, and you’re a wanted man. Consider this your punishment,” Kevin said.

“What if it’s spelled?”

“It’s not,” Ophelia promised.

Sebastian squared his shoulders, determined to get it over with as quickly as possible. He tilted their father’s head back and pressed his fingers against lips covered in drool. “I get to open the bag,” he said as he stuck his fingers under a slimy tongue and found a wet ball of thread. He pulled out his hand and held up the thread.

“Deal.” Diana’s mouth twisted. “And I won’t bother you during my entire stay.”

“There’s no curiosity in the world that would have tempted me to do what you just did,” Kevin said.

“Hurry!” Ophelia gathered her skirts and ran for the stairs.

S
EBASTIAN
HOOKED
the thread through the bag’s string, and an opening appeared. He stuck his hand in the bag. It disappeared into darkness, and Sebastian had to sink his arm down farther. His nails tapped silver cups and candlesticks, silks, cut jewels, pearls, and then something that crinkled like paper. “Aha!” Sebastian pulled out a roll of parchment. They scooted to a desk, and Sebastian removed the ribbon binding it.

“Show and tell, my little friend, the secrets of your master’s sin,” Diana said over the map, and a red line appeared from neighboring kingdom, Anerith, to Larnlyon’s capital city, Trellium.

“Was he tracking the prince?” Kevin asked.

“No,” Ophelia said. “He was tracking someone else. Someone who took the same path as the prince.” She pointed to parts of the red line that zigzagged from Silver Lake to the inn where the prince had been found.

“Father knows who attacked Turren,” Sebastian said. “Ophelia, break the magic.”

“What? We could find out more.”

“Break it before whoever that is feels you,” Sebastian warned.

“What are you—” Ophelia began but scrambled to bundle the map. “Damn, that was close. Diana, did you feel that?”

“Yes. No wonder Father didn’t want us touching it. This troublemaker was powerful enough to latch on to Ophelia from that great a distance.” Diana turned to Sebastian. “How did you know when you have no magic?”

“Father didn’t have the map out for long, so he must have been afraid of being caught. He wouldn’t care about
us
finding his secret.”

“That is a good point,” Diana said. She placed her palm on Sebastian’s face and closed her eyes.

“No magic, Diana, just guesswork. Maybe you should check Kevin.”

“Knock it off, both of you, and let’s go downstairs before the others awaken.” Kevin shoved himself between them and into the hallway.

Diana glared at Sebastian and followed Kevin.

Sebastian held the bag open, and Ophelia dropped the map inside, ribbon newly tied. “You’re pushing your luck,” she said while returning the bag to its hiding place.

Sebastian shrugged, and they closed the door behind them. Diana whispered over the door, reassembling the protection spell, and the four of them went to join their family in mock sleep.

S
EBASTIAN
WOKE
with his spoon clutched in his fingers. He looked up, and the rest of his family was groggily coming to their senses—including the three siblings involved in the scheme.
I can’t even pretend to be surprised that she drugged all of us.

Kevin swung his head in Diana’s direction but stopped midway. He instead turned to Kraven. “Did you wash your hands before handling our food?”

“What?” A piece of onion fell off Kraven’s cheek.

“The herbs you cut for our supper. Obviously you and Pratchett contaminated them,” Diana said.

“We washed our hands several times, you—” Pratchett broke off and licked his lips.

“You what?” Diana asked.

“Father, we washed our hands,” Kraven said.

“It was a simple mistake, Kraven, and we needed the rest.” Lord Orwell stood and stretched. “Your mother will be home soon. Clean the table and dishes. I’m off to bed.”

Their father left the room, and Ophelia sighed. “He knows it wasn’t the boys.”

“What have you been up to?” Demetrius asked.

“None of your business,” Diana told him. She stared at the ceiling. “I bet he’s going upstairs to check his bag.”

“What bag?” Kraven asked. “I knew I washed my hands!”

“Shut up.” Kevin covered Kraven’s mouth.