“So long as we’re all on the same front going forward, everything is well enough for now,” he said. “We’ve got other problems. Something happened last night.”
Eli leaned back with an infuriating smile. “Things tend to happen on wedding knights, Josef.”
“Shut up and listen,” Josef said, ignoring the murderous look that Nico shot at the thief. “I just woke up with no memory of the night before. I don’t remember Adela getting up or the servant coming in. I don’t even remember going to bed.”
“Well,” Eli said, standing up. “It isn’t unheard of for humans to lose consciousness for six, sometimes eight hours a night. I know this may come as a surprise—”
“Can you stop being a smart-ass for five seconds and listen?” Josef snapped. “This is serious. I think I was drugged.”
“Nonsense,” Eli said. “Who would drug you?”
“I don’t know,” Josef said. “That’s why I have you. Figure it out.”
Eli scratched his chin. “Someone who doesn’t want an heir for Osera?” he guessed.
“The duke,” Josef said. “An heir by me would keep Finley’s children from inheriting.”
“Seems a little shortsighted,” Eli said. “He can’t expect to drug you every night. And how did he do it without drugging the princess as well? I can only assume that the drug was in your food, unless you were cut in the night?” He paused until Josef shook his head. “Food or drink then, for certain. But you ate with Adela, right? So unless you had something she didn’t, she’d be down too. But she was up bright and early this morning. I saw her ride out myself.”
“We ate from the same plates,” Josef said. “Whatever I had, she had. Poison isn’t the Oseran way, though. If the duke wanted me dead, he could challenge me to a duel at any time.”
“Well, we still haven’t established it was him,” Eli said. “And you were drugged to sleep, not to death. Anyway, no one in their right mind is going to challenge you to a duel, especially not after your performance yesterday. You’re the greatest swordsman in the world, remember?”
“Not yet,” Josef said. “We need to find out what happened last night and why. We also need a who. Eli, I want you to go to my room and see what you can find. Nico, I’ll need you to stake out the duke. I want to know what he’s planning. Meanwhile, I’m going to go down to the kitchen and get the truth out of whoever cooked my food last night.”
“Josef,” Eli said cautiously, taking off his wig so he could look at the swordsman without hair getting in his eyes. “I know you don’t generally listen to these, but the first rule of thievery is never jump without knowing where you’re going to land. You’re making a lot of assumptions here. We’re not even sure you were poisoned.”
“Of course I’m sure,” Josef said. “I can tell when I’ve been poisoned.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Eli said. “But try to consider this objectively. So far, all we have is that you slept until noon without waking and missed some people entering and leaving your room. Now, I can’t remember you ever sleeping late, but it’s not exactly enough proof to justify going down to the kitchens and scaring the daylights out of the servants. Especially considering the rumors going around.”
Josef glowered. “What rumors?”
“That you’re a killer, a bounty hunter gone bad, and a thief,” Eli said with a shrug. “Of course, since all of that is true, they’re less rumors and more facts-in-a-bad-light.”
“How did they get to you?” Josef said.
“You hear things when you spend all night bribing servants to fill your room with junk,” Eli said, flashing him a grin. “Seriously, though, is it really so unexpected that people think poorly of you? You haven’t exactly been the storybook icon of the long-lost prince.”
“Good thing I gave up being a prince, then.”
“But you are,” Eli said, rubbing his temples. “So long as you insist on staying here and playing along, you are a prince, like it or not, and people are going to judge you as one.”
“Then they’ll just have to get over it,” Josef said, crossing his arms. “I’m here only to help my mother.”
“Well,” Eli said, crossing his arms as well. “You’re not helping her by acting like a thug. You can’t have it both ways, Josef. I’m not asking you to embroil yourself in politics. I’m not even saying we shouldn’t investigate what happened last night, but if we’re going to stay here, you’re going to have to learn some tact.”