Twenty minutes later, when Lord Phillip was talking to Prince Ilya about Merovian poetry, and Rana was yawning at his side, Luka felt the alarm go off.
“Come on,” he hissed at Maya. “I’ll go first, you follow me in a bit. We need to check the lab.”
He hurried to Maya’s lab as fast as he was able, limping a little from the long hours he’d spent in the prosthetic. He muttered a quick spell under his breath, and the tap-tap sound of his cane on the floors subsided.
Maya caught up with him in the shadows outside the lab, where they both drew into an alcove across from the entrance and waited to see something.
After a moment, when their eyesight had adjusted, Luka saw who it was that was standing before Maya’s lab.
“Luka—” Maya’s whisper was a quiet shout. “It’sVennela!”
“Your maid?”
Maya nodded; her eyes pained. Her grip on his arm tightened when she saw Vennela fiddling with the lock on the door. As Vennela slipped inside the lab, Maya turned to Luka, and jerked her head.
Luka nodded, squeezing her hand in his own. He knew that they had to act quickly before Vennela could get her hands on Maya’s invention—or its plans. They slipped inside the room behind Vennela, who had her back to them.
Luka watched as Maya’s maid bent under the workbench, going unerringly toward the object of her desire. She picked up the safe that lay under the workbench and set it on the counter, turning the dial with practiced fingers.
Finally, the safe door opened with a click, and she opened the door, extracting a gleaming metallic object. She picked it up and examined it closely. Luka knew it wasn’t the real device, which was safe in Maya’s pocket. But the decoy device looked similar enough to the original that it managed to fool Vennela. The maid flipped the box open, looking at the small, intricate device that seemed to be made up of gears, wires, and crystals.
As soon as she had flipped the box closed again, Maya stepped out of the shadows, Luka at her side. The maid looked up at them, and her eyes went wide, but she didn’t scream. Instead, she rummaged in her pocket, taking out a small glass bottle that she threw at their feet.
Luckily, despite his long absence from the field, Luka’s reflexes were as strong as ever. He flicked out his walking cane, catching the bottle with the tip and flinging it away, where it smashed harmlessly against the wall, releasing a puff of pink smoke.
Luka frowned. He knew that pink potion—it was a sleeping draught. Maya’s maid had hoped to steal the device and if she was caught, she’d come prepared to incapacitate her employer.
Maya looked stricken at this betrayal, her eyes wide and wounded.
“What have you done, Vennela?” Maya asked, her voice cold and stern. “How could you betray me like this?”
“I had no choice,” Vennela said fiercely, even as tears streamed down her face. “I refuse to feel bad for trying to help my family.” She shook her head, pinning Maya with a furious look. “No one else was going to help them, after all.”
“Your family?” Maya said, surprise in her eyes. “I didn’t know you had—”
“You neverasked, did you?” Vennela blazed at Maya; her fists clenched in anger. “As long as your food is on your table and your baths are drawn and your bed is made, who cares about the person that makes it happen?”
“That’s not true, I care about you and Boris—”
“Do you even know which province in Sunvaara I’m from, my lady?” Vennela asked, her voice hard. “Do you know how many siblings I have? Do you even know if my parents are still alive?”
“Your hurt feelings are no excuse for betraying your employer,” Luka snarled, cutting in. He looked at the maid with narrowed eyes. “Were you always a spy? A plant from the Sunvaaran empire?”
The maid laughed; her voice ugly. “Oh, the Empire cares about me just as much as you do.” She shook her head wearily, as if all the fight had gone out of her. “If my brother hadn’t gotten himself caught by the Imperial guards, I wouldn’t even be in this mess.” She looked at Maya, tears sparkling in her eyes again. “He’s only seventeen. He was just a child when I left to marry my Sergei. How can I abandon him again when he needs me now?”
Luka frowned. From what the maid was telling them, she was just a pawn in someone else’s game. “So, you’re saying your brother was caught by the imperial guards of Sunvaara?”
Vennela nodded. “I received a letter last month. My brother had been caught trying to cross the border into Drakazov. To look forme.” She shook her head. “Our mother had died the week before he made the crossing, and my brother thought to look for the only family he had left. By the time I received his letter, it was too late to go through the legal channels. Too late to stop him. When the border patrol found out I worked for the Rakhmonovs, they made him write to me. When I wrote back, I was given an ultimatum: I could betray Lady von Rakhmonov and work for the Sunvaarans—or I could let my brother die.” Vennela shrugged. “I chose the former. And I will take any punishment for it, as long as my brother is safe. I couldn’t protect him when I eloped with Sergei. I have to protect him now.”
“That is no excuse,” Maya said sadly, her eyes dull with heartbreak. “You have violated my trust and my property. You could have come to me, Vennela, and I would’ve found a way to help you. Instead, you chose to betray me.”
The maid bowed her head, and Luka stepped forward in a bid to get things back on track. “Do you know who hired you? Would you be able to testify to it?”
Vennela shook her head, and Luka’s heart dropped. “I received my instructions via a letter. I never met anyone.” She frowned. “But I was supposed to hand over the device at midnight tonight.”
“That means the real spy ishere, tonight!” Maya said, her eyes shining as she looked at Luka.
So, it was Prince Ilya, or Rana Singh, the Crown Prince’s right hand man. Luka remembered the prince’s interest in Maya, how he’d spoken about her crossbows and admired her skill. Was he the spy?
