The Chocolatier's Wife (90 page)

“Well,”
Elyria
said,
“she was evil.
Perhaps perversely so.”

Tasmi
n
didn’
t
quit
e
lik
e
tha
t
idea
.
“O
r
perhap
s
th
e
perso
n
wh
o
kne
w
ho
w
t
o
contro
l
i
t
wa
s
kille
d
i
n
battle
?
Magi
c
item
s
ofte
n
ge
t
a
n
af
f
init
y
fo
r
things
,
fo
r
people
.
Perhap
s
th
e
deat
h
someho
w
shocke
d
it
?
I
remembe
r
ther
e
wa
s
a
wan
d
tha
t
n
o
on
e
coul
d
us
e
b
e
caus
e
i
t
mourne
d
th
e
wizar
d
wh
o
use
d
t
o
wield it.
”
Willia
m
wa
s
lookin
g
a
t
he
r
oddly
,
an
d
s
o
sh
e
asked
,
“What?
”

“You
speak
almost
as
if
these
things
become
alive.
Granted,
the
amulet of
which
we
speak
was
once
a
heart, but,
talk
like
that,
‘tis
like
saying
the ship’s
wheel
misses
me,
or the
quill
has
become
dull
and
lifeless
and
won’t write
well
any
more because
I
have
turned
to
another
that
I
favor more. Things
do not have
life.”
             

The
look
the
two
women
gave
him
was
such
that
he
was
tempted
to
feel around
to see if he’d sprouted a
new body part.

“Well. Maybe
it
does
miss
you.
Have
you
never
been
on
a
ship
that handled
poorly
at
first,
but
as
time
went
on
its
improvement
was
marked?” Tasmin
spoke quite re
a
sonably,
as if certain she could convince
him.

“That’s
because
you
learn
the
ship’s
ways,
not
because
it
decided
it
liked you,
dear.”

Tasmin
sniffed
and
waved
him
off.
“Anyway, it
is
possible
that
the pirates
found
it
and
made
off
with
it.
Where
was
it
when
your
mentor
heard of it?”

“I
don’t
know,”
Elyria
admitted.
“We
don’t
even
know
that
it
was,
in fact,
on
the
ship.
It
may
have
sunk
to
the
bottom
of
the
sea
when
your young man
took
the
Pandora
.”

“No,”
William said,
“it
was
on
my
ship.
There
was
a
storm
off
of
the vales,
near
the
Strait
of
Sorrows
.
There
was
no
way
we
should
have
survived it,
but
all
of
a
sudden,
the
veil
of
storm
parted
on
either
side
of
us,
and we
were
safe.
Later,
I
saw
the
Bishop,
looking
both
exulted
and
terrified.
I teased
him
about
it,
said
that
he
didn’t
have
to
be
scared
now,
‘twas
a
sunny day.
I
thought
the
amulet
Tasmin
sent
was
the
reason
for
our
survival,
but later when I
thanked her she did not seem to think
it was powerful enough for
that.”

“It
wasn’t,” she
said.
“Anyway,
would
Lavoussier
know
if
either
you
or the Bishop had it?”

“He
thinks
so,
because
he
marked
it
on
the
manifest.
You
see,
the
Bishop and
his
assistant
crossed
over
after
we
took
the
Pandora
.
We
thought,
or
at least
I
did,
that
he
was
coming
over
to
help
the
injured
and
say
a
few
words for
the dead, but he would have
had plenty of time to search the ship.”

“Well,
we
can
assume
William
doesn’t
have
it,
am
I
correct?
You’ve been
through
all
your
things
since
you
came
back
ashore?”
Elyria
looked worried,
and
if what she said about the stone was right,
they all should be.

“Positive.
Nothing
in
my
bags
I
couldn’t
identify.
Besides,
over
a
year later,
we
ran
through
a
storm
that
almost
killed
us
all.
That
bit
of
fortune, that
we
survived,
could
be
credited
to
your
work,
Tasmin.
In
any
case,
neither the Heart nor
the Bishop were on
the ship.”

“He
had
ample
time
and
excuse
to
search
the
Bishop’s
home
from
top
to bottom,
b
e
cause
of
the
murder,
but
would
someone
really
kill
a
man
just
so
he would have
a
legal excuse to spend ages searching ...
oh,
do stop staring at
me,
it
is
a
valid
question,
and
I
suppose
you
both
think
the
answer
a resounding yes.” Tasmin
frowned at them both.

William
snapped
his
fingers.
“And
that’s
why
he
framed
me,
because
he wanted
to
have
me
put
away
long
enough
for
him
to
search
every
crevice of
my
shop.”
He
grinned,
a
tad
embarrassed.
“I
guess
this
wasn’t
about Lavoussier’s
dislike for
me at all,
was it?”

Tasmin patted
his
leg.
“Of
course
it
is
about
you,
dear,
at
least
a
little, so
don’t
feel
too
badly
that
the
evil
mastermind’s
plot
wasn’t
set
up
to specifically make
your
life
misery.”
She
stood
up
in
a
rustle
of
cloth.
“We should go back
to the shop and
take another look.”