The Spymaster

“Look at the bright side,” the Physician said. “Tutu will finally eat meat.”

“Not funny.”

Milica hugged her legs. She had recounted to him what happened before the detainment. The Physician just listened attentively. He thought Milica needed a cheer.

“I apologize for being insensitive.” He pulled tools and vials from his torn robe and patched Milica’s wounds. “How are you holding up?”

He had not said Amalfini especially, but Milica had seen him looking away. The courtesy treated her better than the salve.

“He was not like what I had expected,” she grumbled. “That’s what makes it worse. It’s easier to deal with psychopaths like Friuli. It seemed like we were grave robbers trying to dig up his daughter’s bones.”

The Physician went very still. Milica narrowed her eyes.

“Amalfini suspected me of not being a vampire,” Milica said with a somber tone.

He tried to speak as casually as possible. “And you believe him?”

“No,” Milica said without hesitation. “Do you believe him?”

“Vampire blood runs inside you.” He patted her head. “Is it not enough?”

“Mm.” Milica smiled—then flinched. She kicked him. “Ouch! Watch it! He burned me there!”

“Rather hard to assess your wound correctly, what with the darkness and all.”

The oppressive force returned from the cell. Sunlight failed to penetrate the room; he could only inspect Milica from the torchlight outside. A single iron door, barred, emanated the coldness of isolation.

“It is fine.” Milica waved her hand. She glanced at the door. “We can use their complacency to break—”

“No.” Her brother’s tone was final. “Using hematopoetry so much will run you out of blood. They know we cannot break free without expending your power. You will die.”

They glared at each other, and the Physician won. Milica sighed.

“So, that’s it then. We become bird food.”

The Physician smiled weakly. “Well, I have you to thank for our contingency plan. Thanks for protecting him, Milica. Splendid work.”

Even in the dark, he could tell Milica was blinking. “Oh, yeah. Well, it was the best choice at the moment. We failed to find the Misericordia, though.”

Milica recounted their encounter with floating black robes.

“But they are Misericordia,” the Physician said, obtusely. “They are fairies—they can float. Their doctrine of anonymity obliges them to wear black—ouch! I haven’t told you, huh?”

“YOU HAVE NOT!” Milica grumbled, kicking him in the shin once more. “We could have saved so much time by directly meeting them! And now we got stuck here. I want to take a bath…”

The Physician considered. By his estimation, not even one quarter of a day had passed since their capture. Even then, they were locked in the same cell and never stripped of their belongings. The Physician still had his medicinal tools and, most importantly, Crivello’s guide. They even released Milica’s chain, only trusting she’d run out of blood if she resisted. Reopening the Royal Treasury must be pressing for them.

“Do you have something, Milica?” He prompted. “Hairclip, or maybe skeleton keys?”

“You are kidding.” Milica rolled her eyes. On the floor, the Physician could only see a quill, ink, folded papers, and skin care products. She picked a jar. “This one’s from Savina. She returned it before.”

“Mm.”

“Cut her some slack, will you?” Milica exhaled. She shook the jar absent-mindedly. “If only you were awake and saw her debate with Friuli, you’d feel sorry for her.”

“Sorry,” the Physician said, and as he saw Milica smile, he pointed at the jar. “I don’t think conifer extract sounds like that.”

Milica shook the jar once more. Something metallic clanged inside the jar. She rummaged inside and pulled… a key.

“I was kidding before,” her brother clarified. “How long has it been there?”

Milica looked at him crossly. “Savina gave it to me—to us, duh.”

The Physician raised his eyebrows. He had seen Delorefice’s defeat against Friuli. It was heartbreaking, but the Physician still had his own reservation for the night of his banishment, too. The closest thing he could give Delorefice right now was letting Milica defend her.

A distraction, on the other hand, was something else.

“Before we open the door,” the Physician said, peering at the key for any traps, “I must confirm something. Do you really wish to continue this journey, Milica?”

Perhaps it was the dark, but he found it easier to ask her that now. For more than one year, she had followed him through many perilous journeys. During the first month, he had the perfect excuse to bring Milica along, away from the Kingdom’s eyes. Yet there were many villages they had come across before, tens of chances for Milica to settle as someone else, safe from the burden of healing a kingdom that banished her.

“Delorefice was one thing, but I was the one who brought you here. Nico copied your powers. You met Amalfini and got hurt for that.” The Physician bit his lip. The thought of Milica's death fueled him with nightmares—one that confirmed Friuli’s verdict on him. “Friuli may be a scoundrel, but he refrains from killing if he can still find any use for you. You could plead for mercy. There is no reason for you to come along to this suicidal venture.”

Milica went very still. Then she slapped the Physician’s back.

“Would it make you feel better if I said, ‘Oh, definitely, I’d want to stay with psychopaths who massacred my clan and erased my brother’s name’?” Milica crossed her arms. “That’s what you’d most likely say, Fratello. You are more than one year late to ask me that.”

“I apologize—”

“Not what I meant.” Milica poked the Physician’s chest. “What I meant was, it was stupid to ask me that from the very beginning. I am your family. You owe me nothing by saving my life. And if you want to voice a protest in my name against yourself, you do it with your own name.”

Happiness got stuck in his throat, so he swallowed it. That left him without anything to reply, so he just nodded.

“Good.” Milica snickered. “Let’s find the fairies and ask them whether they donate free baths, too.”

They readied themselves. Milica inserted the key, and they broke out.

Only to be greeted with a second Milica.

“BOO!”

Milica screamed in terror. She retreated behind her brother. The second Milica stepped in with theatrical gracefulness, her smile sinister beneath the torchlight.

“Nico,” the Physician hissed. “Turn to another form.”

“Who died and made you king?” Malinconico cackled, but he did transform into his favorite form: the youth with shoulder-length golden hair. “I am feeling generous after being freed from that ceremony. How are you holding up, Dear Milica?”

Milica tensed. Clearly, she remembered last time. “I am not… fine. It hurts in many places.”

“You are a great learner, perhaps! I am this close to being proud of you! Amalfini gave you the same regard.” The youth smiled. “He also sent you ouch, ouch, ouch. Maybe you had done a terrific job hurting him. Even though you are not a vampire.”

“Vampire blood runs inside Milica,” the Physician said, clenching his fist. “Step away, Nico.”

“You are so mean, Frienemy! And the answer is yes! You can definitely get away.”

“Liar.” The Physician breathed slowly. Malinconico was taunting him. “Friuli sent you to obtain information. Or my power. Or both.”

Malinconico’s shadow flickered as he laughed. The silhouette helped to cover foliage sprouting from the wall.

“Maybe!” Malinconico grinned in delight. “Dear Savina is more crafty than she lets on, perhaps! She had not devised another contingency, one that maybe involves trusting you. Aha, your face may or may not change, Frienemy. Still feeling the sting of being betrayed by Dear Savina? Because I do!”

“Of course being betrayed hurts. What do you think?”

Malinconico’s eyes twitched. “Replying to a question with a question! But that’s my trick, Frienemy! With me being your jailer, sooner or later, you’ll break and finally concede.”

“No,” the Physician said firmly. “I ask you to let us go. Do two truths and one lie, Nico.”

Milica gripped his robe. His sister shook her head, eyes filling with fear. That only fueled the Physician’s anger; his gaze at Nico hardened.

“Oh, now I am scared.” Malinconico then returned to being Milica. “But sadly, even before we began it, you have lied, Frienemy! You said Milica was a vampire, knowing it was a lie. Now—”

The Physician could tell that Nico was trying to check if he had copied his power. Nico was confused.

“I never lie to you. Vampire blood runs inside Milica,” the Physician reiterated the exact sentence. “You only gleaned from Milica’s memory. Never analyzed.”

Nico looked at the Physician with a mix of frustration and amusement. He turned back to the golden-haired youth, his head thrown back. “Genius! So the reason you are siblings… Oh, even if this is not an official game, it feels like you just beat me again, Frienemy! You have Milica to thank, I surmise!”

“Always.” The Physician gripped Milica’s shoulder to reassure her. “My demand, Nico.”

“Sure, sure. Two truths and one lie—”

“—from one and a half years ago. I demand to continue where we left off,” the Physician interrupted. “It ended in a stalemate, with me asking the last question.”

Malinconico genuinely looked puzzled. It was satisfying—until Nico turned into another girl.

“No,” Milica said with gritted teeth.

The girl looked like she had just passed her teenage years. Her long cream-colored hair glowed orange under the fire. She wore a Convent lay student’s dress, a white-and-red silk robe. Her almond-shaped red eyes looked at them fondly.

“Thanks to your memories, Milica,” Malinconico said, almost humming.

“Dela.” Milica sobbed. “No, no. Return being me, Malinconico. Not her.”

The Physician stepped up. His eyes stung, but he willed it to be because of anger.

“Your appearance matters,” he could not lie. “But what matters is my question.”

“Not very nostalgic, are you, Frienemy?” Malinconico laughed with venomous sweetness. “I believe I owe you a turn. Well—”

“I gave up,” the Physician interrupted, surprising Nico.

If he stumbled his words, their chance of escaping would become nil. He could feel the ground below softening.

“I gave up my last question to you, the one that you can’t answer.” Despite his fickleness, Nico had a big ego. Nico would take the bait. “I forbid myself from asking the same question to you, and that’d include explaining what my question that defeated you was to anybody. Any mention or even the mere hint of that question would cause my defeat, and my power is yours.”

If that obscure knowledge he obtained from reading that particular book about that Doppelganger clan turned out to be a lie, it was over for Milica and him.

Nico only stared at him. Then Nico turned back to the golden-haired youth.

“Are you sure, Frienemy?”

“Yes.” His breathing steadied. “That stipulation is within your rule.”

“Without you having that last question, no one will stop me. Even Friuli fears my power. He kept you alive this far to counter me. Now that the kingdom relies on a ballot, he’d have a thousand ways to deal with me.” Malinconico smiled once more. “A mistake that Dear Savina had committed.”

“No need to taunt me if you could not fulfill your side of the bargain,” the Physician replied coldly.

Nico snorted, then his laugh reverberated once more. He raised his hand in acceptance.

“Then the deal is set!”

Something trembled in the air; the Physician felt that even thinking about the question weighed on him. It worked.

“Getting too happy, aren’t you, Frienemy?” Nico’s gaze was predatory. “That did not change the fact that you are still trapped with me here, and you have given up your countermeasure. Who’d defeat me now, if not you?”

The Physician returned Nico’s smile. “My successor.”

Roots emerged from the cell’s walls. A hole the size of a human appeared below, following a green entity that whipped the roots to bind Malinconico.

“Took you long enough, Leafhead,” Milica said.

“Could be quicker,” Fritz complained, “if my mentor did not prohibit me from using my power!”

“Go,” the Physician ordered. “Thank you, Fritz.”

Fritz wrapped his roots around Milica and dragged the vampiress. Milica’s scream echoed from underground. Malinconico widened his eyes.

“So that was your successor, Frienemy! I’d love to know him!”

“Nico,” the Physician interrupted, so as not to give Nico the chance to ask any more questions. “I will be going. Close your eyes.”

Nico made a disgusting attempt to look bashful. “Oh, so bold! A parting kiss! I am not ready for this! Should I change to Adelasia? Perhaps discovering your forbidden fetish by turning into—”

The sentence was never finished. The Physician punched Nico’s face so hard that the binding roots tore a bit.

“That was for harassing my sister, you nincompoop!”

Malinconico’s crazed laughter echoed inside the hole as the Physician jumped into the darkness below.