Page 70 of The Princess of Portals

“There is no all-powerful spellbook,” Vela said.

Portia snapped her fingers and the familiar spellbook appeared in her hands.

I leaned toward Conner and whispered, “I thought you said you hid it.”

He looked baffled. “I did.”

Portia must have overheard us because she turned to us. “I know how to conjure it from anywhere. But moving on⁠—”

“Wait, how do we know that book—” Vela pointed at the book in Portia’s hands. “—is the Paragons’ spellbook?”

Fenris laughed. “I fail to see how any of this is relevant.”

Portia gave him a chilling look, and the smile on his lips died. “Oh, it’s very relevant, I assure you.” A table appeared in front of her. She set the spellbook on the table. “The book is genuine. Take a look if you don’t believe me.”

A few members of the Court took her up on her offer. They went to the table.

One of them opened the book. He frowned. “Why, there’s no text at all!”

“Just because you can’t see the text, that doesn’t mean it’s not there,” Portia said serenely.

“It’s enchanted.” The famed Alchemist Lord Daykan held the book now. He brushed his hand across one of its pages. “The book’s enchanted so only some people can read it. If only I had more time, I could figure out which people.”

Portia snapped her fingers again. The book disappeared for a moment, and then it was back in her hand. “Very few people can read it. I can. And so can she.” She pointed at me. “Remember that because it’s very important.”

Several members of the Court gawked at me. Even Vela looked taken aback by the knowledge that I was one of very few people in the Many Realms who could read the spellbook.

“So where were we?” Portia smiled. “Oh, yes, Prince Fenris’s hired help. He ordered one of them to make sure this book found its way into Savannah’s possession. And this mercenary is going to testify to that.”

Portia snapped her fingers, and a man tied to a chair appeared beside her. I knew that man. It was Zenik, the mercenary who’d delivered me to Fenris’s castle. He didn’t look so smug now. He looked scared. What had Portia done to him?

She looked at the mercenary. “Tell them.”

Zenik swallowed hard, then he began to speak. “Fenris is a member of an organization called the Order of Kings.”

Gasps of recognition rose from the Court. I guess some of them had heard of the organization that wanted to take them down and rebuild a new order out of the rubble of their toppled civilization.

“The Order of Kings hired me to kidnap the Apprentices shortly after the Blending, last year and this year too. I brought them to Fenris in exchange for a lot of money.”

Zenik fell silent, but another sharp look from Portia got him going again.

“Fenris also hired me to sell the spellbook to the street vendor named Mistress Meeta in the Emporium. He wanted Savannah Winters to have the spellbook.”

“Why Savannah Winters?” Vela asked.

I’d heard this story from Zenik before, but even so, I waited for his answer with bated breath, just like everyone else.

“Because Fenris had received intel that Savannah Winters could read it.”

“Intel? From whom?” Vela asked him.

Zenik shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Vela looked at Fenris. “Care to enlighten us?”

The vampire prince gave her a smooth smile. “Oh, I am as much in the dark as you, First Inquisitor. But this thrilling fabrication certainly has me on the edge of my seat. Portia, I knew you were a master illusionist, but I didn’t realize you could change the fabric of reality to suit your narrative.”

Several Court members laughed in appreciation of Fenris’s joke.