She looked up into his eyes. “But please, Merritt, I’m trying to find answers to what is really going on. I believe that the Keep, all of our lives, are in grave danger. I need to find out what is really going on before it’s too late. Would you please not take offense at my asking these questions and simply tell me the truth?”

“And how will I prove to you that I’m telling you the truth?”

She smiled a bit. “As it so happens, the truth has always mattered a great deal to me. Baraccus often said that I was the bane of liars. I’d like to think that I’m a person who can recognize the truth when it’s told to me, or detect a lie, and often I can, but I guess that in the end I have no real way of knowing truth from lies.

“I’d still like to hear your side of it.”

Chapter 48

Merritt nodded as he pulled a footstool closer and sat facing her on the wicker couch.

“There are people who want things,” he said, “but they aren’t willing to listen to the truth about the things they want.”

“That’s true enough in a general sense, but what does it have to do with people saying that men died because of you?”

“If you want to know the truth, then it takes some explaining so that you can understand. Bear with me?”

Magda conceded with a nod for him to go on.

“There are those at the Keep who want a specific kind of magic invested in an object. They want me to do it.”

Magda glanced around the room at all the strange objects lying about everywhere. There were things of every size and shape. Some were recognizable, some weren’t. Some of the objects looked innocent enough, while others looked like they would snap shut and take off a finger if she were to touch them.

“What kind of object?”

He rubbed his palms on his knees as he searched for words. “Well, it’s a kind of key to unlocking repositories of great power.”

“A key? These people want you to make a key?”

Merritt waved a hand as if to minimize the impression. “I use the word ‘key’ loosely. It’s only a key in the sense that it works to unlock the power. I’m trying to make it as simple as possible.”

“Sorry I’m so dense.”

His face turned red. “I didn’t mean it to sound that way. It came out wrong. It’s just that it can get awfully complicated to explain.”

“So help me understand so that I can know the truth.”