Serendipity: Jovana And The Duke

THE PRESENT.

Jovana looked at Keith and yelled, "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"Keep your voice down, Jovana. The lab is safe, but you can never be too safe in our line of work,"

"Alright, I will keep the volume down, but could you answer my question, please?" Jovana said, and Keith showed a very satisfied smile.

"Today I outsmarted Caspian Clifford himself and his devious plan." Keith said, and Jovana groaned, as she abandoned her head between her hands.

"What?" Keith asked.

"I promise you, Keith! If I have to hear another riddle or partial truth without a clear picture of what's happening. My poor head would explode, and you will have to walk out of here with your face covered in your brain." Jovana grumbled.

"I see that someone is a little dramatic today." Keith said, eyeing Jovana with a teasing look.

"Maybe, but that someone was also a very good girl despite all the tension she has had to carry today." Jovana said with a shrug of her arm.

"I see, so you will strip a poor old man of his charm in favor of a plain, boring story?" Keith said, and when Jovana glared at him, he raised up his two hands in mock surrender. "Alright, I will tell you. But to give you a proper explanation, we need to back up a little and start right at the beginning. One thing you must know is that the King doesn't like the popularity of Serendipity. And he's annoyed by the fact that the chemist hasn't been found yet… So he called for some action."

Jovana snickered, and muttered under her breath, "If he can't have something, he wants to harm it. So typical."

"Yes. One of my shadows rushed to me today with the news of a potentially fatal incident to discredit the vials. So, I was expecting an act like that," Keith explained.

"But, was she a real guest? Or was she an actress?" Jovana asked, curious.

"To be honest, I have no idea. I don't even know if she was supposed to make it or not. I just knew that I couldn't let the King set us up for a crime we didn't commit." Keith said, and Jovana nodded in understanding.

"So, you knew the whole time what was going on?" Jovana asked.

"Of course, at least the important part," Keith answered, and Jovana's brows pulled together.

"But, why wasn't I part of the plan?" she asked.

"Because there was no plan. I knew they had something in store for us, but I had no real details. So we had to get prepared for anything and make up our moves on the fly. It was impossible to keep you up to speed without giving away your involvement and delaying the whole operation to failure." Keith answered, while Jovana nodded her head at him.

"You are right,"

"In that way, we were able to plant the smelling salt in the girl's purse and have it dropped at the right moment, saving the day. Without my intervention, Serendipity wouldn't have been around for much longer, I can guarantee you that." Keith said, and Jovana could sense the pride in his voice and smile.

Jovana sighed, and rubbed her temples as she said, "Thank you, Keith. But I'm really exhausted. I just want to bury myself in my bed."

"Sure, I will leave you alone now." Keith said, as he stood up and walked through the passage door while Jovana watched his retreating figure with a thoughtful look on her face as she mused, 'He has all the right to be happy with the success of the operation, but Falcon's strange questions about secrets, Caspian watching, their conversation. I think Keith, for once, is making things seem easier than they actually are.'

******

The next morning, Jovana lay in her bed, reading the daily newspaper. And in front of the newspaper were sentences printed in capital bold letters. It read, "SALTS THAT DO NOT CALM, THEY KILL!"

"DEATH KNOCKS AT BIRTHDAY PARTY!"

"SERENDIPITY OR SALT?"

"VIALS MARKET STILL ON THE RISE DESPITE THE INCIDENT!" Jovana read them aloud, and dropped the newspaper as she sighed with relief and thought, 'Well, at least the market is still moving. Keith did well.'

Jovana lay back on the bed and closed her eyes, but her mind started working, playing back all the key events of the day before. 'I know that it wasn't serendipity that caused that accident, and most definitely it wasn't salt, so what was it? Her heart was slowing down to a halt, but in such a progressive and controlled way. I never saw a poison working like that.' Jovana mused, and then Falcon popped into her mind, and she thought, 'But I bet Falcon did. In fact, he immediately recognized the substance and knew how to counter it. They keep some pretty scary stuff in the secret labs of the Academy. And then there is Caspian, so calm and aloof for the whole time. I know he's not the kind of man that wouldn't help a dying woman, so he was sure to be in control of the situation. But I wonder what his goals were.' Jovana immersed herself in the image of those stormy eyes, capable of cutting through every mask, through every lie, and then thought to herself, 'He was trying to damage the image of serendipity, for sure. But maybe he was hoping to get a hint about the creator of Serendipity. Keith countered the first part very effectively, but what about the—" Her thoughts trailed off when she thought of how she had worked side by side with Falcon to help the girl.

'Oh my God! Did I give myself away too much? I might have less time than I thought. If Caspian suspected something, there could be a convoy on its way to pick me up for questioning.' Jovana panicked in her mind, as she reached out for the glass of water on her nightstand and drank the whole thing, shaking her head.

She rolled out of bed and prepared herself for the day, and went downstairs to have breakfast with her brother. Jovana glanced at Elijah, and saw that he looked weaker, and he was hardly eating. He moved the food about on the plate, barely keeping the fork between his fingers.

A deep sense of despair squeezed Jovana's heart. It was a struggle to keep a hard face every time she saw her brother and she tightened her fists together as she thought determinedly. 'I need to stay strong and keep fighting for Eli no matter what! Falcon gave me a very good insight into the Academy. I narrowed the field and made more variations. I'm sure the right vial is already around, all I have to do is wait.' She glanced at her brother again, and with a great effort Jovana smiled at him while Elijah smiled back at her.

Elijah suddenly cleared his throat, and said, "There will be a special musical event today at the Palace Symphony Hall. You know, high-class entertainment for the nobility. I thought that it would be a good addition to the debutante's events, so I bought the tickets."

Jovana sighed inwardly, but showed a toothy grin to her brother as she said, "Oh, Eli, you are my angel. It didn't even occur to me to buy the tickets."

"Oh, it's nothing. How good of a big brother would I be if I didn't think about my sister's future?" Elijah said, while Jovana looked at him with sadness in her eyes as she thought, 'He sounds so resigned. I really hope he will keep fighting. We are so close.'