“You… Sophie nearly lost her composure when Eliza spoke
She bit back her imitation and said, “But you’re not officially part of the Black Flag, Your Grace, Isn’t it inappropriate for you to take charge of this search?
Sophie managed a strained smile and added, “After all, everyone knows about the bad blood between us, so what if you…” Sophie left the sentence hanging, but the message was obvious to anyone listerring.
It was clear to everyone that Sophie wanted to say, “What if Eliza plants something inside to frame me?”
Eliza turned toward Sophie, her expression calm, her features lit by a faint smile. “I’m not as despicable and shameless as
you.
Sophie’s face darkened in humiliation, but before she could speak, Eliza continued, “Still, you raise a valid point. Since you! re so worried, I shall search from the doorway.”
From the doorway? How would that even work? Sophie thought.
As confusion swept through the crowd, Eliza turned her hand, revealing a small vial.
Renee stepped forward, took the vial from Eliza, then crouched down and tipped it onto the ground. In an instant, dozens of thumb–sized white spiders crawled out of the bottle. There must have been 20 or 30 of them.
As the spiders scattered into Sophie’s room, everyone immediately understood what Eliza had meant. Gabriel’s face darkened further, his expression grim.
The moment Gabriel saw those spiders, everything clicked. The one who had ruined the foreigners‘ plan–it had been Eliza. Eliza was the one who had placed the parasites on Sophie, an act that caused them to be arrested by the Ministry of Justice and locked away in prison.
If only I had known then, I’d have exposed all of Eliza’s tricks without hesitation, Gabriel thought.
But now, all he could do was hope those foreigners had left no evidence behind.
Tother credit, the foreigners‘ cover–up had been nearly flawless.
Eliza’s spiders combed the room for nearly half an hour before they finally uncovered something.
“Well, it looks like this search was not entirely in vain, Eliza said softly. She turned to Sophie, a ghost of a smile playing at her lips
Sophie, whose heart had been lodged in her throat the entire time, panicked when she saw the spiders dragging out several writhing parasites bound in their webs.
She thought, “No! How could this happen? Those parasites had been hidden extremely well–how could they have been discovered so easily?
What’s more, Lucas had said that those parasites were exceptionally powerful. How could those seemingly harmless spiders capture them?
Sophie was utterly baffled
This particular spider was even smaller no more than a fifth the size of a fingernail–and blended so seamlessly into the shadows that the foreigner failed to notice it entirely
Eliza smiled at Sophie Lady Sophie, the evidence speaks for itself. The suspicion of your collusion with the foreign tribe is too great to ignore Take her away
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The Lady Nun Seeks Justice (Eliza Stonor)