It was only after Miss Pawo said this that Shade remembered why the Truth Society had initially been linked to Margaret: the Truth Society had wanted to obtain some item in the Princess's possession. But after coming to Tobesk, because of the appearance of the Fourth Chosen One and the increasingly tight protection around the Princess, the people of the Truth Society had not appeared near her again after the night banquet at Lake View Manor.
Now that Princess Margaret and her party were about to leave Tobesk, Miss Pawo had appeared once more.
"Lady, what do you wish to discuss with me? There is no need to avoid Mr. Hamilton."
Margaret asked in a somewhat stern tone. Miss Pawo smiled.
"We pursued you from Huntington to Tobesk for something quite ordinary. Your Highness, some of our friends—friends fond of blood—gave us a page from a script once used by a circus puppeteer. From that script, we learned that you possess a very unusual book."
"A book? What book?"
Princess Margaret frowned slightly.
"A book borrowed from your Academy Library."
Miss Pawo said, and only then did Princess Margaret understand.
"'Elixir of Immortality'? But I lost that book."
She explained.
"I lost it on the night of the wedding banquet at Lake View Manor. I wasn't carrying it with me; I put it in my luggage at Canary Manor. When I returned from Lake View Manor, the book was gone. I even paid the Academy Library a large sum of gold in compensation for it."
Miss Sylvia had actually taken it away, and the Witch Council had reimbursed the Princess's compensation payment. The book was now in Miss Galina's hands. Shade had often seen the Duchess holding that book and reading it lately; even on the journey to Huntington, Miss