CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
RACE AND RUIN
The supposed thief’s name is Eduma. For the past two years, she’s been rotting in the prisons at the base of the mountain.
There are dungeons in Widow’s Hall for holding alleged criminals awaiting trial and prisons at the base of the mountain for those found guilty. Prisoners are expected to work, often in the mines alongside desperate Opherans willing to risk cave-ins and tunnel collapses for a meal.
I take the sky cart to the base of the mountain and slip a few coins to a guard. That’s all it takes to speak with a prisoner.
“Hello, Eduma,” I say as a guard deposits her into a chair and leaves us for the next fifteen minutes.
Eduma is taller than I expected, and very skinny.
Her dark hair is messily pulled back into a pouf, there’s a gap between her two front teeth, and there’s a golden sun tattooed on her inner wrist. She’s inexplicably bound to her seat.
There’s no reason for it. She doesn’t put up a fight, her arms look like they’d snap in half if she tried to throw a punch, and she’s shaking like a pine needle in the wind.
“W-who are you? The guards said you were family.”
I never told them we were related. They probably saw my tattoo and just assumed. “I’m a friend. I work closely with the Praeceptor. I have a few questions about your former employer, Honorate Sixmen.”
Eduma’s eyes round with terror. “I swear I didn’t steal anything.” She looks like she’s about to cry. “I know he said I did, but—”
I reach across the table to lay a hand over hers. “Eduma, I believe you.”
Eduma’s shaking subsides, but she still looks wary. “You . . . you do?”
“Yes. I wanted to ask you about something else. Do you know that around the time you were arrested, your employer’s wife, Neveah, went missing?”
Tears well in her eyes. “I don’t know anything about that. Please, I told all of this to Mister Sixmen and the decurio already. I was telling the truth the first time. Please, can I go home now?”
Heat swells with the force of her lie. My heart shatters for her.
It’s rare that I wish to be wrong, but I do now.
Eduma looks to be in her thirties. Too young to no longer have the rest of her life ahead of her.
I make a vow to get her out of this. She won’t rot in prison for something she didn’t do.
“Help answer my questions truthfully, and I’ll talk to the Praeceptor about pardoning you. ”
Eduma stares at me in shock. “Truly?”
“I swear. Now, can you tell me the last time you saw Neveah?”
Eduma swallows. “I didn’t see her. I heard her and Honorate Sixmen.”
“When was this?”
“Around this time two years ago.” Eduma ducks her head. “She went missing later that same day.”
“Where were you when you heard them?” I ask.
“The kitchen. I wasn’t supposed to be there. No one was. But I’d forgotten something, so I ran in to grab it. I heard Honorate Sixmen . . . exchanging words with his wife.”
The pause before “exchanging words” doesn’t go unnoticed. “They were arguing?” I press.
Eduma swallows before answering. “Yes.”
No wonder Sixmen got rid of her. He was arguing with his wife the day she mysteriously disappeared.
“Did you hear what they were saying?”
“No,” Eduma says quickly.
A rush of heat accompanies her words. I tense. I don’t want to push this frail woman too hard, but I see no other choice. “Eduma.” I soften my voice further. “I can’t help you if you don’t help me. That’s not true, is it?”
“I—” Eduma’s eyes dart around nervously, looking anywhere but at me. “I’m sorry. Mister Sixmen came to see me last year. I thought I was finally getting out of here.” Tears well in her eyes. “But nothing happened. I don’t want Mister Sixmen to know I said anything and keep me here longer.”
“I promise you, you won’t get in trouble. I won’t repeat anything you tell me to Mister Sixmen. I just need to know the truth so I can get you out of here. Now, what did you hear the day Neveah went missing?”
She shifts in her seat, and her eyes flutter shut for just a moment. When she opens them, she seems to have decided to trust me.
“Honorate Sixmen was mad at his wife about something. She told him it was a mistake she made over twenty years ago, and he needed to get over it. He started yelling at her.”
Twenty years ago . . .
I’ve made a life of collecting secrets. Years of operating as the Shadow Queen have made me well versed at reading between the lines of what people do say to hear what they won’t say.
Someone mentions a “mistake” in a marriage, they’re almost always referring to an affair.
What really snatches my attention isn’t the inkling that Neveah had affairs of her own—it’s the time frame. Twenty years . . . Neveah’s only son, Flynn, is just over twenty years old.
Stars in hell . . .
What if Neveah was hiding more than just an affair? What if she was hiding that Flynn isn’t Selva’s son? The news would be catastrophic. It would mean Selva Sixmen has no children. No sons. No heir to inherit his position in the Honorate. It would be an end to the Sixmen legacy.
Right now, it’s just a theory. But if it’s true, it’s a secret Selva would’ve killed to keep buried.
“What happened after that?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” Eduma says. “I wasn’t supposed to be there, I didn’t think they would like me listening, and .
. . well, Honorate Sixmen was yelling so loud, he was scaring me.
So, I left. When Mrs. Sixmen went missing later, I didn’t know what to think.
At first, I thought she took a break to clear her head.
But when she didn’t come back, I thought .
. .” Her sentence trails. “Well, I’m not sure what I thought. ”
It’s a lie. “Why do you think Honorate Sixmen accused you of being a thief?”
Eduma shudders. “I was foolish. He found out I overheard his argument. The next thing I knew, I was in prison.” She’s sobbing now. “But I’m not a thief. I swear I’m not.”
“I know you’re not. You didn’t do anything wrong, Eduma. I’m going to make sure you get out of here. I just need you to answer one more question for me: Do you think Honorate Sixmen killed his wife?”
She shakes her head frantically. “No. No, of course not.”
Another lie. Eduma very much believes her former employer is capable of murder. After hearing how he tossed an innocent woman in prison without a second thought, so do I. Selva Sixmen is a monster. And a murderer.