Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
SASHA
The stairs felt endless as we descended into darkness. Every instinct screamed that something was actively corrupting the gardens above us, draining life while guests arrived for the festival.
The roots know when poison feeds them, Savory said from where she rode on my shoulder. Listen to what grows beneath stone.
Again, I caught the faint smell of cardamon. Why?
I shook my head, not daring to speak up.
Then I heard the rustle of movement below.
My heart came to a shuddering halt. Dominic paused on the stairs, and our gazes met.
His hand found mine, his magic sparking against my palm.
The contact steadied my racing thoughts.
Someone down here was working their corruption, and we would finally catch them in the act.
“Go back?” he mouthed, nudging his chin toward the top.
He meant alone, while he faced off with whoever was down there.
I shook my head and waved for him to continue descending.
We reached the bottom and emerged into the main chamber. Magical lights floating overhead revealed exactly what I’d feared yet nothing I’d expected.
Lady Featherby stood at the workbench, surrounded by vials and dried herbs and steaming cauldrons.
Except the workbench had been moved, shifted outward to reveal a dark opening behind it that had been hidden by the personal belongings when we’d searched the chamber.
We should’ve suspected there could be another way in.
The lady wore the same festival gown, but she’d tucked the skirts into her belt and tied an apron over everything to keep her dress clean. Her silver hair had come loose from its elaborate arrangement, wisps clinging to her flushed face as she ground something in a mortar.
She looked up at our entrance and gasped, nearly dropping the pestle. “Your Majesties. What are you doing here? The festival has already started. You should be greeting guests, not visiting my workspace.”
Her workspace?
Dominic strode forward, his voice tight with anger. “Do you understand what you’ve been doing down here?”
“Of course I do.” She gestured around the chamber with obvious pride.
“I’ve been preparing remedies for the entire court.
Tonight especially, with all the excitement and stress.
Everyone will need tonics to help them relax and enjoy the celebration.
” She turned back to her mortar, grinding harder.
“Though I must admit that lately, the crystals aren’t working as well as they used to.
My preparations seem weaker than usual. Everyone’s been so tense lately.
I thought perhaps if I adjusted the ratios and made sure everyone took one of my tonics, I could ensure they enjoyed the festival. ”
“But…The Purists. The Severance Arts. The…Grand Severance,” I barked out.
Pure bewilderment filled the lady’s face. “Whatever are you talking about?” She came over and placed the back of her hand on my brow. “Do you have a fever? I pray to the fates you’re not sick on this momentous night. I’d hate for you to miss the entire festival.”
I jerked away from her.
My mind caught on her words while my plant magic recoiled from the dampening crystals glowing from the chamber floor.
She thought the crystals were supposed to help her work.
Which meant she had no idea they were causing the problem she was trying to fix.
The healer who cannot see her own wound, Savory said. Tread carefully. I suspect this is good intentions wrapped in blind determination.
“Lady Featherby.” I kept my voice level, though my chest felt tight. “These crystals aren’t enhancing your magic. They’re dampening it. They’re destroying all emotional magic in the court.”
She blinked at me, confusion crossing her face. “That can’t be right. I found this chamber over a year ago, and the crystals were already here, arranged so precisely. Of course they’re meant to amplify magical work. Why else would someone position them in this way and with such incredible care?”
“Because they’re Severance crystals,” Dominic said. “Used during the Border Wars to cut courts off from emotional magic.”
The pestle slipped from her fingers and clattered on the ground.
Color drained from her face, and she backed away from her workbench, lifting her hands into the air.
“No. That’s impossible. I’ve been using this space to help people.
I would never harm—” She pressed a hand to her mouth, her eyes going wide with horror.
“The plants. The wilting. That’s been happening since I started working down here.
I… By the fates, I never saw the connection.
” Tears sprang up in her eyes. “No. No, no, no.”
“You didn’t know?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.
“How could I?” Her voice came out thin and shaky, and she swiped at the tears trickling down her face.
“I thought I was finally making progress. Look.” She gestured to the charts covering the walls, the ones Dominic and I had assumed tracked sabotage.
“I’ve been monitoring everyone’s emotional states to determine which remedies work best for specific people.
Lord Turren responded well to the elderflower blend when he was anxious about his appearance.
Look at him now, taking joy in pretending to be a villain.
Lady Kenneth needs vellabar when she can’t sleep.
And Lady Edwina just swears by my headache relief.
I’ve been keeping such careful records of which herbs and potions work best.”
I moved closer to examine the charts, seeing them now with different eyes. Dates and times matched with emotional observations and remedy distributions. This wasn’t the tracking of a saboteur planning a Grand Severance, but the meticulous documentation of someone trying to help others.
“The more I worked down here,” Lady Featherby said, her words tumbling over each other, “the harder it became to make my remedies effective. I attributed it to my aging or… Horrors, I worried my magical skills were beginning to fail me. My natural healing magic felt muted, like I was trying to sing with a hand over my mouth. So I compensated by adding more ingredients, making more complex preparations, and spending more time in this chamber because surely if I just work harder, if I just tried more combinations…” Her mouth widened as it all sunk in.
“I never meant to hurt anyone. I was only trying to make things better.”
The genuine distress in her voice made my throat ache. This wasn’t the manipulation of a villain. This was someone who cared too much, who’d stumbled into something dangerous while trying to help, a person who’d been too focused on fixing everyone to notice she was causing harm.
The spider caught in her own web, Savory said. She wove with love but still built a trap.
“You arrived today through there, didn’t you?” Dominic asked, gesturing to the opening that must’ve been hidden behind the workbench.
“Yes, when I saw how worried all of you were in the foyer, I came here right away. The shelf in the back of the spice closet has a hidden latch. One click, and it creaks outward, revealing the passage that leads here.” The lady looked around the chamber as if seeing it for the first time. “Oh, fates. What have I done?”
I thought about how I’d spent years trying to protect my sisters, to fix their problems before they even realized they had them.
I’d positioned myself as their shield and their solution, never quite trusting them to handle things on their own.
Good intentions wrapped in control, care disguised as command.
Lady Featherby had been doing the same thing, just with potions.
“We need to dismantle this crystal pattern,” I said, making my voice come out firm, not harsh. “Right now, before the festival reaches its peak and the dampening effect becomes permanent.”
“Permanent?” Lady Featherby’s face paled even further. “Can you tell me what these crystals actually accomplish?”
Dominic explained while I moved around the chamber, examining the arrangement with my magic.
Now that I understood what I was looking for, I could sense how the dampening field worked.
Each crystal formed a point in a larger pattern, creating a network that suppressed emotional resonance throughout the court.
It was old magic, and incredibly sophisticated. Whoever had built this chamber centuries ago had known exactly what they were doing.
“The good news,” I told Dominic, “is that she hasn’t completed a Grand Severance ritual. The damage is severe but not permanent.”
“If we don’t counter this tonight, during the festival when emotional energy peaks, the dampening could lock into place.”
Lady Featherby’s spine tightened. “I’ll help fix it. Tell me what to do.”
“We’ll need to dismantle the crystal network,” I said, already calculating the best approach. “But we have to do it carefully. If we just smash them or remove them haphazardly, the stored dampening energy could release all at once and cause even more damage.”
“Like opening a dam instead of draining it gradually,” Lady Featherby said. “Do you suggest we bleed off the corrupted energy before we remove the crystals?”
“Yes, that’s it.” I glanced at Dominic. “Can your fae magic counteract the dampening effect? That could overwhelm what’s stored in the crystals.”
“Possibly. But I’d need significant power, more than I can generate alone.” He looked at me, understanding flickering in his eyes. “I bet we could do it together.”
My plant magic stirred, recognizing what he was suggesting. Our combined energy had been reviving plants throughout the court for days. If we could amplify that effect and channel it through the crystal network in reverse, it might work.