Chapter 27 Lily
TWENTY-SEVEN
LILY
Ileft Iris to enjoy her pre-breakfast and said I’d join her for a proper one later in the small dining room. My new guard trailed me back to my room, and I tried not to care he wasn’t Keane. I only had time and emotional space to deal with one crisis at a time.
Leaving him outside with instructions not to allow anyone in, I slipped through the door and pressed it closed behind me. Grimelda had that nasty habit of entering rooms without knocking, and I couldn’t afford for her to interrupt me with a plate of unwelcome food.
I walked straight to my bed and reached underneath it, right in the back shadows for Mother’s spell book. There had to be something in there that could help me. Something to make me invisible or just make it so Grimelda couldn’t see me.
I flipped through the pages carefully. They were fragile and musty smelling. Every so often I stopped and traced unfamiliar runes with my finger. Some of them were beautiful and almost called to me to try them out. But that was for later.
In the end, I nearly flipped right by the spell I was looking for. It was so innocuous, only taking up half a page of the thick, crinkled parchment. I carefully turned back to it, before I swallowed my fear and studied the rune.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath in through my nose and pictured the rune in my mind while I concentrated on what I wanted. If Rose was right, and our magic was about intention, I was halfway there.
I pointed my finger in front of me and carefully sketched the concealment rune in the air, each line turning silver as I focused on what I needed to happen. My magic created sparks of awareness in my hand and arm, and it helped my confidence grow.
As the shimmering rune faded to nothing, dispersing into the air as if a breeze had whisked it away, I stood and waited. How would I know if it had worked? I preferred the frost runes. At least a snowflake gave me a vague idea as to my success.
I cracked my door open and peered out at my guard. He glanced around and I opened it wide enough to walk through. When he didn’t acknowledge me, I ducked back inside.
“Actually, give me a few more minutes,” I called before slipping out of the door and closing it. I needed him to believe I was still in that room.
It was odd to walk by him and see no reaction at all. He continued to stare straight ahead of himself, and I fought both amusement and anxiety at what I was achieving. I’d never imagined I’d practice magic so freely inside Talador, and here I was breaking the law before I’d even changed it.
I crept along the corridors, grateful for my soft-soled slippers, and glanced into each room I passed, checking for Grimelda.
Suddenly, she stepped out into the corridor directly in front of me, and my feet scuffed to a halt as I struggled to contain my gasp of surprise.
She glanced over her shoulder and I stood perfectly still as her eyes narrowed for a moment.
Then she turned and began to walk faster than I’d seen her walk since we arrived. There was no evidence of the infirmity she usually displayed at all. I skipped a little to keep up, holding down my skirts so the fabric didn’t shift and rustle.
She walked to the corner of the kitchen and opened a small door set into the stone wall.
The smell of damp floated out of the opening, but she ducked through and I followed her.
We walked down a narrow, uneven staircase that seemed to have been hewn into the rock, and slimy mold hung from the rough stone walls.
Occasional flickering torches added the illusion of light to the area but mostly created shadow.
We descended into a cool, gloomy room where a number of bubbling beakers and flasks sat above thin blue flames on a long, narrow table.
Grimelda walked along it, peering into various containers and stirring the contents of some.
Steam rose in different colors, some glittery, some heavy and thick until it almost looked solid, and the aromas merged in the room until I wrinkled my nose against the assault on my senses.
A large silver mirror, a twin to the dozens of others hanging around the palace, rested on a table against the wall.
Grimelda stood in front of it and traced a rune upon its surface, causing the mirror to shimmer and melt into an image.
Through the mirror I saw Iris sitting on her bed, eating the pre-breakfast Grimelda had brought her.
Grimelda stroked Iris’s cheek on the glass, and my stomach twisted. She was spying on Iris!
Not just Iris, I discovered, as Grimelda flicked the mirror, causing the image to change.
Now the mirror showed my room, which was empty, of course.
Grimelda frowned and flicked the image again, displaying the hallway, then again, showing the courtyard, clearly growing more and more agitated as she looked for me.
The hair on my arms stood up, realizing she’d been watching us all this time.
How much had she seen? Or heard? My suspicions. My magic. My night with Keane.
The door at the top of the stair opened again and I pressed myself into the shadow in the corner, hardly daring to breathe as Lord Malren descended into my view.
He limped, leaning heavily against the wall, his palm pressed against the stone.
Grimelda waved a hand at the mirror, and the image faded, to my relief.
“Must we always meet down here?” He groaned his words, his displeasure obvious.
Grimelda laughed, the harsh sound gradually becoming throaty and smooth as her appearance changed from that of an old woman, the one I was used to seeing, to one I hadn’t seen in a decade, yet still recognized.
Riala.
She hadn’t changed one bit. Her luscious red hair fell in big, round curls around her pointed ears to the middle of her back, and her amber eyes sparkled with fake innocence as she pouted at Malren. She sashayed over to him, her walk slow and sexy, and she placed her palm against his chest.
“I realize you’re used to more regal surroundings, but this is where I do my best work.” Her tone dripped with fake sympathy. “And it’s the only place where we can meet safely.”
She raised herself onto her tiptoes and pressed her mouth against his. Immediately, his arms wound around her back and he jerked her against him and growled. I averted my eyes as he groaned and pressed his tongue into her mouth.
When she stepped away from him, smoothing the pad of her thumb over her lower lip, she chuckled. “Do you feel any better?”
“Not at all,” he barked. Then he smoothed over his exasperation, the creases of frustration disappearing from his brow. “This is taking a very long time, and that frigid princess injured me. I thought you said she had no magic.”
“She’s managed to be more of a problem than I expected. No matter. She’s still weak and untrained. But Iris…” Her lips twisted into a smile. “Iris will be great.”
“Yes, yes,” he said impatiently. “Iris is all very well, but when will I be king?”
She chuckled again, the sound throaty and sexy once more. “Oh, Malren, haven’t I taught you anything?” She undid the top button of his shirt. “You really need a little more patience.”
She flicked open the second button. He murmured his approval and pressed closer to her, his hand cupping the back of her neck underneath her hair.
She shifted in his hold and said her words low and slow. “Later, at breakfast, I’m going to poison Lily. Just like I poisoned her father, the late King. That asshole.”
Horror filled me, and I nearly gasped out loud. I had to slap my hand over my mouth to keep myself quiet at the revelation that Riala had killed my father too. That explained his sudden and mysterious death…and now she planned to do the same to me.
Malren dropped his hand to the laces at the back of her bodice. He pulled teasingly at the bow and it unraveled. “Then what?”
“I’ll make my move on my kingdom.” She wriggled a little to ease his efforts to free her from her clothes. “I’ll ensure the suitors are busy with an arranged activity so that meddling herbologist won’t be around to help them again. If anyone causes trouble, you’ll stop them.”
Malren bent forward and kissed her neck. “Pure genius, my Queen.”
“I’ve been putting everything in place. We’re ready to strike.” She tipped her head back in invitation for more kisses, and his hands caressed her breasts, pushing down her loosened bodice. “Soon the throne will be ours.”
I’d seen and heard enough. I slipped away, creeping back up the staircase and pausing at the top to ensure they couldn’t see the door opening before I made my invisible way into the kitchens.
As soon I was through, I pressed a hand to the stone wall for support, gasping for breath.
I now had proof that Grimelda was Riala, that she’d murdered my father, that she was working with Malren to take the throne—and that they were going to poison me. Again. Soon.
I had to find Keane.