Chapter 7
It took forever for the sun to sink below the horizon. Then I had to wait until everyone was safely tucked away in their rooms. I told Greta I would be retiring early so that she wouldn’t come in and discover me sneaking out, or worse, not find me at all and then raise the alarm that I was missing.
I took the secret door out of my room, which meant I had to go up to the tower room and then down the other stairs to the concealed exit in the garden—the same one I’d shown Elil earlier that day.
I went slow, flinching at every creak I made on the wooden stairs. I’d been up and down these stairs so often that I didn’t hear the sounds normally, but now, when I was trying to be quiet, they sounded loud enough to wake the dead.
There was no one waiting to catch me when I stuck my head out of the door at the bottom of the tower, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Checking for any guards that may have been stationed nearby, I took off at a trot across the dew-damp grass toward the rose garden. The path to the fountain wasn’t a maze, but it may as well have been as I wound my way along it. Usually I loved the rambling paths and the indirect route, but tonight I despised it. I was anxious to get where I was going. I was anxious to meet Elil before he gave up on me and left.
Finally, I approached the last bend in the path, my footsteps heavy on the gravel, and stopped. I peeked around the corner of the hedge and saw him. He had waited for me, and the tension bunching my shoulders released. He was standing in a shaft of moonlight, his profile highlighted as he stared up at the fountain, a contemplative gaze on his face.
I took a mental picture. I didn’t think I would often get to see Prince Elil so unguarded. It looked good on him.
I paused before announcing myself and took a moment to regulate my breathing and smooth my gown. It wasn’t one of the fancy gowns I’d been wearing to impress him, but it was one of my favourites.
I stepped around the hedge, and he turned, his face breaking into a smile when he saw me. He stepped toward me, and I met him halfway, our hands clasping as we stared at each other.
‘You came,’ he said, his voice low.
‘Of course I came,’ I replied. ‘You waited.’
He smiled softly. ‘Of course I waited.’
We stared at one another for a long moment. The garden was quiet, and it was very easy to believe that there was no one else in the world apart from us.
‘I’m so—’
‘I’m so—’
We both started and then stopped at the same time. He chuckled low in his throat, and it made my skin prickle deliciously.
‘I’m sorry about the way I left earlier,’ he said. ‘I—’
‘It’s okay,’ I replied. ‘You don’t need to explain. I’m sorry that I just blurted that out, but I couldn’t stand the thought of you leaving. Not yet.’
‘That’s why I ran off,’ he said. ‘Because I didn’t want us to get sent away, either.’ He took a long slow breath. ‘Not yet.’
There was another drawn out pause as we stared at each other. There were so many things I wanted to say, so many things I needed to tell him, but…but I didn’t want to break this moment. And I wanted him to kiss me.
I shouldn’t, but I did. I should be more worried about my father and the threat to the throne and the kingdom. That’s what a good monarch would do, but I wasn’t feeling very good right then. I was feeling decidedly…well, not bad, exactly, but not like the good little girl I usually was.
A noise in the garden behind me broke the moment, and Elil reached for me, pulling me against his chest and wrapping me in his arms as he surveyed the area for possible threats. It was probably just a bird adjusting its roost, but who was I to complain when I was pressed against Elil’s hard chest and he had me securely wrapped in his arms?
‘It’s not safe here,’ he said, further dampening the moment.
‘It’s fine,’ I said, tilting my head up to him and praying he would look down. His mouth would be inches from mine if he did, and then I could just press up on my toes and—
He stepped away and looked at me with a deep furrow between his brows. ‘I don’t think you understand, Princess,’ he said. ‘You’re in danger. I shouldn’t have called you out here in the middle of the night, but I didn’t know how else to warn you.’
I sighed and wrapped my arms around myself, turning away from him. ‘Not you too? My mother is convinced someone wants to hurt me, but I don’t believe her.’
‘It’s true,’ Elil said, his voice grave. ‘And I know who it is.’
I spun to face him. ‘What?’ I whisper yelled.
He nodded gravely. ‘But I couldn’t go to your mother because…’
‘Because?’
He tilted his head to the sky and looked to be wrestling with something before he finally looked at me with an intense gaze. ‘Because it involves someone close to your mother and father. If I went to her to tell her what I know, she would never believe me.’
‘Parisar,’ I said, the name out of my mouth before I could stop it.
Elil raised an eyebrow at me. ‘You know?’
I shook my head. ‘Not definitively, but I had my doubts,’ I said. ‘I’ve never trusted his father.’
‘The king,’ Elil said cautiously. ‘He’s not just in bed because the doctor wanted him to rest, is he?’
I bit my lip. I wanted to tell him the truth but it felt like betraying my mother, and that was something I didn’t want to do.
‘Don’t answer that,’ Elil said, looking apologetic. ‘I know you can’t answer that without breaking a confidence. How about I tell you my hypothesis?’
I nodded.
‘I think the food the king choked on was poisoned,’ Elil said, speaking quietly but urgently, taking a step closer to me. ‘I think the poison should have killed him, but because he didn’t swallow it, he didn’t die. He’s either very sick right now or he’s in a poisoned sleep that he can’t wake up from.’
I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t have to. The truth was written all over my face, and Elil had no trouble reading it.
He nodded slowly. ‘And since they couldn’t get rid of the king entirely, you are the next target.’
‘If what you’re saying is true, and I’m neither confirming nor denying it, then who do you think it is?’
‘As you guessed earlier. Lord Adryon and Lord Parisar. If they can get rid of you and your father, then they can take over the monarchy.’
‘But…how? Lord Parisar was nowhere near the food,’ I said. ‘There’s no proof.’
‘He wouldn’t have done it himself,’ Elil said. ‘He obviously has someone in the castle, someone who is working with him. One of the kitchen servants, maybe. They could have put it in the food and then served it to the king.’
‘But how do we prove it? My mother will not believe a word you say unless we have concrete proof.’
‘I could sneak into his rooms,’ Elil said, his eyes sparkling with an idea. ‘He probably has the poison in his rooms somewhere. What if I found it?’
I started to shake my head. ‘It won’t work. He’ll never let you get near it.’
‘He won’t know,’ Elil said, and I looked at him with my head tilted curiously. ‘He won’t know because you will be keeping him occupied.’
I paced the tower room. I didn’t know how I was supposed to keep Parisar occupied while Elil went into his rooms, but I had to come up with something.
The door opened, and I stopped, staring. I was expecting Elil, but it was Parisar who came into the room…a room he shouldn’t know anything about.
He strode in, looking around curiously, as if he owned the place. When he finally looked at me, his face was lit with…delight? It was a weird expression to see on his face, and it threw me for a moment. Did he like the room?
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I asked, my arms crossed and my eyes narrowed.
‘Prince Elil sent me,’ he replied.
‘What?’
That made no sense to me. Sure, I needed to keep Parisar busy, but Elil sending him to my secret room was not the plan. No one was supposed to know about this room…of course, Elil thought it was a maid’s room, so maybe he didn’t realise it was secret. But still…
‘So this is where you’ve been hiding from me?’ Parisar said, walking around the room and taking it all in.
‘I’m not hiding,’ I replied.
Parisar stopped his perusal and turned to face me, raising one eyebrow. ‘A secret room in a tower that you have made your own that no one knows about…I’d say that counts as hiding.’
‘I come here to think,’ I replied. ‘I come here when I need a break from everything.’
Parisar nodded and resumed his inspection of the room. ‘I like it,’ he said.
‘No one asked you,’ I snapped in reply.
I wanted him to leave, even though I knew I needed to keep him busy. Parisar in my tower room felt weird to me. It made me uncomfortable. The way he looked at the things I’d collected and the cushions I’d made and my paintings…I couldn’t even say he was being judgmental or critical. Elil had taken one look around and dismissed the entire room as a servant’s space, but Parisar had known from the moment he walked in that it was my room. I didn’t like the way that made me feel. I didn’t like that he knew me that well.
‘So why are you here again?’
‘Your mother wants to see you,’ he replied, stopping to turn and look at me again.
‘Fine,’ I replied, heading for the door that led to my room but stopped and turned to the door Parisar had come through. The one that led to the garden.
Parisar watched me and widened his eyes in curiosity. He looked toward the wall where the door to my room was located but didn’t say anything. The door was hidden, and a quick look over my shoulder reassured me that he wouldn’t be able to see it.
‘Are you coming?’ I asked when he continued to stare at the space where the door hid.
He nodded slowly and turned to follow me.
We made our way down the stairs in silence. It seemed to take hours, and I wondered what he was thinking, but there was no way I was going to ask him. He was probably thinking about pushing me down the stairs. I should have made him go first—that would have been the sensible thing to do—but I hadn’t thought about how vulnerable I was until now. I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see Parisar right on my heels with his arms outstretched…but no. He was a few steps up and not looking at me at all.
I turned back to the front and picked up my pace. The quicker we were out of the tower stairs, the better.
I pushed through the door at the bottom and sucked in a breath in relief. I squinted into the sun and wondered how much longer I needed to be a distraction. Had Elil gotten into Parisar’s rooms yet? Had he been caught?
‘Princess?’
I turned to see Parisar looking at me strangely.
‘What?’ I snapped.
‘Your mother is this way.’
‘I know that,’ I said, stomping past him in the direction of my mother’s study.
‘Sir.’
Before we could re-enter the castle, we were stopped by two guards.
‘What is it?’ Parisar asked, his eyebrows pulled down in consternation.
‘We need you to come with us.’
‘What?’
Two more guards appeared, surrounding us. I looked at Parisar, who appeared baffled by the show of force.
‘I’m on my way to see the queen,’ he said.
‘Then you won’t mind us accompanying you,’ the first guard said.
‘What’s going on?’ I asked.
‘It’s none of your concern, Princess,’ the same guard said.
‘I think it is,’ I replied, standing in front of Parisar and facing down the guard.
‘Snow,’ Parisar said softly, but I ignored him.
‘Tell me what this is all about,’ I demanded of the guard.
‘All I know is that the queen tasked us with bringing Parisar to her,’ the guard replied with a sigh, as if explaining it to me was beneath him. ‘She didn’t say why.’
‘Then I will accompany you,’ I said. ‘The queen asked to see me too.’
The guard inclined his head just enough to show acknowledgment of my status but not enough to convey respect. I hadn’t had much to do with the guards in the castle, but still, I was the princess. Surely I deserved more respect than that.
The guards flanked us and marched us to the queen’s study. The doors opened, and we stepped in. I stopped in surprise when I saw Elil there. He smiled smugly at me before his eyes went to Parisar, and the expression on his face hardened.
‘Thank you,’ the queen said, dismissing the guards. She turned to Parisar, her face unreadable.
Parisar bowed, showing the queen a level of deference that no one ever showed me. It was also far more formal than I had observed in recent days. My mother and Parisar had become confidants since my father collapsed, and when I had seen them together, Parisar hadn’t observed the formalities as he was now. Was it because Elil was in the room?
‘My queen,’ Parisar said, slowly rising. ‘You requested to see me.’
The queen held up a small round bottle. There was a cork stopper in the top, and the purple liquid inside sloshed as she moved it.
‘Can you explain why this was in your room?’ she asked.
Parisar squinted at the bottle, and I shot a look at Elil. Was this the poison? Had Elil really found the poison in Parisar’s room?
‘I’m afraid I don’t know what that is,’ Parisar said, his voice even. ‘I have never seen it before.’
‘It is the poison used to…it is poison,’ Eleodora said, her voice imperious.
‘The poison used to strike the king down,’ Elil added.
Elil looked at Parisar with such a smugness that I barely recognised him. This was not the man I had gotten to know over the last few weeks.
The queen looked at Elil and then at me. ‘Leave us,’ she said.
‘Your majesty,’ Elil protested, but the queen was having none of it. Elil bowed. ‘Of course,’ he said.
I stood gaping at my mother. Had Parisar really done this? I had suspected him all along, but in my heart I never really believed he was capable of doing such a thing. In a way, I supposed I was hoping that Elil would prove Parisar innocent.
Elil took my arm and led me from the room. The heavy doors closed behind us. Why was I so shocked? I should be feeling validated for my suspicions, but instead I felt…betrayed.
‘Princess,’ Elil said.
I blinked and looked around. Elil had led us to a small alcove out of hearing of the guards standing outside my mother’s chambers.
‘Did you really find that poison in his room?’ I asked.
Elil smiled sadly. ‘No,’ he said.
‘What?’ I hissed. ‘But you said—’
‘I couldn’t find it in his room, but you and I both know he did it. You said you needed proof, so I…got the evidence you needed.’
I stared at Elil. I couldn’t process what he said. He’d set Parisar up?
I opened my mouth to speak, to demand he go back in there and tell the queen the truth, but there was a noise in the hallway. I peered around the corner to see Parisar being led away by the guards…in chains.
‘We can’t do this,’ I said, looking at Elil in panic. ‘We can’t accuse him of something he didn’t do.’
‘But you yourself said he did it,’ Elil replied reasonably. ‘And you said your mother wouldn’t believe you without proof.’
‘Yes, but that isn’t proof,’ I said. ‘I want to find the real culprit. I want real proof. We need to go and tell my mother the truth.’ I started to walk toward the queen’s chambers, but Elil took my arm and stopped me.
‘You can’t,’ he said. ‘Think about it. What would happen if you tell the queen I snuck into Parisar’s room and then gave her false evidence? She would expel me and my family from the kingdom, and it would cause a rift in our political relationship. It would also end any relationship between you and me.’
I looked up into his eyes. I had been sure that Parisar was the one who poisoned my father. This way, Parisar would no longer have access to my mother or my father. It would also mean Lord Adryon would no longer be an advisor. It was what I wanted, wasn’t it? So why did I feel so sick?