I approached holding a cold cloth. “This is for your face. The doctor added herbs …”
She slapped my hand away. “Don’t touch me.”
I’d been through far too much today. Nearly being executed, throwing myself off the city wall, having my body stolen. I burst into tears.
Donya gaped with wide eyes.
“My lady, I don’t know what to do,” I sobbed. “I’m so scared! I’m not the duchess! I’m Bora!”
“Sherdan humor?” Donya asked weakly.
“It really is me! Princess Antonia has a body-swapping gift. I became the duchess, and she’s me. I don’t know how to make you believe me.” I rubbed at the tears pouring down my cheeks.
Donya gazed at me only with calculation, no sympathy. “You seem to have fallen ill, Your Grace. I’ll summon a doctor at the palace.”
“I see that look! You want to have me committed to a mental institution.” I sniffled. “Please, I needed you to save me from such a fate. Like how you saved me from Falael when we first met.” Crap,that didn’t work, the Blood Duchess had been there, too. “Then you introduced me to your stablemaster, Vestan?” His name was probably common knowledge. Unfortunately, I had not known Donya long enough for us to have shared any personal identifying secrets, though I lived in hopes of us reaching such a place later.
“The doctor will help you, Your Grace.” Donya wasn’t a good actor. Despite her attempt to sound soothing, menace slipped in. The doctor would help me be deemed unfit to ever be seen in public again.
“Um … I’ve collected all twenty of your activism posters, including the extremely rare first one, and only one, where you wore a dress.”
Donya recoiled. “A stalker?”
“Please, no, just a fan.” My sister would be a better source for finding a shared secret. “Ysabel talked about you in her letters. She admired you a lot.” But most of what my sister had said about Donya’s accomplishments had been public knowledge. I thought harder, finally digging up details from one of my sister’s more vulnerable letters. “Before you two became friends, when you called her ‘a heartless snake incapable of love,’ she asked me if I thought it might be true. Only the two of you knew about that, right?”
Donya froze, assessing me closely. Her eyes softened. “Ysabel admired me even before we became friends? I hurt her feelings when I said that? I had no idea. Oh dear.” Donya set down her teacup. “You’re really Bora?” Hesitantly, she reached up to pat my back.
I collapsed into her shoulder. “I don’t know what to do! Please help me!”
“By the Sun God, it’s strange seeing that expression on the Blood Duchess’s face.” Donya put her arms around me and guided me to the sofa. “Tell me everything.”
I poured out the whole story to Donya, from my escape out of the city to what the princess had done. “I don’t understand whyIgot swapped when I wasn’t anywhere near the princess,” I finished in an admittedly whiny tone.
“Princess Antonia wished for the Blood Duchess to be a kind person.” Donya tapped her chin. “That’s why she swapped with you.”
I rubbed my eyes. “I’m flattered, but the city must be full of kind people.”
“Who else cushioned a girl falling out of a carriage with her own body?” Donya shrugged. “You also jumped off a wall to save my life. That type of self-sacrifice is rare. You remind me a lot of Ysabel.” She patted my head as if I were a little kid.
I’d already known my crush was hopeless, but it still stung. I’d been placed in the best friend’s kid-sister box. There would be no escaping that box.
But also, I was stuck in some weirdo’s body, so what did it matter? I sniffled. Donya handed me a tissue. Blowing my nose, I said, “I’m glad I could save you, my lady.”
“Please, call me Donya.”
“But I’d like to go back to my own body now. Can you help me ask the princess to swap us back?”
Donya raised her hand. “Don’t be so hasty. This is a prime opportunity.”
“No, no, no. I’m not staying like this!” I punctuated each no with a sharp shake of my head. “If I’m caught impersonating nobility, I’ll be executed! And I’mnota good actor, Donya.” I grabbed her collar for emphasis. “When I was a kid, I was assigned to be a tree in the church performance of Holy Maiden Ava’s life, and I accidentally knocked the entire stage set over on top of everyone. I knew then and there that I was never destined for a life on the stage!”
Donya patted my hand. “I know I’m asking a lot from you. But your kingdom needs you. This is our big chance to take back control.”
“How about this? I’ll order all the guards to leave the city, then voluntarily walk into a dungeon cell. After locking the door, you swap us back. Easy as mugging a dead man.” My country accent came out stronger as my voice rose.
“Unfortunately, the kingdom needs the Blood Duchess.” Donya pinched her forehead. “The late and unmourned King Uctor was childless, and he didn’t care about his younger half sister or his legacy. He figured that if he could sell his kingdom once, he could sell it three more times.”
“You mean besides selling the regency to Sherda …”
