“Hello, Your Highness,” she said while giving an awkward curtsy. Her shoes and thick knitted tights were strangely old-fashioned, I realized, and she wore yet another gorgeous jewel—this time a pearl-and-diamond brooch on her lapel. “I received my invitation to the Coronation Eve Ball.”
“Oh, great! So you’ll be there?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t miss it for anything.” She smiled, showing her crooked teeth.
Something else looked different about her. “By the way, I like your hair.” That was what it was—she’d pulled it up with two jeweled clips.
She touched them. “Thanks, they were my grandma’s. Like my brooch.” She pulled it from her robes and waved it in the light so it sparkled.
Nix tapped me with her foot. “Do you know my friend Nix?” I asked, to cover the obvious nudge.
“Um, not really,” Fortunada said shyly. “I don’t really know a lot of people.”
“I think I’ve seen you around,” Nix said cheerfully. I appreciated that she was at least trying to be nice. I gave her a grateful smile. But her eyes looked dark. “What class do you have right now?” I knew that was code for “go away” but hoped Fortunada hadn’t picked up on it. If she did, she didn’t let on.
“Oh, yes. I have to run. I just wanted to say thank you. The invitation is beautiful.” She gestured around. “It’s all so beautiful.” Referring, I guessed, to the decorations going up around the city.
“Thank you. I have to give credit to my lady-in-waiting, Jinky, and my assistant, Ayo. They coordinated everything.”
“Well,” Fortunada said, her voice abruptly serious, “I sure hope you appreciate what they do for you.”
“Of course,” I said. I looked at Nix. She gave me the slightest shrug, like,Told you—weird.
“We’re gonna be late,” Nix said.
“Oh! I’m so sorry to keep you,” Fortunada said. “I’m sure we’ll get to speak later?”
“Yes,” I said. I had to admit, I was relieved when she finally walked away. “Okay, fine, you were right,” I told Nix. “She’s a little weird.”
“Seriously, what was that? ‘I hope you appreciate everything they do.’ Okay? How about mind your business?” Nix was super irritated.
“No big deal. She’s just awkward. You heard what she said—she doesn’t know a lot of people.”
Nix watched Fortunada slouch away, her back slumped like she wanted to crawl in on herself. “I guess.”
***
The next day,Nix, Lucas, and I gathered at the round table in my apartments that was now our de facto planning area and laid out the next steps. Nix argued for searching the king’s chamber right away. “We can’t do anything else until we cross that off the list,” she pointed out. “I think that’s where we need to start.”
Lucas agreed. “All roads do lead back there. We should do as Nix says, go back and comb through the rooms for any clues as to who the mambabarang might be. Maybe they dropped something or left a shoe print. Maybe the king wrote something down—a meeting with someone, a concern, who knows?”
“All right, let’s do this,” I said. “No time like the present.”
I needed this off my mind so I could work on finding my magic. The other night, I had tried breathing underwater in the bathtub and almost drowned. I only had less than a week left, and so far, it wasn’t looking good. At least this situation was something I could immediately control.
We made it from my rooms to the wing where the king’schambers were located without any drama. But once we got there, I realized I’d forgotten something. I slapped my forehead. “Argh. I just remembered; we need to get the key.”
“Actually, I’ve got it.” Lucas pulled something from his pocket: a golden key.
“Where did you get that?”
“It was my father’s.” He slipped it into the lock and opened the door. “After you,” he said, sweeping his arm into the room.
Nix went first. “Thank you, sir,” she said in a faux-fancy voice.
Lucas waited for me to follow her. I looked down at the key and back up at him. “You’ve had that all this time?”
He straightened his shoulders. “Yes. Like I said, it was my father’s.”
