Yet that was between them. Was it wrong to chase him?
No, don’t fall into that trap. These are fictional people.
These women didn’t match the picture I had built in my head at all when I heard the phrase Maidens’ Chamber. “You all don’t have to, um, avoid touching men?”
Again, silence.
Then they cackled with laughter. Lu burst as if she couldn’t contain herself, “Those seas must be more melancholy than we knew!”
The door squeaked open to reveal Lady Ariana. I had been wondering—there were eight beds, but only seven of us. Ariana gave the group a small smile, as they greeted her. She was still in the pretty blue gown she had worn earlier that evening, but her eyes looked tired.
“So, you’re joining us, Lady Dottie?”
“Just Dottie.”
Ariana nodded back. “How wonderful, though I’m quite exhausted. I wish I could stay up to chat...”
“Of course,” I said. It must be difficult attending to such a temperamental queen every waking hour.
But something else had shifted in the room too. For as casually as they had spoken about Ironclaw, perhaps it wasn’t the best form of judgment to do so in front of the queen’s best friend.
Everyone was moving to their own beds, and I did the same.
As the candles burned low, the women drifted off one by one but not me. I didn’t know how much longer I could expect to stay in the world of Landsome. Sorrel had said I’d go home when I was ready and the thought occurred to me that if I had some kind of pure-of-heart moment in the morning, I might only ever get this one night. Or, even if I was there longer, we’d be on the road soon with definitely less privacy.
And Ironclaw was out there, standing guard in those cold halls, and apparently open to random women approaching him...
I looked around at the quiet room, then crept from my bed, switched my nightgown for the maroon dress, and tied the knife to my side. Because Issa’s abduction wasn’t a POV chapter in book five, I didn’t know exactly how things went down, but it stood to reason that the Dark Mage’s apprentice would come under the cloak of darkness and be gone quietly before anyone knew.
Like me.
I lifted the long, wooden plank that served as a lock and set it aside, shutting the door behind me.
I had the faintest layout of the castle in my head, but it took time to get out of the passages and into the cool night air of the stable yard. It was a large rectangle with hitching posts and wagons around the perimeter and the stable on one side. I skirted the battalions, then circled the thatch-roofed stable hopefully. Through the dark stall openings, I could see horses dozing and I smelled hay.
He wasn’t there.
My heart sank. I didn’t know if I’d be able to find my way back—
Someone grabbed me by the shoulder. “Looking to kidnap the queen’s sister, witch?” a deep voice breathed in my ear.
He spun me, and I came face-to-face with Ironclaw. This close up, I realized for the first time how tall he was. He absolutelytoweredover me. He didn’t quite have a beard, but there was a shadow across his chin. His long hair was tied back.
I fought for words, squeaking out what I imagined Lu would have said. “I was looking...looking for you.”
“You already have half the court under your spell. What could you possibly have to say tome?”
“Just to offer my services to the queendom,” I said saucily, then promptly flushed. It was my...acting voice from read-aloud sessions. Not a way I’d ever talk to a real person. But Ironclaw wasn’t real, I reminded myself. I didn’t have to feel embarrassed talking to a character in a book.
I leaned into him, placing a hand on his elbow with intention, then looked up through my eyelashes the way I’d seen actresses do to tall, handsome men.
“Trying to seduce me, witch? You’ll uncover no state secrets through me.” He wrenched his arm back.
“I’m not a witch.” My false voice slipped. “I’m just helping the witch do good. The same way I am the queen.”Damn it, don’t bring up the queen now.
He leaned down. “A witch’s apprentice, wandering the same night the Dark Mage’s is sneaking about?”
“No, I—”
