“It’s symbolism,” Iris said dryly. “Like all the mirrors in the reception chamber. All Council business comes in and out the front door, in full view of the community.”
“I’m sure that’ll be a big comfort to everybody trapped in the rear of the building if the place ever catches on fire.”
Iris had never thought about it before, but he was absolutely right. Even though unicorns prided themselves on focusing on necessity over luxury, unlike dragons, they never hesitated to indulge in ideas over people. The Council Housewasbadly designed, and it was badly designed because it had been built according to self-congratulatory principles instead of any understanding of what people actually needed to live.
Let alone what they needed to escape engulfing flames.
A horrible thought suddenly occurred to her. If there had been a back exit, was there some chance that Lady Marianne would have been able to get away? Or some chance that the killer would have just escaped instead of being cornered into a fatal confrontation?
“Someone needs to fix this place,” Iris said hotly. “I know it’s not going to be me, because Ican’tstay here, but someone has to! We need more choices. We need moredoors, for God’s sake!”
Keith was looking at her with a kind of tender awe that was so overwhelming Iris had to look away.
A second horrible thought came hard on the heels of the first.
“That’s another reason someone might have killed Lady Marianne. Rebellion. When people really start talking about how I must have killed her, that’s the reason they’re going to come up with—and it’s going to sound convincing.”
“No one who saw you with Lady Marianne would ever think that.”
“Yes, they would,” Iris said with grim certainty. “Lady Alicia did, and plenty of other people will too.”
She was glad she’d insisted on him stepping back from the investigation. She’d just been thinking about sparing him the gossip and making sure everyone else could feel confident in the results; she hadn’t been thinking that the people accusing her might actually have apoint, one that even she would have to concede.
Keith was right, of course. She would never have killed Lady Marianne. She didn’t think she could ever killanyone, not unless they were trying to kill her or someone else.
But she could understand why someone would cast her as the firebrand rebel. She had a little of that in her heart.
The question was: did anyone else here have it in theirs? Even if the villagers assigned the blame to the wrong person, could they be thinking of the right motive?
“I don’t know if anyone else here is the revolutionary kind,” she said, thinking out loud.
“You must have had a couple of people who were a little sympathetic to you.”
“Just for kids’ stuff. When I was sixteen, sure, I could convince a couple people to have a bonfire with me on the edge of town, or listen to some CD I’d bought over in Polis.”
One of her fondest childhood memories was crowded together with Seraphina and some of their friends, secretly listening to the soundtrack forA Nightmare Before Christmas. She’d thought it was the most daring thing in the world.
“Aside from that ... not much. If other people felt the way I did, they mostly kept it a secret, unless you count things like Seraphina’s goldfish.”
“That doesn’t sound like much to go on,” Keith admitted.
“Maybe it’s someone who left Purity—or another village—but then came back to kill Lady Marianne?”
“They wouldn’t be able to get in,” Keith pointed out. “Once their citizenship was rescinded, the barrier wouldn’t open for them.”
“You’re right.” Iris sighed. “I’m grasping at straws. Not only that, I’m doing the exact same thing everyone else here is going to do. I’m saying it has to be an outsider. Really, even if the barrier was wide-open to anyone who’devercome through it, what are the odds that they would come here right when your—”
She stopped so suddenly that her mouth actually snapped shut.
What are the odds that they would come here right when your team was coming too?
That was what she’d been about to say.What are the odds oftwounexpected arrivals in the same twenty-four hour period?
She didn’t know what the actual probability of it was, to be fair. But it put a different spin on the arrival of Keith’s team.
“Iris?”
“It’s convenient,” she said. Her lips were numb, and she had to force them to cooperate. “It’s genuinely convenient, for us, that your team arrived right when there was a murder we had to investigate.”
