In that moment, I’m comforted in my belief that she isn’t complicit with Ksenia and that Milana mustn’t have sent her. I know Mestyla said Milana wasn’t involved, but sheisKsenia’s mother. A mother might do wrong by the world to do right by their child. My mother would.
“Konstantin, Izolda, my friends…they’re all inside the seized castle. I don’t know what’s being done to them. What’sbeendone to them.” My voice catches on a tremor made up of one-part fear and a thousand-parts rage. “I don’t know anything, save for the fact that there must be troops of armed men beyond those walls. That, perhaps, Konstantin’s own guards have turned against him. So anything you’ve heard that can save your king?—”
“Give me a bargain,” Sofiya interjects.
“No,” Vance hisses.
She squints into the night. “Who else is here?”
“Vance,” I say. I leave out Mestyla’s attendance. “If you don’t tell us what you know, Sofiya Patchenkov, I’ll curse you with a sigil that will rot your teeth and gums. Does that bargain suit you?”
The horror that reshapes her features would’ve made me laugh had I been in any mood to laugh. “No. I want a true bargain.”
“My father has forbidden me from bargaining,” I lie, “so I can’t give you one, but I can promise I’ll help you survive the night if you help us out.”
“Why would I trust you?”
“Because you can’t exactly go home at the moment, and heading into the palace alone is suicide.”
Her eyelids spasm.
“Don’t you care about Konstantin and the fate of Glace?” I ask.
“Not especially. After all, he didn’t choose me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sure, you are.”
“What news do you bring?” Vance prompts her.
After cursing out a hailstone that smacks into her leafy umbrella, she finally confesses, “Fine. I’ll tell you. But don’t you bloody dare curse me.”
“As long as you help us, I’ll help you. Cross my heart.”
She works her jaw from side to side a few times before finally confessing, “My sister got home a few hours ago because of a missive supposedly penned byme, telling her to come celebrate my betrothal. Yes, I’ve accepted the advance of the Nebban half-blood—to Atsa’s immense regret—but there’s no celebratory supper planned. My future husband isn’t eveninGlace. Wetried to figure out who would impersonate me, especially with information that hasn’t been made public. The only person my father has told is his best friend, Ekaterina.”
“Zaslofsky?” I ask.
“Yes, but I don’t see why she would’ve invented a?—”
“Bohdan,” Vance hisses.
“You thinkhecrafted the letter?” Sofiya wrinkles her nose. “Why in the world would he write my sister a false letter?”
“To get her out of the castle and get the rebels into it,” Vance says.
“What? How?”
“She used Konstantin’s private train to get to Voshna,” I explain.
“Because of the weather,” Sofiya counters.
“Perhaps, but how convenient…?” I breathe out.
“Milana did say there was an unusual amount of soldiers on the quay. Come to think of it, she also mentioned many had round ears and little to no hair.”
“And that didn’t alarm her?” Vance bites out.
