“Cloudia is three years younger—sixteen—and she’s an incredibly talented seamstress. She beat out a dozen more experienced craftsman to apprentice with the Fortress’s finest modiste. And this was two years ago, when she was just fourteen. But this past year, she became too ill to work.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I say, and I truly am. I don’t know which is worse: to have your sister ripped away without warning, like Rowenna, or to watch her suffer. “What does Cloudia have? Is it treatable?”
A pained expression flits across Delphine’s face before she steers the conversation back tomysister. “Rowenna wasn’t always horrible, you know. She had many friends here, and she told the most amusing stories at dinner. And she kept her things tidy, never making extra work for me. But she had another side too. It’s almost like she was two different people stuffed inside the same body. I never knew which version to expect: the silly courtier or the snarling beast.”
“‘Snarling beast’?” I repeat.
Delphine’s face reddens. “That’s obviously an exaggeration, but that’s what those of us who caught her prowling the halls at odd hours called her because she always flew into a rage and started hurling accusations.”
I still can’t imagine Rowenna doing any of this, but I want to keep Delphine talking, so I nod. “I’m beginning to understand why you weren’t thrilled to meet me. I’ve been stalking around the palace just like her.”
“Except, unlike Rowenna, you have every reason to be hostile and suspicious. Your sisterdied, and you were dragged here as her replacement. Rowenna was treated like a queen from the moment she set foot on the mountain, yet she was always spinning, always meddling. It’s like she was possessed—consumed with something that took her out of her chambers almost every night. I think that’s the true reason shebanished me to the balcony. So she could sneak about more easily.”
Goose bumps prickle the backs of my arms, and I sit up straighter. “Do you know what she was doing? Where she was going?”
From the time we were young, Ro loved sneaking out of our bedchamber under the hill—mostly to play pranks and make mischief in the fields with Haddesh. But she wouldn’t have been gallivanting about here or trying to escape. She would have been looking for clues. Cracks. Perhaps she was visiting the Vanzadorians’ gemstone mines at night, hoping to find a way to destroy their economy as they’ve destroyed Tashir’s. Or she could have been searching for the caches where they keep our bagrava tributes—to stop the courtiers from wastefully guzzling it. Or maybe she was trying to find and access the memories the Vanzadorian people deposit into the ground—to keep Soren and Alaric from using them as fuel.
Whatever she was doing—whatever she discovered—was damning enough to cost her her life.
“Did you ever question her? Or follow her?” I ask Delphine, practically humming with a new surge of energy. For the first time since arriving on the mountain, I feel close tosomething. Some clue or revelation that will change everything.
“Of course I didn’t follow her,” Delphine says with a huff. But then she sighs and scrunches her eyes. “I mean, technically, I suppose, I followed her once—but not on purpose. I was just doing my job. Rowenna was wearing a white dressing gown, and I knew the head housekeeper would skin me alive if the garment came back soiled. So I grabbed a more suitable cloak and ran after her. I assumed she was going to meet a gentleman friend, so imagine my surprise when she slipped out a window, lowered herself down the castle wall, and slunk toward the sleeping city.
“I’ll admit, I followed out of curiosity then—and duty too. Rowenna wasn’t allowed to leave the palace. Especially not at night. And especially not by herself. I figured she was going to meet an accomplicesome Vanzadorian traitor who was secretly assisting her—and I couldn’t just let that happen. But then, instead of following the paved road that leads from the palace to the grand square, Rowenna veered off onto an overgrown trail. One of the old mining routes that lead to the highest reaches of the mountain.”
“What’s up there?” I lean closer, eyes huge, not bothering to pretend I’m not completely in her thrall. She could easily be making all of this up as punishment for Rowenna’s supposed cruelty. But I don’t think she is. The way Delphine spoke about her own sister, and how she came to my aid despite the actions ofmysister, feels genuine. Empathetic in a way that can only come from a soul-deep understanding of the bond between sisters.
“That’s the thing,” Delphine continues. “There’s nothing up there but abandoned mines and empty caves. Our ancestors excavated those veins of gold and copper decades ago. No one has had any reason to return since they closed. It didn’t make sense.”
Thethump-thump-thumpof my heart quickens, because abandoned mine shafts seem like an ideal place to store things Soren doesn’t want anyone else to find.
Like memories.
Or bagrava.
“Did you see what she found?”
Delphine shakes her head. “We never made it to the caves. I’m not the most sure-footed, and I stumbled over a boulder in the dark. A wash of pebbles rolled down the trail, straight into the boots of a night watchman. Rowenna told him I forced her out of bed and dragged her into the wilderness. She said I’d been threatening to shove her off a cliff if she didn’t pay me extra wages under the table. I’ve never seen anyone lie so quickly and smoothly. It wasn’t natural.”
Delphine shudders. “I told the guard Rowenna was lying, but who do you think he believed? He beat me with a tree branch so soundly, I couldn’t work for an entire week. Seven days without pay, which meantI couldn’t afford Cloudia’s medication or a nurse to look in on her.”
Delphine bites down on her trembling lip and takes two deep breaths. “When I returned to work,Iwas forced to apologize to Rowenna. She then commanded me to sacrifice my memories of that night. And I wanted to. I would have loved to forget your sister’s existence entirely. But I refused to put myself in such a dangerous position. I didn’t want to make the same mistake and attempt to follow her again, or let down my guard around her even slightly. So I pretended to sacrifice the memory and continued serving Rowenna with a cheery smile, as if I had no recollection of that night and no animosity toward her. It almost killed me,” Delphine murmurs darkly, only realizing the gravity of her statement when she catches my appalled expression. “But I swear, in the name of the kings, I didn’t kill her,” she adds.
I lean back on my hands with a deflated sigh, weary to the bone of these terrible accusations against Rowenna and seething with frustration to have hit yet another dead end.
Delphine never made it up the mountain, which means she can’t tell me what Rowenna was doing up there. But, perhaps, I could convince her to take me there now, if I offered the right incentive.
Fear and excitement battle for hold of my stomach. Part of me knows it’s dangerous, asking her to take me to such a remote location. Everything she’s told me could be a lie. She could be responsible for Rowenna’s death, and I could be inviting her to lead me to my own grisly end. But I don’t think that’s the case. This serving girl is like me—a bit timid and out of her depth, but determined to do the best for her sister.
I reach out and place a tentative hand on Delphine’s bony shoulder. “Would you be willing to sneak me out of the palace and guide me up the mountain? So I can see for myself what Rowenna was up to?”
Delphine’s face goes white, and her head’s shaking before I’ve even finished. “I-I couldn’t—”
“I know I’m asking a lot, especially since your last journey up the mountain ended so painfully, but I would never sell you out to theguards. And I’ll help you in return, of course.”
Delphine’s head stops shaking, and she cocks a skeptical brow. “How can you help me?”
“I know a lot about plants. There could be remedies to treat your sister’s illness the Vanzadorian healers have never even heard of, since so little grows on this mountain. I always keep a stash of dried herbs in my haversack that I’d be happy to experiment with. And if that doesn’t work, I have dozens of seed packets I could cultivate in the growing beds Soren has provided. If you take me up the mountain, I won’t stop until we find a cure for Cloudia.”
