Page 87 of Ruling the Green

If I was the same person I’d been just a week ago, I wouldn’t have seen it. This new, improved version of me was different. More observant. Quicker thinking. Faster moving.

I noticed the way the laundress tensed, how she reached into her pocket when holding the laundry was a task that required both of them.

Then she turned toward me.

And lunged.

The light caught on something sharp in her hand. Something to prick me with, no doubt. To inject more Bellhush into my system like Grimwood was likely paying her to do.

I had no silly little sword. But the movements to block were the same, weapon or no.

I struck out, using my wrist against her arm, pushing it out wide.

The laundress’s eyes widened.

But she had a job to do. And she wasn’t going to fail now that she caught me alone.

The laundry fell to the floor, tangling in our legs as we struggled.

I grabbed her wrist, fingers curling in enough to drag a cry out of the woman as she tried to retreat, taking me with her until the bed caught the back of her legs. She lost her footing, falling backward. I went with her.

We both struggled for the top. And as strong as I had gotten recently, it was nothing to a lifetime of stirring clothes with a wooden spoon in a massive vat, scrubbing them against a board, then wringing out the excess water. The woman gained the advantage, rising over me, her legs pinning mine as we fought over the arm with the hollow needle.

She yanked her arm free of mine, then quickly tried to plunge the needle into my arm.

I grabbed her wrist with both my hands, pushing with everything I had, making my arms shake with the effort.

“What the fuck?” Jet’s voice roared.

I watched as the laundress’s eyes went huge, as horror filled them when she became very aware of her fate.

Jet’s footsteps thundered across the room, grabbing the woman about the waist and pulling her, flailing, backward.

“Watch her hand,” I demanded, folding upward, panting for breath.

Vishen ran forward as Jet held the wriggling woman, grabbing her wrist with one of his bandaged hands, pulling the needle out with the other.

“Bellhush,” he said, sniffing it.

The woman’s mouth parted and I knew what was to follow.

I flew across the space, grabbing the needle from the unsuspecting Vishen, and jabbed it into the woman’s arm.

“Serin…” Jet said.

“She was going to scream,” I told him. “Did you want anyone rushing up here and asking what was going on? We don’t need to ask her anything. We know who she works for.”

The men shared a look, then a shrug, just as Nira came walking into the room with a large tray. The smile on her face fell away at the sight in front of her.

“What the hell is this?”

“We found who drugged her,” Jet said.

“The laundress,” Nira said, shaking her head. “She wasn’t even on our list. She wouldn’t have been hauling water.”

“We were probably too distracted to realize it was her.”

It sounded awful, but even being at the palace for such a short period of time made it so the faces of the staff started to blur together for me. I imagined that was amplified when you spent your whole life seeing them all milling about.