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“Oh, all that.” He gestured broadly, but she didn’t shift her expression. “You don’t wonder what they’ll say?”
She bit her lip, which stilled him, his eyes flicking to the gesture.
Did she dare take him along?
She had to flee soon. Today, maybe. Or tomorrow or the next. That might be too long to wait. But the touch of his hand would not be the only thing she didn’t know about him. There were so many things she wished to know, and soon, she’d leave him and all those things behind.
“I do know a place…” she murmured.
His eyebrows arched. “A place where one could be a fly?”
“In a sense, yes.” She bit her lip again, trying to read his steady, interested gaze. Was he interested in eavesdropping—or sniffing out a traitor? Or simply playing games of words?
Sometimes, she wondered if he cared for anything other than trading clever barbs. She’d seen him delay his duties many times with various excuses so he could engage in wordplay. But that had been one of the few nice things about the last few years. She had her books and her squirrel friends who could climb the tower and chat with her, but it was nothing like having a genuine friend to talk to.
“I have always said you know this castle better than anyone.” He glanced around them, which gave her the freedom to do so as well.
There was no one nearby.
“Would you…” Here went nothing. “Would you like to be a fly with me for a day?” She put on a polite smile to hide her nerves at what he might say.
Instead of raising his eyebrows, he treated her to a devilish grin. “Lead the way.”
Chapter 2
Secrets
They left the upper mezzanine and hurried up the slick steps where rain runoff ran from the eastern tower. She had devoured the apple by the time they reached the landing and the hall toward the south. Between two old, dusty tapestries, behind the bookshelf, through the narrow opening. His chain mail just barely fit through.
Then down, down again, down a rickety set of wooden stairs. Three planks had collapsed, and it had never occurred to her to repair them, so perhaps bringing a man in chain mail hadn’t been the smartest idea. But the boards held this time, even with the weight of both their steps moving quickly through the darkness.
At the bottom, she held a finger to her lips to indicate they were almost there. Hopefully, he could see her in the tiny bit of light that slipped between the cracks and tiny pinholes in the walls. She carefully sank down, silent as a cat, as he joined her, easing into the final, small space between walls. His eyes were wide as he glanced at her, and she hoped she was reading the expression right. Because it looked like delighted amusement.
Iseris didn’t know what strange trickery or forbidden magic graced this tiny secret passage, but there was a tiny hole in the outer wall. An image of the outdoors was somehow projected into the dark room, emblazoned across the far interior wall. This meant that she and Jav could sit in the darkness and see the portico outside where the king and queen were just settling in for a chat, wine in hand.
Both air and light flowed through the pinhole. Every word the monarchs spoke carried to their ears. Whoever had built this little spy hole had been a genius. Oddly, the image reflecting on the wall was flipped upside down. But they could easily identify what was going on.
Having no knowledge of who this genius had been or how he achieved what seemed like magic, she’d searched the library for some reference to this phenomenon. The only description she’d found similar was in a book how to observe an eclipse, but the connection to such rare events only made her more worried that magic was at work here, so she’d stopped her research, afraid of her efforts being noticed.
A little mouse had helped her discover this secret passage, however inadvertently. Mice, rats, and spiders knew every nook and cranny of this place. That was the real reason why she truly did know many parts of the castle no one else did—the creatures shared their knowledge with her.
“I can’t believe Demikin fell to them,” the queen was muttering.
“The war’s not over yet.” The king waved her off yet again. A wonder he didn’t get a cramp in the wrist. “I can believe it, though. He was an idiot of the highest degree.”
“At any rate, Priestess Ilnu is right. You must marry her off soon, or we will eventually need to deal with her ourselves. Alekur has been telling me… stories. She makes no effort to hide.” Some unseen servant refilled both of their glasses with wine.
Iseris bit her lip again. That was patently untrue, as she made every effort she could imagine to hide her abilities. Apparently, she wasn’t succeeding, though. It figured that her fool half-brother would be the one to push the issue. She had no claim to the throne, and no interest in it, and yet still he persisted, convinced that, someday, she might change her mind.
The king sighed. “I suppose you are right. Yes, yes, we will deal with it. I’ll not risk souring an ally, though—or even an enemy. Marriage is no solution to this. If I’m anything, it’s not a hypocrite.”
“True, my lord,” the queen replied.
“And I clean up my own messes. I’ve too long overlooked this one.”
“Indeed.” The quirk of the queen’s mouth must have looked cruel to Javarin. Or anyone who thought Iseris was truly the queen’s daughter. But this was much more ordinary and banal—a competitive mother bird pushing a rival’s egg from the nest.
The only thing that surprised Iseris about the situation was that the queen preferred to appear to hate her own daughter rather than admit to the mundane, somewhat sympathetic truth. Kings had indiscretions all the time. Iseris didn’t need to travel the world to be sure of that.
