Maybe it was the blow to the head. Maybe that was why she couldn’t seem to understand what was happening. But what shedid know was she couldn’t lose control a second time. So, she brushed her hair and studied her chained ankle peeking from the silk skirt with a heart as heavy as it’d ever been.
When Riselda emerged again, it was in a resplendent indigo gown, the exact shade of her eyes. “Let me style it for you, my dear.”
Lux’s voice came out smoother than expected. “Do you mean for us to enjoy the party this evening, Riselda?”
The reply snaked around from her back. “We certainly will. The rest of Ghadra? I think not.”
That maniacal laughter again. It sent a shiver up her spine.
Lux played into it. “What do you have in store for them?”
Riselda’s face suddenly appeared before her, and Lux jolted. “Who gave you that dagger, Lucena?”
“I purchased it from a peddler.”Trueenough.
Glittering eyes narrowed for a moment before Riselda spun. The cabinet along the far wall opened with the softest creak, and Lux gasped.
The shelves were filled to bursting. Hundreds of vials stoppered and shimmering silver.
Riselda gripped an axe from the topmost shelf, and she pulled forth Lux’s blade from the bodice of her dress. She tossed them onto the bed. A matching set.
“These are mine. A very long time ago, I paid dearly for one axe, one dagger, and one seedling. I paid dearly for my plan of revenge. I’ve dreamt of this day for one hundred and fifty years.” Her eyes rolled back into her skull as her body shuddered. “This dagger was stolen from me. So you can understand my interest in how it came to be in your possession. And thus, embedded in my chest.” Riselda rubbed the smooth skin, pale and exposed, below her throat.
One hundred and fifty years.Lux pressed her eyes closed. “How old are you, Riselda?”
“Nearly two hundred I suppose.” She pulled at a loose tendril of ebony hair having fallen over a flawless cheek.
“And whose face do you wear?”
Riselda scoffed, her words rushed and offended. “You think I would resort to prying off a cadaver’s lips when I’ve my own methods? I am not the Tamishes with their uncivilized ways.”
“But then—”
“Gracious me. Lucena, all you must learn to do is read what is in front of you and adjust your rhetoric accordingly. Most believe whatever you tell them, should you say it well enough.”
Lux rubbed at the space above her heart. Staring down at the axe and knife, she felt sure she lived a nightmare. But her eyes were unable to stray from the cabinet for long. “Whose lifeblood is that?”
“Oh, I thought that’d be quite obvious. Perhaps I hit you too hard… Though you can’t fault me, really. Your attack was unexpected.” She reached back to run careful fingers across the rows. “These are the victims of my plague, of course.”
Chapter forty-eight
Riselda unstopped a tinyvial of thickened, gold liquid. She inhaled, filling her lungs with a smile. “Ahh. Jasmine is one of my favorite scents.” She held it from her.
The chain clanked loudly against the floor as Lux scrambled away. “Don’t bring that stuff near me!”
“Relax. You’ll ruin your disposition, and I don’t have all the ingredients here to clear it. This requires more than just a sniff or touch of your fingertips to activate the disease.” She replaced the stopper all the same. “My last vial. But it looks like it will go unused. Same for the rat. Though I suppose the howlers won’t mind its unleashing.”
“And here I thought they were some sort of pet.”
Riselda laughed. Truer to herself, low and melodic. “Hardly. They ingest the vial’s contents, I speak a carefully crafted incantation over it, and then release them into the streets. More so the alleys, if you’re truly interested. From there, nature’s way carries it on.” A drawn pause. Riselda must have sensedher confusion. “Fleas, darling. They love rats. And they love the filthy beds of Ghadra’s poor just as well.”
“It’s blood-borne?”
“At first. The boils, as I’ve told you, shouldn’t be touched either.”
“You harvested their lifeblood in the clearing. Before the trees claimed them.” Lux spoke more to herself than Riselda as her mind whirled with what lengths this woman had gone to.
“Indeed. You’ve been spying on my whereabouts for some time, haven’t you? I shouldn’t be surprised.” Riselda smiled, affectionately, despite the chain currently leading from Lux’s ankle and Lux having nearly killed her hours ago. She sighed, content. “I’m sincerely delighted I don’t have to argue with that doddering, old alchemist any longer. One well-placed knock to the head, and poof! Dead. Are you ready? We won’t want to disappoint. The main act simply wouldn’t be the same.”
