“She’s been moved, actually,” the Red Queen said, her eyes ahead, on the city. “Just this morning, she was taken to the facility in Eastern Neverwhen. It’s the best place in the realm for people with her…condition.”
Condition, she called it.
The place where the White Queen was taken was an institution for the mentally unstable—for thoseout of time’s sync.Just like Calren had been whenshe’dattacked him in the palace.
Master Talik told us about it before we left that morning—it had quiet rooms, locked doors, healers and Timekeepers who specialized in minds that had come undone.
“Well, she’s alive. Breathing,” I said, then brought the cup to my lips and took a sip. Chamomile and honey—absolutely heavenly tea.
A bitter smile stretched her lips. “Only barely. Her heart beats, but she doesn’t speak. Doesn’t recognize anyone. Sometimes she whispers numbers.” A pause. “The healers say she will most likely stay that way.”
I looked at Silas. He was quiet as he held his teacup but didn’t drink, his gray eyes fixed on the horizon, too, on the place where the city met the hills.
I wondered what it felt like—knowing the woman in that facility was hisgrandmother. Knowing she’d tried to kill him without ever realizing he was hers. Knowing she’d given away his father fifty years ago and spent every day since then punishing the world for the loss.
“Do you agree?” The Red Queen was looking right at him. “I was told you went to see her yesterday.”
That was most definitely news to me.
Silas normally hung out at the hospital where both Calren and Reggie were getting the treatment they needed. It was very close to the inn where March and I were staying—which belonged to a friend of Master Talik’s—and so we went to see them all the time, too. The others had already left, had gone home to their families, eager to have their memories back. Their lives back.
But I’d had no idea that Silas had even wanted to go see the White Queen.
“I did,” he finally said, eyes on his tea as he played with his cup. “Nobody has any clue who…the father was. My…my grandfather.”
My eyes closed. It hurt him to talk about this—eventhinkabout this, and it hurt me, too. I couldn’t even imagine not knowing where I came from—orwhom.
Then Silas looked up at the Red Queen. “Do you, by any chance?—”
That’s when I understood why Silas had so easily accepted the Red Queen’s invitation last night, why he’d even seemed a bit eager to come to the palace.
But she cut him off. “No.”
The Red Queen put the cup down on the table. “She never told me anything. Never even hinted. I never suspected.” The smile on her face was sad. Almost…disappointed.
Silas nodded, swallowed hard, clenched his jaw.
“She still has family members alive. Maybe…” she added, and Silas nodded again.
“Yes,” he said, his voice ice cold. “Maybe.”
In that moment, I was six hours certain that he’dneverseek the White Queen’s family out or speak to them, and six hours certain thathe wouldright after we left here.
And I’d understand both.
“What did you think of her condition? Do you believe the physicians?” the Red Queen asked.
Silas took a slow sip of his tea, like he was getting himself together, and said, “I don’t know. I thought so, too, but she looked at me.” His eyes locked on the Red Queen’s. “She looked right at me, like she saw me. Like she recognized me.”
“And?” I asked, holding on tightly to the cup in my hand.
“Nothing. She went right back to whispering numbers,” Silas said.
A tick of silence.
“The courts have been informed about the allocation,” the Red Queen said then, her voice steadier now. “Basically, everybody knows everything.”
As it should be. The news about what the queens had done had spread across the realm—though the Red had never actuallydoneany of it; she’d just kept the secret and had used the stolen magic.
