Barthl covers his face with his hands. To my surprise and delight, he has turned out to be a complete lightweight; it took just two glasses ofglohweinfor him to start slurring. “I have not tasted,” he says slowly, “myownearwax.”
“Awfully specific,” Emeric says into his own goblet beside me. My mouth twists, and he shoots me a sideways smile, eyes creasing at the corners.
I shuffle the cards and lay them out again. “Barthl, your turn.”
Barthl’s hand slaps onto a card. “Favorite habit . . . of your sweetheart.”
He turns over the Queen of Shields. There’s an awkward pause as Umayya fixes her shawl. She’s moved into the castle, along with the rest of the Gänslinghaus residents; she, Trudl, and Gisele are working on converting the lower levels into a school for many, many more children than just the ones from the Gänslinghaus. I never asked, but I always assumed that left Umayya with little time for sweethearts.
I’ve assumed wrong. “He pets every cat and dog we see,” she admits.
The room erupts with shouts of astonishment. Apparently I’m not the only one who made assumptions; Joniza’s jaw is on the floor.
It’s just us seven in the riverfront wing’s library. Eight, if you count Poldi, who we found burning resentfully in Adalbrecht’s study after the wedding. He’s lounging on the hearth with a jug of mead, though. He can’t pick up cards without setting them ablaze.
Technically, with this being the first night of Winterfast, one would expect a grander party from the new margravine. The new margravine, however, is doing things her own way.
The official explanation is that the trial changed her, like it changed Kunigunde and Adalbrecht. She’s embraced the idea, because it gives her further excuses to chase the wolves from this castle, to help the Order of Prefects flush the Wolfhünden from the streets.
And tonight, Gisele’s way means enough tasteful garlands to make the room smell of fresh fir, a hot kettle ofglohwein, and a card game.
Umayya picks the next card. “Who in this room would you sell for ten thousandgilden?”
It’s the Queen of Grails.
“Everyone,” Joniza answers with zero hesitation. She’s also moved into the castle now. It’s a much better stage than the bard-in-residence of Castle Falbirg. “Ten thousand? Done. And then I’d hire Vanja to steal you back.”
“I should raise my rates,” I say.
Ragne yawns. It’s been over a week since the Göttermarkt acquired a new set of statues, and we’re getting closer to the new moon. She likes being a human around Gisele as much as possible, but I’m sure the day is wearing on her.
“Last question for the night.” I spread out the cards.
Joniza’s watched me carefully. And she’s one of the two people at this table who know what to look for when I’m dealing. Sure enough, she flips the Queen of Roses. “Where are you going after this?”
I sweep the cards back into the deck. “The inn.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Still not sure,” I admit. “I’ll tell you when I am.”
Emeric’s studying me again, but he keeps his thoughts to himself.
We leave Castle Reigenbach together. The guards at the gatehouse are still very confused about how things have shaken out; one calls me Vanja and one calls me Marthe, and I hear them debating as Emeric and I head down the hill, arm in arm.
Once I moved out of the riverfront wing last week, he went back to the prefect outpost. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little bit touched. I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t make sure the inn I chose was close to the outpost.
I couldn’t stay in Castle Reigenbach. They cleaned out the margrave’s wing, uncovering hidden caches with plenty of evidence to confirm he richly deserved to be turned into an embarrassing statue. Letters, plans, collections of animal skulls . . . and that was just the study.
I couldn’t stay there. Not even after Gisele gave her mother the pearls back and asked her parents to leave.
Too many shadows, too many memories, too many ghosts. It’s my own ceremonial house now; I will shut my ills there and leave them behind.
That’s both literal and figurative. Irmgard’s in one of the dungeons. I thought about going to see her, going to taunt her, and then I realized she had to live with the fact that I was running around, free as a bird, while she was locked up in a cold, grim cell.
(I went and taunted her anyway. No regrets. Eiswald tricked me into bringing down Adalbrecht; she didn’t trick me into sainthood.)
And then I took the thousandgildenand carried it to city hall. When I left, not a single citizen of Minkja owed the march a single red penny.
