Page 81 of The Starling and the Hatter

Guards! My relief nearly made me faint. Instead I took a breath and screamed, “He’s out of his cell!”

Heavy footfalls pounded down the stairs, but Daggon was already back in his cell.

The guard came into view. “What’s going on?”

I spoke up before Daggon could. “He picked the lock and came out of his cell,” I said, jabbing a finger at Daggon, my breathing labored. “Then he attacked me.” I pushed my hair aside with shaking fingers so that he could see the blood dripping from the corner of my eyebrow.

“She’s crazy,” my brother spat.

“Check his hands. I had to stab him with this.” I held up the brooch, pointy end up so it could catch the firelight.

“Crazy family,” the guard muttered, but then the blood dripping from Daggon’s hands caught his attention. He took out his key and opened the cell, roughly searching my brother until he found the small metal tools that he’d used to pick the lock. Then he shoved him back into the cell, making him fall to his knees. “Cursed festival rats,” the guard spat as he locked the cell again. Then he turned back to me.

“Thank you,” I said.

He just grunted and held out his hand. “The weapon?”

I had no choice but to hand over the brooch and hope I wouldn’t need it again.

He put it in his pocket. “You two really should learn to get along,” he said. “You’ll be down here together for a long time.” Then he turned and walked away as though his words hadn’t torn down all my hope.

Did that mean my guilt had already been decided? Was there to be no more inquiry? No more questions?

I cradled my aching head in my hands and stumbled back to the bench, lowering myself onto it and lying down. Was this my life now? This tiny cage? How ironic that I had set out on this quest in order to find my freedom and instead found myself physically caged.

Maddox

It was near dawn, and for all I knew, they’d found White hours ago, but I had to keep looking. So the next time I saw a pair of guards standing near the wall, keeping watch, I crept close enough that I could hear them talking.

They spoke mostly of mundane things, complaining about the extra work caused by inviting so many commoners onto the grounds, asking after each other’s families, and even saying some not-so-kind things about the duchess.

“I’ll have their heads!” one of them said in a high-pitched mockery of the duchess’s words.

They both laughed “Really though,” the other guard said, “do you think they’re all guilty?”

“Probably.”

“So the magician goes free?”

“Maybe. Though the duke won’t be happy about it.”

“And the duchess will take it out on the rest.”

My heart sank even further. They were giving up on finding White. Would they truly assume Elise was just as guilty as her brothers? Would they punish Elise while Robert White was free to roam the villages and continue to pilfer from every pocket he could?

I moved away from the guards as the dim light of dawn filtered through the grounds. I started making my way around the palace yet again, hoping the sunlight might reveal something that I’d missed.

By the time I made my way around to the maze again, the sunlight was bringing the gardens back to color and detail. That’s when I saw something white on the ground, right up against the maze’s outer wall. I went closer and realized it was a card—a playing card, the kind that White used for his tricks. I picked it up and examined the hedge where it had been and saw that it was not nearly as dense as most of the hedge wall. In fact, when I tried to stick my arm through, I met very little resistance. Was this how White had evaded capture during the night? He’d hidden in the maze and any time someone came looking inside, he would crawl out through this spot and bide his time until they gave up?

I hurried to the nearest guard, nearly getting my head cut off in the process, but after I told them my suspicions, they were willing to set guards on every side of the maze.

“I’ll send two men in to search,” the captain said.

“Their armor will give them away,” I pointed out.

“So then he’ll crawl out through one of his hidey holes, and we’ll catch him that way.”

“Can I go in and look?” I asked, not able to stand the idea of doing nothing now that I felt we were so close.