Page 101 of The Court of Venus

So it was true. Roland, now deemed a traitor, could only be carried over it.

I had just risen to my feet when a door groaned open across the courtyard. With a sharp gasp, I ducked behind the wall again. A pair of guards swung cups of ale through the air, spilling onto the cobblestones. They’d climbed down from one of the four rampart towers and were striding over to their post at the entrance to the pit, the staircase winding deep into the earth.

One loudly boasted of a favored brothel upriver.

“Well, you won’t get any pleasure tonight,” the other said. And then, more quietly, “Not with her here.”

They broke into a fit of laughter.

Along the walls, a long shadow rose and spread.

Miranda emerged from a tower across the yard. Torchlight shone on her bald head, the puckered scar across her face. Her blood-tinted eyes were narrowed slits as she surveyed the courtyard. Her gaze roamed across where I was hidden, then down to the graveyard and chapel, as if it could turn over each stone.

I remembered, with perfect clarity, the agony of her tearing through my flesh.

She barked an order to the guards to be quiet.

When she’d shut herself back inside the tower, the first guard cursed at his companion, batted his cup of ale so it clattered to the ground.

I took a single, shaky breath, then called on my magic. It tiptoed forward, stretching toward their minds. Fatigue hit them at once—they collapsed in a heap. I raced down the rampart steps and dragged their limp bodies into the graveyard, laying them side by side beneath the burnt tree. Then, with mounting dread, I turned to the pit. It swallowed all moonlight.

The stairs that led into the foreboding dark were narrow, damp, covered in moss. I nearly lost my balance, my nails scraping against the slick wall, my body wavering over the drop. Once I’d found my footing, I pressed my brow against the stone and allowed myself another deep breath before I continued on. If only I could summon the bravery I felt in others.

Sconces were carved into the rock every twenty steps or so, but the torchlight was dim. When my eyesight adjusted to the gloom, I realized that the sconces were each beside a door. One was cracked open, the cell empty. Inside was a four-poster bed, a washing bin, a writing desk, a rug. It was only missing a window and a hearth. If not for that, and if not for the crude stone and the bite in the air, it might have been a chamber in Redhall.

Most of the prisoners of the Tomb were not common thieves and murderers. These were the king’s enemies—many born into nobility—who had displeased or betrayed him. Perhaps he allowed them to live in relative comfort as a final cruelty. As they lay shivering on the same fine sheets they always had, they would think the king merciful. A last-minute pardon would surely arrive any moment.

It was a horrible trick.

Another guard sat in a wooden chair nearly fifty meters down. He glanced up when he heard my foot slip. Our eyes met. My power shot like an arrow into his mind before he could shout, and he slumped over.

I tried a few doors as the stairs wound deeper, all unlocked and empty. That unnerved me. I hurried down to where the guard had fallen and searched his doublet for a key ring. Nothing.

Inspecting a cell door, I found a small latch for trays of food, but no keyhole. The opening was just large enough for a hand. Only when I peered closer did I notice the etchings on the wooden doorframe.

It was a list of names, crossed out in what appeared to be dried blood.

Thomas Feydon

Harris Westerbook

Gertrude, Queen of Alvion

A chill swept through me. I descended deeper still, the air icier with each twist of the stairs. I read the list of names scratched on each door as I passed, my terror rising the longer I couldn’t find Roland’s, until one made me pause.

Prospero the All-Knowing

My hand lingered on the streak across his name. Promising myself I’d return, I continued down the spiral until at last:

Mercurio Dalliance

Glendower the Unfortunate

William Hoo

Alice Seton

Roland Daymour, Lord Chancellor of Alvion