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Ellyn took some finding. She wasn’t among the organized chaos of the kitchens, nor was she in the steam-filled laundry rooms. There were others I could ask for help, but few I trusted more. I eventually found her in the communal sleeping area, folding clothes at one of the many beds laid out in rows. I stepped from the wall panel, emerging from the gloom, and snuck up behind her. The other maids chatted at the far end of the room, readying for bed now their shifts were over.
I poked Ellyn in the ribs.
She yelped and swung a right hook, forcing me to duck. “Lark!” she gasped, then shoved me in the chest and flicked my hood down. “Sneaking around the back walkways, you fiend! Can’t you just walk about the palace like a lord, now you’re innocent?”
I grinned and dropped onto the edge of the bed. “News travels fast.”
“Like wildfire, down here. Get off my clothes. Or make yourself useful and help fold them.”
Back on my feet, I picked up her washing and began to fold alongside her. “If I walk the main halls, by the time I’ve juggled and spouted poems for the nobility in my way, a day and night would have passed.”
Her brow crinkled but she kept her smile and picked up a shirt, quickly flipping it around—the motions so well-practiced she didn’t need to think to perform them. “I forget you’reso desiredyou get accosted wherever you go.”
“It’s truly a curse.” I joked, but I also existed to please, and the demands of pleasure never ended. Most days, I loved it, but being accused of murder, thrown in a cell, and then blackmailing the king had rather ruined my mood. Ellyn saw some of that when she next side-eyed me.
To keep her from asking all those personal questions in her eyes, I picked up a blouse from her wrinkled pile and held it to my chest. “You’d look better in green,” I told her.
She snatched it off me, but laughed. “What do you want?”
“I need another favor.”
“By now you surely owe me a hundred.”
“What’s another favor between friends?” I folded some more, catching glimpse of a few of the staff watching me from across the room. Our banter had drawn attention. They’d be listening too. Being beautiful as well as an enigma truly was a curse, some days. “Where are the guests from War residing?” I whispered.
“What are you up to now?” she whispered back.
“Fighting fires.”
She chuckled in disbelief. “I’ve never known anyone to find trouble like you do.”
“I rather think it finds me.”
“Hm, this is me, Lark. I know you.” She scooted her pile of washing to the end of the bed and leveled her glare on me. “You thrive on chaos.”
“No, I thrive oncontrollingchaos.” Like keeping all the balls in the air at once. Chaos restrained.That, I loved. Not chaos unleashed and running amok.
When Ellyn met my gaze, like this, I was in for some stern advice or terrible news. “I’m glad you’re free,” she said, instead. “Thinking of you in the dungeons. It wasn’t right.”
“Well, imagine being there.” I smiled, but she saw through the grin. She usually did. I let the flimsy smile go and sighed. “There is more happening here than the queen’s death. I need to control it, before it turns into that chaos you believe I court.”
“I know, and I’m sorry, for the queen. You and her were close—”
I laughed, startling Ellyn, and everyone listening in, including me. “That’s one rumor which refuses to die.”
“Laugh all you want, you liked her.”
“Sweet Ellyn, I like a lot of people.”
She planted a hand on her cocked hip. “You can admit it to me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Where are War staying? Tell me that and I’ll admit to liking the queen.”
She smiled again, happy to have outmaneuvered me. “In the southern meadows rooms. Who are you looking for?”
“Draven, a lord—”
“Oh yes,WarlordDraven,” she purred his name in a manner quite unbecoming of a lady, of which she wasn’t, which was why I enjoyed her company above all others.
