here.” She lowered her whisper and cast a glance toward the door. “She is using me to draw you here.”
I wanted to stand up and drag her from the room, but I forced myself to remain in a prayerful posture. “I saw her edict, and I knew her threat against you was intended to bring me back.”
“Then you know you are in grave danger.”
“So are you.”
She started to shake her head, but I cut off the motion by pressing her hand.
Ruby paused, bowed her head again, and pretended to pray. “I am too young yet to provide a heart for her alchemy. But you are not.”
Too young to provide a heart for her alchemy? What was Ruby talking about?
Though I’d never seen the alchemy ingredient list for transforming the white stone, I’d heard of its existence, an ancient sheet tucked away in a compartment in the golden box containing the precious white stone. The language on the sheet was cryptic, and no one had ever been able to decipher it.
Of course, the priests had been trying for years to understand the meaning, and the queen had attempted many experiments. As far as I knew, they’d failed, including the trials using various hearts, mostly of strange, exotic, and dangerous animals.
“Last summer after the Choosing Ball,” Ruby continued, her voice barely a whisper, “I overheard Lord Haleigh speaking with the queen about her alchemy.”
I pictured the nobleman who had been one of my mother’s closest advisors over the years. Father had liked the nobleman and considered him one of the best and wisest of counselors. Lord Haleigh had been a very wealthy man, and he’d had a daughter, a young maiden by the name of Lady Gabriella. At the time I ran away, I’d heard rumors of her unrivaled beauty. Had Lord Haleigh been worried that when Gabriella came of age she might be chosen for the yearly sacrifice to Grendel?
“Lord Haleigh confronted the queen about the death of the fairest maiden.” Ruby pressed closer, whispering in my ear. “I heard him say he stumbled upon the priests in the chapel who were removing the heart from the fairest maiden. He accused the queen of using the hearts of the sacrificed maidens every year in her alchemy and said ’tis why the gems in the mountains grow year after year.”
If the white stone needed a heart, then it stood to reason that making beautiful gems would require the most beautiful person’s heart. Was that why the Choosing Ball singled out the fairest women between eighteen and twenty years? So the queen could gain such a heart for her alchemy?
A sinking weight pressed against my chest. After living on the Great Isle for only a few months, Mikkel had correctly assumed the queen had need of Grendel for her alchemy. How had I not known after all these years? How could I have remained so ignorant?
I wanted to bury my head in frustration and fury.
“Lord Haleigh pleaded with Mother to cease the practice, and if she refused, he threatened to tell the people the truth.”
“So she killed him?”
“Yes, how did you know?”
I’d guessed, and it saddened me that my suspicion was right, that I knew our mother well enough to accuse her of murder. Of course she’d want to eliminate anyone who might be a threat to her. “Does Mother know you heard her conversation?”
Ruby hesitated.
The weight inside grew heavier, almost painfully so.
“I did not mean to reveal myself.” Ruby’s whisper came out in a rush. “But once I heard of her secret ingredient, I believed that was why she killed you, so she could have your heart. I was upset, and the words just came out.”
My every thought came to a standstill. All along I’d lamented my mother’s attempt to kill me, had wanted to understand what had driven her to do something so despicable. Was this, then, the answer? Had she wanted my heart for her alchemy?
If she needed my heart, why hadn’t she waited to take it after the sacrifice to Grendel? Why elaborately plot my murder when she could have obtained what she’d wanted the way she had from maidens for years?
I shook off the questions. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on them. What I did understand was that the queen hadn’t gotten the heart of the fairest maiden this year as a result of Vilmar’s valor, and now she needed mine more than ever. I also understood why she sought Vilmar. He had learned the secret ingredient