and answers to her.”
“All answer to the king.” He glowers.
“Unless you have looked at the marriage contract with your own eyes, you cannot presume to know that.”
The air in the room grows thick. At first I think it is tension, until I realize it is rage. Rage that I have dared to defy him. Rage that I have plucked at a thread of uncertainty. But I do not look away. Slowly, my eyes on his the entire time, I cross my hands to my wrists and let them rest closer to my knives, reminding him that I am not some hapless courtier he can intimidate.
His eyes sharpen with understanding, and a thirst for vengeance. “Take them to the king’s audience room. He is in attendance there.”
I give a brusque nod and drop my hands back to my side. “That is all we wished for.”
I bite back a humorless smile of triumph when his jaw clenches in irritation at the thought that he is doing precisely what we wanted.
Chapter 57
Genevieve
Alarm snakes along my shoulders. I have made a bold move, but the door I thought open is not. With no other choice, I begin heading back to the castle, my heart thudding as loudly as the blacksmith’s hammer.
Maraud did not come. Only something dire would keep him from his word. Unless—my steps slow—he had planned this from the beginning, a setup to even the score between us.
I try the idea on much as I might a hair shirt, and though it itches and scratches painfully, I find myself hoping that it is the case. Better that this be some well-thought-out retaliation rather than some new misfortune that has befallen him.
I am halfway across the courtyard when my dismay at Maraud’s failure to appear shifts to panic. The note!
I must get back to my room and get the letter to the king before others find it. I look up at the sky. I have not been gone that long. Surely their meeting has not adjourned.
I have just resumed walking when a loud commotion erupts over by the stables. I stop near one of the wells and glance up. A cluster of a half dozen king’s guard, led by General Cassel, strides toward the castle. The guard’s bodies block my view of who they have in custody. The crowd rapidly parts for them, and it is not until they veer around one of the wine stalls that I catch a glimpse of a deep red gown and a woman’s black hair. Sybella.
A fresh wave of panic slams into my chest. What is Cassel doing with her? Why is she under guard? I take two steps in their direction before I realize there is nothing I can do to help her. Not like this. I whirl back around, intending to enter the palace through the servants’ entrance near the chapel, but am stopped by something hard pressing into my back.
“What have you done with Maraud?”
I recognize Valine’s voice immediately. Is that who the man with Sybella was?
“I’ve done nothing to Maraud. I’ve been out here looking for him for over an hour.”
The knife against my back eases. “Why are you looking for him?”
“Because we had planned to meet. Over at the fletcher’s hut. But when I got there, he was nowhere to be found. I’ve waited, thinking he’d been delayed or something had come up.” I do not tell her my fear that it was his plan all along to humiliate me. The fact that she is here does much to allay that concern.
“He left to meet you over three hours ago, wanting to arrive early to ensure the fletcher’s hut was safe. I have not seen him since.”
I shift my gaze to the general, who has almost reached the palace. “Do you think General Cassel saw him? Is that who he is escorting?”
She glances over her shoulder. “That is not Maraud.”
The guards step back just then, to make room for the others to pass over the causeway. The man with Sybella is taller than Maraud, nearly half again as broad, and dressed in a peasant costume. Beast.
“I must go,” I tell Valine. “Send word if you learn anything of Maraud.”
* * *
Slipping back into the palace is nearly as easy as it was to slip out, although this time I take the back stairs to my chamber. I open my door, step into the room, and toss my small sack onto the bed, then freeze. My note to the king is gone. But