Igniting Darkness (Courting Darkness Duology #2) - Robin LaFevers Page 0,39

horses nearly running down the children in the road, the test he put Maraud through before we left the city of Angoulême, and the small army he sent after us. “The good news is that I believe every word that you say. You do not need to convince me. You said your sisters were safely gone. What power does the lawyer still have over them?”

Her hands ball in her skirts. “He has deduced that I had them removed from the palace. Since only he and I are interested in them, it was inevitable that he would figure it out. This recently discovered body hands him one more weapon in making his case to the king.”

I hold my tongue, afraid that if I speak, she will stop sharing her secrets.

“If I am absolved of this murder, I am certain Fremin will tell the king the man was sent by my brother and that I killed him. It will be too much proof for the king to ignore. He will have to act.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Why?” She tilts her head. “Why would you risk the king’s favor to help?”

“Because if not for me, they—you—would not be in danger now. Besides, it is Mortain’s work, after all.”

She is silent a long moment. “No.” She returns to the window. “It is not.”

Disbelief scuttles along my spine. “You wish to kill outside Mortain’s grace?”

A smile that feels more like despair flashes briefly, then it is gone. “Mortain’s marques do not align so conveniently with our own wishes.”

And of course, that is true.

She looks away, staring at something outside. “Actually, that is not the whole truth. The nature of Mortain’s marques has changed some—”

A sharp rap on the door interrupts her words. We barely have time to stop our tongues from moving before the regent herself strides in, head held at an imperious angle, face white with anger.

I am much quicker to curtsy than Sybella, desperately wishing to hide my face. “Madame Regent,” Sybella drawls. Her voice holds a note of challenge I do not understand—until I realize that she is doing it for me. To keep the regent’s attention on herself. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

The regent lifts her hand to shoo me out of the room. Even though my head is down and she normally acts as if servants are invisible, as I scuttle to the door, her haughty gaze flicks over me. Her hand freezes in midair. “Genevieve?”

Sybella momentarily forgotten, she takes three steps closer to where I hover by the door. “What are you doing here?” Her voice is a low thrum of anger. “You were told—warned—to stay away from this woman.”

I bob another curtsy and keep my eyes downcast. “Madame, she is not a leper. There is no—”

“You know nothing.”

I open my mouth even as my brain scrambles for some clever excuse. Behind the regent, Sybella gives a sharp shake of her head, and my mouth snaps shut.

“Go,” the regent says. “Wait for me in your chambers.”

“Very well, Madame.” Her gaze sweeps from my head down to my feet, taking in my maid’s garb. Desperate to remove myself before her clever brain can catch up, I quit the room.

* * *

In the hallway, I force my movements to a casualness I do not feel, as if I am naught but a servant on her rounds. I saunter past the two guards at Sybella’s door and into the room next to hers. Once inside, I hurry to the adjoining wall.

“How do you know each other?” the regent asks.

“I introduced myself shortly after she arrived at court, nearly a week ago. She had not seen me in a few days and came to see if I was ill or in need of anything.”

“How kind of her.” Even through the thick stone, the regent’s voice is as tart as an unripe quince. “Although that does not quite explain why she is in servant’s garb.”

Rutting hell. She has begun to piece the puzzle together. Sybella diverts her. “You wished to see me?”

“Not really, but I bring you a message. The king has declared that the cause of death for the body that was found was accidental. You have been absolved of all charges.”

For a moment, elation fills me. The king followed the evidence. It quickly fades when I realize that Sybella will have no choice but to kill Fremin now.

But she will not have to do it alone.

* * *

Moments later, when my door bursts open without so much as a