my ears.
“She’s hurt,” the justice counters. He is perhaps the only man in the kingdom who can. He wraps an arm around me. “Lozar did this to her when he discovered who she was. She killed him for it.”
“Lozar,” King Fernando says. After hearing the old Ventári’s story of being on the king’s council, I wonder if he’ll show remorse. But what comes out is anything but. “I thought he’d perished long ago.”
I bite down on my tongue to stop from spewing obscenities. Instead, I let out a muffled moan.
“Her hands are the key to her magics,” Justice Méndez says. With both of them crowding me, my mouth fills with both of their scents. My blood races through me and I freeze because if I don’t, I know my body will overtake me and I will run. “She is the only Robári we’ve found since—”
“I am well aware,” King Fernando cuts him off.
I wonder who they’re referring to. I wonder what they did to them. I wonder what they will do to me if I cannot get out of here. If I fail. “Forgive me, Your Highness. Leonardo and I will see to her wounds, and she will recuperate quickly.”
King Fernando walks away toward his throne. Queen Josephine twists her pale blue dress in her hands. She looks like she’s holding her breath as he approaches her. The entire court is. He is the sun in the room, and everyone else is a weed leaning toward him every way he turns. The alman stone is a white shock against his dark clothes. I find myself wanting to reach for it. Though it isn’t pulsing with the light of memories, I wonder if there is something buried inside.
When the king whirls around, his dark eyes are on me. My heart skips, and a dread I haven’t known in a long time carves its way down my spine.
“The Sun Festival is coming up,” says King Fernando. “That should be time enough for your hand to heal. The empress of Luzou and her court are attending. It’s time our neighbors south of the Castinian sea understand what they are getting in the middle of.”
“You have my word, Your Highness.” Justice Méndez and a cluster of other judges bow in acknowledgment of the order.
The Sun Festival is less than two weeks away. I have twelve days. Twelve days to find the weapon in the palace, and destroy it. After that I get to kill the prince. I cannot be here when the festival arrives.
I bite down on my teeth to freeze my features into submission. In this moment, I’ve carved my own small victory by fooling them.
King Fernando takes a breath, and it seems as if the whole room does, too. His dark eyes bore into me, prying me apart.
“Get Las Rosas out of my sight,” King Fernando finally commands with a flick of his many-ringed fingers, and the whole court lets go of their held breath.
A long moment slithers past while Lord Las Rosas is taken away and back to the dungeons. I wonder if nobles are put somewhere else, a cell with a bed and food because even if they are criminals, they’re still not commoners—or Moria. I wonder if the court can see themselves in this display, that it could be any one of them taken away.
The two prisoners who form the Hand of Moria stand united in silence. Glassy eyes stare at the wall behind me. I know if I heal and do not complete my mission, I will become one of them. With me in their grasp, the Hand of Moria only needs one more—an Illusionári, almost as rare as myself. I think of Margo’s ferocious eyes, her stubborn determination—just snuffed out. No matter what was between us, I cannot allow even the possibility of that fate.
“Very well, Renata Convida.” When King Fernando says my name, I feel a great weight press on my chest. He draws a dagger from his hip. It is a small, pretty thing with sapphires encrusted along the hilt. Now, I realize, I know what the dark stain at my feet is from. “Until you can perform your duties as my Robári, will you swear your fealty to my court?”
I should be relieved that my deception worked and my injury can buy me enough time. But my thigh muscles strain as if rejecting my actions as I lower myself to the cold, marble ground.
“I swear it,” I say, squeezing my hand so hard I