water. Of the aquifer beneath the House, very deep and very old, hollowed out over eons by the gentle friction of liquid on bedrock. The earthy smell of wet stone, the lap of water so faint it was almost silence. She held that water in her head, let it wash over him to soothe the twisted feelings inside him. She asked no questions. She didn’t want to know.
Theron found the letter when he came down for dinner. As he unfolded the thick paper, Judah watched with barely-suppressed anxiety. Despite what Gavin had said, she didn’t like the letter. She didn’t like the way Theron’s eyebrows had shot up when he’d seen it, she didn’t like the way Gavin felt after spending time with his father, and she hadn’t liked the slithery feeling she’d sensed in him outside the solarium. She liked even less that Gavin knew about his brother’s letter and still hadn’t bothered to join them back in the parlor for dinner. Elly spread butter on a roll, humming; she’d made of herself a bright, glassy lake that not even the strongest wind could ruffle, but Judah could see the worry under the brightness.
As he read, one side of Theron’s upper lip curled, the way it always did when he was puzzled. “He wants me to go hunting,” he said. “This weekend, in the western woods. They’re bringing in deer.”
The words hung in the air. Neither Judah nor Elly knew quite what to do with them. It was Elly who said, finally, “Do you want to go?”
Carefully, Theron put the letter down on the table. “I don’t really think I have a choice, when it comes right down to it. But the bow’s the only weapon I’m not completely useless with. Maybe he heard about that.” His eyes, behind his glasses, were wide and almost...hopeful. Theron was so thin and nervous that he seemed younger than his years. They coddled him, the three of them, which annoyed him, but meant he’d never lacked for affection. It had never occurred to Judah that his father’s disinterest might bother him. “Elban’s never wanted anything to do with me before,” he said now, and the words were tinted with a fascination that worried Judah and scared her.
Where are you, she scratched to Gavin.
Home soon, he scratched back. An hour later, she began to feel the first swirling lurches of drunkenness. Liar, she scratched to him in angry red lines. She didn’t expect a response, and she didn’t receive one.
* * *
“I don’t like this,” Elly said the next morning.
There was porridge for breakfast, lumpy and not as hot as it should have been, and Judah’s stomach, sour with Gavin’s hangover, liked its smell no better than its looks. She lay on the sofa with her eyes closed. Through the open terrace door she could hear the dull thok, thok of practice arrows hitting the straw target Theron had set up; she’d woken to the sound and it had been chasing her ever since. Each thok made her wince, not just in her sore head but in every muscle of her body. There was no sign of Gavin. His bed hadn’t been slept in. Nobody mentioned it.
“Elban’s never been interested in Theron,” Elly went on. “He has no reason to be interested in Theron. And now suddenly he wants to take him hunting? With courtiers?”
Thok. Thok. Judah threw an arm over her eyes. “Elban’s insane.”
“Maybe, but he doesn’t do pointless things.”
There was a moment of silence.
“You don’t have anything else to say?” Elly sounded impatient, half-angry.
She didn’t mean the words to bite, but they did. Eyes still covered, she heard Elly’s exasperated sigh, and felt bad. “Sorry, El. I’m sick.”
“I know. Every time Gavin decides to drown in a bottle, I lose both of you. It’s not your fault, but it’s—” Elly’s voice stopped short, as if snipped with scissors. Judah heard the swish of skirts. Finally, she said, “It’s not that he’s with that stupid woman. And it’s not even that he’s being so obvious about it. But Gavin’s the only one who might have the remotest clue what Elban’s up to, and the fact that he’s hidden himself away somewhere—it worries me.”
Judah had no counterargument. It worried her, too. Moving her arm a spare inch gave Judah a view of Elly standing at the mirror, doing something to her hair. She was wearing one of her courtier gowns, soft and