Palace of Silver (The Nissera Chronicles #3) - Hannah West Page 0,81

I sat back on the floor to process their conversation. I had not been wrong to make the connection: the Uprising had murdered Clovis and Mauriette Lorenthi.

Footsteps padded closer. My heart beat against the base of my throat, but the sound of skirts swishing and keys chiming told me it was only Lucrez. She had been the keeper of the keys today, unlocking my door only to allow an unfamiliar maid to collect my laundry and used dishes. I hadn’t seen the Nisseran maid since before noon, when she lit my fire.

Lucrez paused outside. Then she inserted her key into the opening. Perhaps she thought she’d forgotten to lock it.

But she turned it the wrong way. The click was succinct and unmistakable. She was intentionally unlocking it.

When she swished away, I returned to peer through the keyhole. She went to her bedchamber across the corridor and walked directly to her nightstand. Very deliberately, she set her keys in the top drawer. She closed it and returned to shut her door, but the scrambled sequence made her intentions clear: she wanted me to see where she kept her keys.

My mind turned like the tumbles of the locks that held me captive. Was this an invitation to steal the keys? She had called me an idiot for trying to run and said I wouldn’t earn my freedom that way. If I couldn’t escape with the guards and dogs prowling outside, what was the point of offering this to me?

My elicrin stone.

The cellar.

The thought burned me up with excitement and hope, but fear consumed both. If Orturio caught me, the consequences would be dire. But I needed my elicrin stone to break free without getting torn apart by the dogs or freezing to death in the snow. I needed it to find Glisette and Princess Navara before the Uprising did.

I didn’t believe an anti-elicromancer rebel who belonged to the same ruthless organization that murdered Glisette’s parents would spare Glisette if given the opportunity to kill her. And if Orturio knew that she had generated the storm, he would be even less inclined toward mercy. Under normal circumstances, Glisette could squash Lord Orturio like a beetle, but these didn’t seem like normal circumstances.

I needed leverage. I needed strength. I needed my elicrin stone.

But neither of the ordinary keys on Lucrez’s ribbon matched the distinct key Orturio had used to unlock the cellar door. The key I needed was enormous with unique swirl filigree.

Think. Think. What does she expect you to do?

One of her keys probably fit the exterior locks, permitting her to run errands like the one Orturio had given her tonight. If the other fit both her door and mine, it might be a master key for the interior locks. Except the one protecting Orturio’s underground trove of “liquid gold.”

Orturio probably had the only key to the cellar. With the master key, I could sneak into Orturio’s chamber and steal it while he slept. The very notion made it hard to swallow.

Panting, grumbling breaths heralded the men’s drunken journeys to their bedchambers. I quieted my own until I heard the last door slam.

A few moments later, Lucrez left her chamber in a red nightdress. She didn’t lock it behind her.

The only sound I could hear was blood rushing through my ears. Three times, I flinched to act and changed my mind. Then, finally, I stood, wincing at the pain in my bruised, swollen ankle. If I didn’t go now, I might never get another chance.

Muffling the sound of the door latches with my sleeve, I limped directly to Lucrez’s nightstand and opened the drawer. Amid bottles of perfume and cosmetics, there they were: the keys tied to the red ribbon. I felt a rush of triumph, but I wasn’t even a quarter of the way to finding my elicrin stone and escaping.

Light footsteps pattered through the hall, and I heard someone blowing out the lanterns. I hobbled back to my chamber and quietly shut the door. Clutching the keys to my chest, I sank onto my bed.

I waited until everything fell still, and waited longer.

Eventually, I mustered the courage to venture back across the corridor to make sure one of the keys worked in both my door and Lucrez’s. It did—the interior master key.

Limping gingerly on the cold stone floor, I knelt to peer through keyholes into firelit rooms. If it weren’t for the chill, I doubted the fires would be blazing so brightly, aiding my search. I only had to look into