Page 64 of A Treachery of Swans

I furrow my brow, suspicion digging into me. “What is it?”

“I saw you jump.” The words are strained, tainted somehow. “From the chapel window. You fell. And I—” Again, her breath catches oddly. “You were just lying there, covered in glass, bleeding from your side. Mothers, there was bloodeverywhere.”

“Did you… did you see the beast?”

“No. It was gone by the time I got there—I think it gave up chasing you after you jumped. We were both covered in your blood, so I picked you up and hid us both in the shadows until I was certain we were alone, and—”

“Hold on,” I interrupt. “Youpicked me up?”

Marie sweeps her hair over her shoulder. “I’m stronger than I look.”

Which certainly doesn’t help the image my mind has conjured of Marie cradling my limp form in her arms like a knight carrying off his bride. My cheeks heat. “I see” is the only respectable response I can think of. “And then?”

“And then I brought you here.” She presses her palms to her eyes, and it’s the first time I’ve seen her truly weary. As she does, she sits back on her heels, and I notice a low table behind her, a candelabra set upon it for light. Beside it lies a pile of items: my blood-smeared doublet, the Queen’s sapphire dagger, and—

“Buttons!” I exclaim.

Marie looks around in confusion, then follows my gaze to theenchanted button. “Oh, yes. I found it in the Step-Queen’s study when I was looking for you. I recognized it from—well, from the time you threatened me. Several times.” She huffs out a laugh, reaching over and passing it to me. “I did have to, ah, remove your jacket.” I could swear she blushes then. “To bandage your wound.”

I take the items from her, then lift up my shirt curiously to find a layer of red silk wrapped around my abdomen. It looks to be a scarf—a familiar scarf, no less. “Did you get this from the dressing room?”

She pouts. “I only have so many petticoats, you know. And theyareexpensive.”

I shake my head at her and slip Buttons into the pocket of my breeches before picking up the Step-Queen’s dagger. The sapphire glints at me slyly from the pommel.

I scowl at it. “After Anne stabbed me with this, my disguise vanished.” I tell her quickly what happened in the study and how Aimé had run in to see me transform. “There must have been a spell on it.”

Marie squints at the dagger. “Can I see it?”

I hand it to her, and she holds it up to the light, turning it over. She scrapes her nail along the flat of the blade, then knocks the sapphire pommel against the side of the chaise.

“Hey!” I exclaim. “Be gentle with that!” I have been intending to add the weapon to my arsenal.

Marie doesn’t acknowledge me. She gets to her feet, still frowning at the knife. She taps her fingertips on the sharp edge, sniffs them. Then she moves to the nearby candelabra and sticks the dagger into its flame.

I make a strangled sound of alarm.

“What?” Marie demands, not shifting her focus from the weapon.

“I said, be gentle with it!”

She gives me a flat look. “I am.”

“You’re setting it on fire!”

“I’m setting it on firegently.” She pulls out the dagger once more, the redness already fading from the heated blade. The edge of it sizzles strangely, and a moment later a scent reaches me—faintly, unpleasantly sweet, like a rose stem rotting in the stale water of a vase. A few spots along the dagger have blackened.

“Poison,” I realize. “Of course.”

“Most of it was gone,” Marie says. “I imagine it rubbed off when she…”

“When she stabbed me. Pleasant.”

“Well,” Marie says, “that would explain why you looked on the verge of death when I found you, even though your wound was not very deep. And why you wouldn’t wake up. Your body must have been fighting the poison.” The recollection leaves her looking troubled. “Do you think the beast was her doing?”

“It must have been. She was clearly using sorcery. Or at least, she was able to create potions that allowed her to use sorcery. I’ve never even seen my father do that.” I don’t admit that there is much my father has withheld from me when it comes to magic. “Regardless, she certainly knew the beast. She tried to reason with it before it killed her. It seemed like she lost control of it.”

“So the mystery is solved,” Marie says. “We can only hope that the guards managed to capture that monster and kill it. I’ll… I’ll have to go back to the Château soon and gauge the situation.” She seems to dread the prospect.

---