Page 65 of Thorn Season
“Because then Lord Rupert will spend the day there, Lady Sabira will abandon the room because she can’t stand him, and without the pleasure of gossiping about Sabira’s winning streak, Carmen will grow bored and retire for an afternoon nap.”
I frowned. “Sabira can’t stand Rupert?”
“Well, she conveniently remains at least twenty paces from him at all times, so it’s either that or a legal order.”
I tipped the crystal into a waste bucket, wincing at the loud clatter. “You’re brilliant.”
Tari ignored the compliment. Because the moment she saw mypained grimace, her own expression darkened. “I think it’s time to leave court.”
“All right, I’ll call a carriage for you.”
“Alissa.”She slapped her cloth onto the dresser. “You could’ve died last night.”
“If they’d wanted me dead, they wouldn’t have threatened me first. Garret must be right.”
“A frightening start to any sentence,” she said flatly.
I threw her a look. “I’m serious. Whether or not they have a larger end goal, these copycats must be Wholeborn purists. That man would’ve... hurt me.” I shivered, remembering the pullback of his fist. “But as long as he believed I was a Wholeborn, I don’t think he would’ve killed me.” I added with bite, “They only kill Wielders.”
Tari’s mouth skewed with uncertainty, but it was easier to feign confidence when I hadn’t shown her the bruising around my ribs—the bruising that would’ve brought my father to tears if he’d seen it.
I’d faced one of Marge’s killers, and he’d been monstrous in his violence. So, yes, after last night’s horror, I ached to huddle in bed while Amarie brought me broth and hummed a Verenian lullaby, like she had during my blueneck fever. But how long would that safety last?
I hadn’t used my specter last night, which bought me more time before the copycats realized what I was. But if they really were scouring Daradon for every last Wielder—in every province and street and back alley—then the compass would find me eventually.
I had to find it first.
And I had to find it before another innocent took the brunt of those fists.
“I’m not leaving,” I said, firmer now. “That man wouldn’t havewarned me off my search unless I was on the right track.”
“So, you think Nelle is the keeper?” Tari’s voice sank with a disappointment that matched my own.
Because the only way Nelle could have known about my search was through Carmen.
I hated imagining that my friend had any involvement with the copycats—or with my attack—but thanks to that incriminating pink feather, Carmen knew I’d been snooping around her suite. Had she gotten word to her mother, not realizing that Nelle would threaten me? Worse—had Carmen dispatched the attacker herself?
Or was there a third, kinder alternative I couldn’t yet see?
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “But the keeper now knows I’m searching, and they’re clearly worried. The answers must be here at court. I just need to find them.”
“And if that man returns?”
I looked away. Tari didn’t know exactly what had paralyzed me last night. That it hadn’t really been the man, but the memories of the Opal, roaring back from the grave on a tide of blood and roses.
It had been the idea of having to watch another man’s life wink out from his eyes.
“Then I’ll do what I have to,” I mumbled, not even believing the words myself. But as I thought more seriously about my attacker returning, I added, “I really can call a carriage for you. I’ll be all right.”
“Oh? And who’s going to hold your hair when you’re heaving over the sink? Lord Rupert?”
I imagined Rupert fumbling with my hair—red-faced, awkward, slipping on the back of my skirts—and I actually cracked a slight smile. With ahmof vindication, Tari continued cleaning.
Despite Garret calling her my sidekick, Tari had never followed meinto trouble blindly; she followed so I wouldn’t bear the trouble alone. Of course she wouldn’t let me face this new threat without her.
But also... she seemed oddly content at the palace. There was a new glow of purpose about her; a shrewd, hyperaware glint in her eyes—the same look her mother always wore when facing difficult cases at the clinic.
Tari had noticed Sabira’s dislike of Rupert when I hadn’t. She’d choreographed Carmen’s movements for the day. She’d even orchestrated her own recruitment into the workforce—via poison, admittedly, but still...
