Page 88 of Grave Flowers
The red dress.
For me. Or, more accurately, perhaps for a character set to play me.
No wonder he was so consumed with the play. It wasn’t amusement; it was an indictment of us, hidden within a reenactment. All the court would be there to see it. Yet how would it be enough to secure his power? If he had indeed poisoned Inessa, he must’ve used poison from the Oscura to do so. Maybe he planned to use another. I knew which one I would use in this instance: mad minds. They grew in Aeric’s owngarden now, and were docile due to their mistreatment—yet possibly still potent enough to loosen tongues and liberate their transgressions.
I could see it.
The play revealing King Claudius’s murder and forcing the court’s hand. Those who didn’t support Aeric would quickly realize that they must, and those already on his side would be enraged and swift to act on Aeric’s behalf. Mad minds made you recount wrongs you might have done at any point in your life, but after seeing the play, King Claudius’s murder would be at the forefront of Prince Lambert’s mind. Aeric would expose us to mad minds. We would babble our sins before the court, confirming that the play was not fiction but rather recent history. Aeric planned to run Prince Lambert through, but I would be arrested. Tried. And then executed.
In a way, it was genius. Montario coin was a convincing bribe, but not in the face of such accusations. What was gold in the face of death? Those who’d pocketed it would realize their necks were at risk. Somehow, no matter what, I’d have to be certain I wasn’t exposed to mad minds and incriminated before the Acusan court. If Aeric lay a trap, I’d slip around it so he might fall into mine later. No matter what, I had to kill him. Otherwise, Inessa would never be free. Prince Lambert might go down, and perhaps it’d serve me to let him do so. If he saw a reenactment of King Claudius’s death only, his focus would be upon that, and he’d rant about it. As long as I avoided exposure to the mad minds, I’d survive. Aeric could run him through—if he had the stomach for it. In the chaos after, if I might get near Aeric, I’d prick him with my ring to save Inessa. Then Father and I would flee home.
It would be difficult not to have the Montario coin to save us from the coming famine, but Aeric had mentioned Acus needed rocks. Perhaps I might arrange a trade agreement with them and get us the money we needed to buy food.
Still, more mysteries abounded. Who was the figure who had revealed King Claudius’s murder to Aeric? Certainly, ghosts plagued thepalace. Inessa. Yorick. They, though, were only themselves. They sent no messengers. If I closed my eyes, I could revisit the shade in my mind. I could hear it. Oddly, familiarity came over me. The figure was cloaked but … but … it was my height. I knew, because I’d been on the palace roof before and had stood by the same guardians. And the voice … if I imagined it speaking aloud instead of in a whisper, I could pinpoint it.
Once upon a terror tale.
My blood went cold.
That’s what I’d heard it say before.
It was Inessa’s voice, the one she used in her feral states. Had Inessa been pretending to be a spirit sent from King Claudius to tell Aeric to kill Prince Lambert? But it made no sense. None. Prince Lambert and Queen Gertrude, before she died, were our allies.
What was Inessa’s plan? I tried to take a breath, but the air snagged in my throat. If I didn’t learn what it was before tomorrow night, I’d be doomed. But how might I? I’d already searched in her quarters and cut apart her red dress. A thought flashed in my mind.
The plaque that the grave flower had spat out.
Alifair had said Felys put prayers in their plaques. If prayers might be tucked within them, other things could be as well. I fished it out of my pocket. My hands shook and I nearly dropped it. Gripping it, I held it so tightly that my fingers turned white. The plaque was narrow and light, so much so that you wouldn’t think it had a hidden compartment unless you knew. I turned it on its side. Dovetail joints, nearly indistinguishable because they were so precise and perfectly aligned with the grain, ran around the edge. I pushed. A thin, narrow drawer released from the bottom, thrust out violently with a spring mechanism. Parchment, folded into tiny squares, scattered across the bed.
Desperately, I gathered up the squares, undid them, and spread them flat. The crisp edges and sharp corners caught on my fingertips. There were letters signed by Alifair, dating back a year. Others were notes written by Inessa. I read as quickly as I could, slipping in and outof sentences. Alifair had written about the invocations she’d inquired about, ones in the mainstream writ and then others solely used by Felys. I found the letter where he expounded on Mother’s plaque, telling her, as he’d told me, that it featured an image of the immortalities.
The immortalities are a tricksy grave flower,he wrote.There’s a Fely invocation called a roundabout that can be used with them. It lets you add time to your journey—just in case you need it. It can even postpone death if you say it as you crush immortalities. However, they often get you stuck places or put places you don’t wish to be.
Here, Inessa wrote,ANY TYPE OF JOURNEY?
He wrote the roundabout invocation, and Inessa had circled it several times:
Left, right, up or down,
Let me use a roundabout so I may in right time be found.
I remembered Mother saying those words in the garden as she died. It made me sick. She’d been asking for a roundabout, a circling, a stalling for more time. But it’d been too late. She hadn’t the strength to finish it and no immortalities to crush. I didn’t know if the thought comforted me or made me feel worse—the fact she’d wished to stay, just a little longer, with us even though we didn’t truly know her. I turned to the notes drafted by Inessa herself. They were scratched so heavily with her quill that it snagged the parchment, tearing tiny holes in it.
Immortalities—they are not extinct as we presumed. According to Alifair, they grow underground.
The book Alifair guards is written by King Llyr, a Radixan king from long ago. He notes that King Llyr did not wish to die and prepared himself to say the roundabout invocation by always having immortalities’ petals in his possession so he might crush them while saying the invocation.
The invocation has a will of its own, Alifair says. In your hour of death, if it deems you worthy, it might forestall your going in some way. Perhaps for a minute. Perhaps for a year. Perhaps for decades. If it doesn’t deem you worthy, it’ll send you to Bide. Some prefer that option in hopes they might return or for fear of meeting the Primeval Family after a life of wrongs. Should the soul end up in Bide, another may bring it back by burying their likeness with the immortalities while saying the roundabout invocation. It’s a crossbreeding of invocations and grave flowers.
Alifair sent me the locket with the portrait of the king, which I was most happy to receive. What an odious face. He looks like a boiled egg dropped in dirt. I’m glad to have it, though.
It’ll let me implement a grave flower experiment of my own.
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Grave Flower Experiment: Immortalities
I, Princess Inessa Sinet, heir to the Radixan throne, continue the work left behind by King Llyr Sinet to learn the nature of the grave flowers and their possibilities.
