Page 28 of The Ordeals
‘Nothing,’ Alden says. I nod in agreement as Parnell’s gaze sweeps over us.
‘All right. You can all go. But know that the Crown are not happy about this turn of events. First Mallory and now Fernstine. If any of you remember anything further, let me know.’
Alden nods, leaving almost immediately, and Tessa and I stare at each other before she inclines her head to the back of the entrancehall. I follow her, leaning on the wall and bend my head close to hers as she murmurs quickly, ‘Got anywhere with the Ordeal tomorrow?’
I shrug, eyeing her carefully. ‘Have you?’
‘Maybe.’ She raises an eyebrow.
I chuckle, realising what this is, what she’s getting at. She wants to trade. ‘What do you want, Tessa?’
She hesitates, glancing at the dead body of Fernstine, now hidden beneath a white sheet then back at me. ‘You and Alden came third in the Crucible. You’re a strong pairing, and I’m with Greg and …’
‘You’re worried you’re not as strong?’
She bites her lip. ‘Let’s just say, Greg is really great at some things; at others, not so much.’
‘And you want to form some kind of alliance?’
‘Just in the Ordeal,’ she says quietly, eyes flicking over to the medical team as they carry the stretcher out of the hall. ‘Mallory might be dead, but his friends—’
‘Are ruthless bastards?’
‘Exactly,’ she says. ‘And the way you didn’t hesitate to pull a blade on Mallory …’ She chuckles softly. ‘We could use some of that energy.’
I narrow my eyes. ‘I’m listening.’
‘There’s a poison garden here. I found it in my research today. In one of the gardens in those sunken levels. Meet me after dinner by the entrance to Gantry and I’ll take you there.’
I search her features. ‘Why? What do you think is there?’
She smiles softly and pulls a black notebook out of her bag, handing it to me. ‘Here, this is everything Greg and I found this afternoon. He’s going to carry on studying tonight while I check out the poison garden. We figure it’s safer if I’m not alone.’
I accept it, leafing quickly through the pages of her neat handwriting, scanning through the notes she’s made. They appear to beon three separate texts, a botanical guide to the three territories, a renowned botanist’s memoir and the history of Killmarth College. ‘You and Greg removed the sections of books …’ I say, realising I didn’t get to the library fast enough. And to survive in this place, you reallydohave to think laterally. Murdering is prohibited, but there are other ways to knock out the competition. They must have gone there straight after the welcome dinner, as soon as the first Ordeal was announced. ‘Clever.’
There are remarks on the plant life that flourishes in the territory of Theine, the middle territory covered in forests and mountains and mists. There are poisons found there, but it’s in tree sap from towering sherlings with the vivid green leaves, helders with the black, spiny limbs and tiny mauve-coloured mace trees that only grow on the bald side of mountains.
According to Tessa’s research, there is very little in the way of poisonous plants found in Alloway in the guide on the three territories, seeming to be mainly funghi varieties that cause stomach upsets. As it is mostly a territory given over to farmland, I’m unsurprised. Mostly, poisonous plants lethal to humans can be found in our territory, Kellend, in the mostly uninhabited woodland in the middle and north of the territory.
I pass the notebook back to her. ‘I’ll see you tonight, after dinner. Wear sturdy boots. Don’t beat yourself up for not getting to the books first, either. Allies are just as important as knowledge here.’
I study her for a moment, and realise she truly is a valuable ally. ‘We have a deal, Tessa.’
Dusk is a quiet time at Killmarth, lending it a subtly menacing quality. The sky has darkened to a bruise, the sea thrashing angrily,white-tipped waves reaching with impatient, greedy fingers to curl over the rocks and seaweed. The poison garden is outside the walls of Killmarth, hidden from view of both Hope Hall and the castle itself. We have to cross the courtyard, as though leaving to go back to Hope, and skirt the outer walls of the castle over the uneven granite.
‘Should have worn boots,’ I mutter after nearly twisting my ankle for the second time. The rain begins, a slow patter at first, which soon increases to a steady thrum.
‘I did warn you,’ Tessa calls to me as we round the wall to the far side of Killmarth and discover a set of slippery rough steps carved into the rock. Her dark, voluminous hair has come loose from the tortoiseshell hair clip at the nape of her neck, streaming around her brown cheeks. ‘Grandmother insisted I pack a pair. Wouldn’t tell me why. She’s the one who trained me, really. Completed her second Ordeal in twenty minutes flat, the fastest any hopeful has completed an Ordeal.’
‘How did she do it?’
‘She’s a masquier, like me.’ Tessa shrugs. ‘Impersonated a member of the Crown with such startling accuracy, that no one questioned where she went, or what she did.’
I whistle slowly, impressed at the tenacity. ‘Impersonating royalty, that’ll do it.’
She’s shorter than me, so she’s struggling with the deeper steps, needing to crouch down on nimble feet to descend. Below us are a series of gardens, some symmetrical, containing what look to be herbs and root vegetables for the kitchens, as I suspected when I first ran around the edges. Another is framed with gaunt-looking palm trees, the sea air blasting them until they hang crookedly overhead, devoid of colour in this harsh, grey autumn. Every garden we walk through is tidy and well maintained, and I imagine a smallarmy of gardeners and kitchen staff out here each day, with scissors and clippers, steadily taming the wilds in the face of the storms that rattle Killmarth through the cold seasons.
‘According to the history book on Killmarth, it’s in a walled garden. Through a locked gate.’ We turn back and forth, considering which garden to try. They are set at different levels, walled or boxed in with hedges, with no signage that we’ve discovered. I shiver as the rain finds the back of my collar, snaking down my neck to drip along my spine.
