She was due to arrive, just too late for a smooth transition.
A flash of embroidered maroon caught my eye: Matthias rushed through a hallway junction ahead of us, his expression set and intent. I tapped Zola’s arm before she called out, and shook my head, trying not to frown. It wasn’t that he was rushing like the servants; Matthias hurried everywhere. But his expression had also been hopeful and worried, a strange mix.
Matthias never showed his true feelings. He adapted and discarded emotions and sincerity with dizzying speed. Even knowing how close he’d been to Papa, I still wasn’t sure if Matthias presented his real self, or a facade that was easier to interact with. For him to let his emotional guard down like this...
He’d been almost unbearably excited about the Princess’s arrival. ‘You have no idea how Court will change,’ he’d remarked one evening. ‘Lia will cut into the rotten core and yank it out. Vigrante’s allies have no idea what’s awaiting them.’ And he’d been acting oddly as the King’s health worsened: distracted and distant, as if juggling too much in his head. Thanks to Papa’s training, Matthias slid easily through the Step ranks, collecting acquaintances and debts in ways I couldn’t. But his cheerful mask didn’t usually slip –
Lia.
He’d called her Lia. And I hadn’t noticed.
Matthias was Third Step, like Papa had been. Too low-ranked to know the Queen personally.
But only those closet to Princess Aurelia used her family nickname.
A seed of suspicion dropped into my stomach, threatening to sprout tendrils.
Perhaps Matthias did know her.
Like he knew my secrets.
As he whirled around a corner, I turned to face Zola. ‘I just remembered, I have to finish an assignment for Coin. I’ll be done before dinner.’
She tilted her face. ‘The King’s just died. Taxes can wait.’
I snorted. ‘Not according to Coin. I bet he’s in the Treasury, insisting on work as usual, while the rest of the Court panics.’
‘I’m not taking that bet.’ Zola sighed. ‘You work too hard for him.’
‘I want that promotion.’
Zola squeezed my hand. ‘Try and have fun?’
‘Oh, absolutely. I’ll have so much fun, I won’t be able to remember my name.’ I blew Zola a kiss and hurried off towards the Treasury, then cut back towards the direction Matthias had gone until I stopped before an unremarkable wall.
I could be wrong about Matthias. I desperately wanted to be. But something was odd about him today, and I couldn’t ignore it.
No one else knew what Matthias tried to help me with behind closed doors, and I intended to keep it that way. He was sometimes a friend, but mostly a co-conspirator.
But people didn’t know what I was capable of, either, or what I wanted to do to those I hated.
I ran my fingertips down the wall, carefully applying pressure in a sequence until part of it sprung back. I took a deep breath, slid into the gap and, after adjusting to the gloom, started walking.
If my suspicions about Matthias were correct, and he secretly knew the Queen, he wouldn’t use the public halls to go to her.
According to him, the passages went back to the palace’s foundations. While the network was occasionally expanded by a paranoid ruler, the effort mostly went into maintaining the elaborate sprawl, the full extent of which was only known by the ruling monarch, their heir, and the Master of Whispers. No part of the palace was untouched, and the royal wing had several direct escape routes outside.
Matthias had given me some of the basic codes and patterns to start off with. I’d spent months mapping the routes, pretending it was another of Papa’s lessons. He had loved puzzles and ciphers and codes. Every one he’d taught me was a sign of his love. Matthias had said nothing about the royal wing, whose passage sequences worked from different roots, but I’d included it anyway. It was slow, painstaking work, despite everything Papa had taught me, but I’d cracked the sequences.
Most of the passages required an exact pattern to enter and leave, but some of the internal ones only needed the flick of a hidden catch. Each new monarch reset the sequences and patterns, but – as I’d hoped – nothing had changed yet. It was an extraordinary sign of royal trust to know about the passages. When I’d asked Matthias which unfortunate noble he’d wheedled the information from, he’d smiled and changed the subject.
But if the Queen had told him...
What had he told her? Every time we’d discussed Vigrante’s involvement in Papa’s murder, had he been helping me or waiting to use it against me?
My throat tightened with fear. I swallowed, and kept on walking, hoping I’d be right about his most likely route.
I finally reached an exit near the royal wing, counting three hundred heartbeats before I stepped out into the hall. I’d never been so close to the royal wing before, which was guarded night and day.
I peered around the corner, just as Matthias stopped before the guards. He held something out for inspection before they waved him through into the wing.
Spikes of terror exploded from the suspicious seed in my stomach.
Hurried footsteps grew louder from the other end of the hall. The Queen and her mother approached, travel-rumpled and – like the servants – trying to pretend they weren’t hurrying. I caught a flash of brown hair, pale skin, and purple before I bolted back into the passages. I leaned against the wall. Panic twisted under my skin.
After several deep breaths, I followed a route into the royal wing, avoiding the royal family and their guards. The codes and failsafes fell before me, pitifully easy after all my work.
I’d expected the royal wing to be ostentatious. The gilded wallpaper was beautiful, but the design was twenty years old. Everything reeked of old money, long accumulated wealth. I stepped lightly on the carpet. Portraits speckled the wall, not only of the royal family but their in-laws and extended relatives. They watched me as if they knew I didn’t belong.
Around another corner, I faced double doors stamped with the royal seal: the monarch’s public study. I glanced over my shoulder, but I was alone. Still, I could hardly march up and knock. No one entered the royal wing without permission. If I was discovered, the Queen would be justifiably furious.
It was easier to focus on that, instead of Matthias lying to me for years. He’d let me rage and plot and scheme, while all along he worked for the Queen. And if he’d told her I wanted to avenge Papa’s death...
Plotting murder wasn’t a problem – until the Queen discovered it. Then it usually ended in a meeting with an executioner’s axe.
The doors opened. I ducked back around the corner. Matthias stepped into the hall.
Betrayal and fury washed over me in a sweat. My hands tingled. He had lied – to me, my family, perhaps even Papa. He’d never once hinted that he knew the Queen. How long had he been working for her? Years? Had I risked myself, my family, with secrets that could be used against us?
I should control my anger, douse it with rationality and calculation. Instead, I stepped towards Matthias and reached into my skirts. I curled my fingers around the comforting weight of my dagger hilt.
Chapter Three
Lia
I inhaled the scent of spiced tea, then let out a long breath. ‘Who supported Alexandris becoming the Opposition Leader?’ A political problem was always easier to deal with than my family.