The Kaiser’s face sharpens and he grips the arms of my mother’s throne. If we were alone, he would take pleasure in killing me himself, but he has to put on his show. He wants them to remember me a certain way, too: the little Ash Princess, small and cowering. But I won’t let him win this time.
“What did you put in the wine?” he asks, his voice frighteningly calm, though I’d imagine he already knows the answer, given the state the Theyn’s body must have been in. He wants me to say it, though. His eyes glint dangerously, matching the pendant around his neck. Ampelio’s pendant. He means to frighten me, but he doesn’t have that power over me anymore. He has already taken everything—my mother, Ampelio, my home. But now I have nothing left to lose and so I have nothing left to fear.
I lift my chin and keep my gaze level on him, unflinching. “Liquid fire that burns the drinker from the inside out,” I tell him. “It’s a merciless death. The throat burns first, you know, so that the drinker can’t even scream as they die.”
Horror flickers across his face for only a second before it’s replaced by hunger.
“Encatrio,” he murmurs. “Where did you obtain it?” he demands, leaning forward.
“There are many who know the rightful ruler of Astrea and were willing to help me. One day soon, you’ll see just how many there are. I only wish I could be there when you do.”
The Kaiser nods to the guard behind me, who steps forward and brings his sheathed sword down hard on my back so that I lurch forward, bracing myself with my hands against the tiled floor as I fall to my knees. I cry out as pain sings through my body and the wounds still fresh from the whipping come open again. One shout breaks through the silent crowd. S?ren. I’m not sure whether his presence is a comfort or not, so I try my best to ignore it. I take a breath before getting to my feet.
I will not die on my knees.
The guard steps forward to hit me again, but the Kaiser holds up a hand to stop him.
“Do they know that you killed the Kaiserin?” I shout so that everyone in the room hears me. “You shoved her out that window. I saw it myself.”
He leans forward, face turning red.
“It was probably you who killed my dear wife,” he spits, motioning for the guard again.
This time, I’m ready for it, though. Just as the covered blade hits me, I drop to the ground, taking minimum impact from the blow while still making it look real. I get to my feet quicker this time, feeling only a dull throb in my shoulder.
“The Kaiserin was kind to me,” I say. My voice wavers, but it’s clear. “She knew what a monster you were. Her hate for you overwhelmed her to the point of madness. Is there anyone, Your Highness, who wouldn’t happily see you dead? How many of them”—I gesture to the crowd behind me—“wouldn’t gladly stab you in the back if they had a chance? They don’t love you, they don’t respect you, they fear you, and that is no way to rule a country.”
“It is the only way to rule a country,” he snarls. “Should I rule through love and compassion like your mother? That didn’t end well for her.”
I clench my teeth. He will not use my mother to bait me. “My mother was a better ruler than you will ever be,” I say instead. “But then, a rat would make a better ruler than you. Even an ant.”
He gestures to the guard again and this time the blows rain down one after another, even after I fall to the ground. The gashes are all open again and my dress is wet with blood. But the pain barely registers. All I feel is fury. It burns through me until my skin feels like fire. When the guard finally steps back again, I am gasping for breath. It takes me longer to get to my feet this time. My legs refuse to straighten, to hold up my weight, but I force them to. Only a little longer, and then there will be no pain. Only my mother. Only Ampelio.
“Bring them in,” the Kaiser commands, waving a hand.
A guard steps forward to grab me roughly by the arm as the door behind the throne opens and two slave girls are dragged in, their hands cuffed together. It takes me a moment to recognize one of them as Elpis.
No. My heart plummets even as I tell myself I’m wrong. It can’t be Elpis. Elpis is on a boat, far away, with her family. Elpis is safe.
But she isn’t. She looks even younger than usual, her round face wet with tears and her large eyes red and frightened. When they find mine, they widen and her tears start anew. I want to go to her, to tell her it’s all right, to fight for her, but the guard’s grip on me is strong.
Two more guards appear behind them, unlocking their shackles. One guides the other girl before the Kaiser. Crescentia’s older slave, I realize. She limps as she walks and the skin around her left eye is dark and swollen. Unlike Elpis, though, she isn’t frightened. She holds herself tall and confident.
“What is your name?” the Kaiser asks her.
“Gazzi, Your Highness,” she says with a wobbly curtsy.
“Gazzi,” he says with a kind smile. “Will you repeat what you told my guardsmen when the Theyn’s body was found?”
She casts a glance back to me, but there is no softness in it. Astrean as she might be, I am not her queen. “I told them that earlier in the day Elpis had answered the door for a visitor. I was in another room, but they spoke for several minutes. I could tell it was Lady Thora—she visited Lady Crescentia so often I recognized her voice. When she finally left, I peeked out from the door and saw Elpis slip a glass vial into her apron. She was smiling bigger than I’d ever seen her.”
“And you didn’t mention this to Lady Crescentia or the Theyn?” the Kaiser asks.
“I didn’t know what I’d seen,” she admits. “I thought maybe it was a present for Lady Crescentia—they were such close friends, it wouldn’t have been unusual. It wasn’t until we were preparing dinner that I saw her take the vial from her apron and tip it into the dessert wine. I asked her what it was and she hit me, Your Highness.” She motions to her bruised eye. “Locked me in a closet. She finished preparing dessert herself, and the next thing I knew, the guards had found me and I told them everything. But it was too late and the Theyn was dead. Luckily, poor Lady Crescentia only drank a sip of wine because she’d had a bit too much of the dinner wine already.”
Only a sip. A sip alone should have killed her. It would have killed someone twice her size. But I can’t imagine they have any reason to lie about that now. Even though I still don’t really believe Cress is alive, my knees buckle with relief.
“Thank you, my dear,” the Kaiser says, before motioning Elpis forward.
The guard shoves her along and her eyes meet mine. I give her an encouraging nod, but we both know what will come of this. To my surprise, the fear dissipates from her eyes. She nods once at me before turning her attention to the Kaiser.
“Do you dispute the charges leveled against you?” he asks.
“I don’t,” she says, her high voice strong and clear. “My queen offered me a chance to help her strike back at the people who have hurt everyone I love. I leapt at it.” She smiles and it is wild and triumphant, despite everything.
But the Kaiser responds with a snap of his fingers and a grin that turns my skin to ice. The guard holding Gazzi unsheathes his sword.
Gazzi is too shocked to do anything before the guard holding her stabs his sword through her back, the bloody point of it coming through her chest. A quick death. My attention doesn’t linger on her. I wait for Elpis’s guard to do the same, but instead, he pulls a vial from the inside of his cloak and removes the cork. Keeping one arm firmly around Elpis’s waist, he brings the vial to her lips.
Her eyes lock onto mine and I realize what the Kaiser has planned. I’ve confessed, yes, but I haven’t told him everything. He’s smart enough to know that.
“Just enough poisoned wine left for one,” the Kaiser says. “You have a choice, Ash Princess. Tell me the truth and I’ll send her to the mines instead. Otherwise…”