The giantess edged away as subtly as an overweight twelve-foot-tall woman can, obviously not at all convinced that the royals would take the request well.
After more muttered discussion, the queen sat up and directed her incandescent purple stare at Baba. “I am more than willing to grant this very reasonable boon, especially since the kidnapping of children is against our strictest laws,” the queen said slowly. “But there is one problem. I do not know where this creature”—she sneered at a sullen and adamantly silent Maya, dripping wetly on the malachite and lapis tiles—“has hidden the small Humans.
“I am, of course, quite willing to torture her until she tells me,” the queen continued blithely. “But that might take some time, and by then, it may be too late to return the children.” She scowled impressively. “And, of course, there is always the chance that I might accidentally kill her in the process. Torture is such an imperfect science.”
She looked around the room, her chiseled amethyst gaze swinging from one elegant, well-dressed aristocrat to another. “If what the Baba Yaga has said is true, and some of my own courtiers are involved in this heinous crime, it would be best if the guilty parties stepped forward and returned the children at once before I am forced to take such drastic measures.”
Silence greeted this announcement. No one moved. Empty stares and blank faces were the only response.
Liam stirred restlessly, but Baba patted his arm to reassure him. Most of her dealings with the wily Maya had been spur-of-the-moment improvisation, but Baba had been laying tentative plans for this part of the process since her first visit to court.
“I believe I may have the solution to that problem, Your Majesty,” Baba said, smiling benignly around the assembled company. “In fact, your own great gifts should lead us to those who have been dealing in secret with Maya, trading their power for the children they now refuse to give up.”
“Is that so?” the queen said, the tiniest suggestion of confusion shadowing her hawklike imperial glare. “In what way, exactly?”
Baba did her best to project absolute confidence; right now, attitude was everything. “When you reclaimed the power that the Rusalka had taken from her misguided partners, presumably you sent it back to its original owners in order to begin to correct the imbalance in the land. Am I right?”
The queen nodded. “Of course.” Unspoken was the word, So?
“As Your Majesty so clearly explained earlier, you are connected to the energy of everything in your kingdom,” Baba went on. “This means you have the ability to scan everyone in the room and see who has suddenly received a major influx of power, say, in the last few minutes. Those people, obviously, will be the ones who gave their power to Maya, and therefore, the ones who have the children.”
She held her breath and stared at the queen, willing her to understand. Around them, there were uneasy rustlings and whispers behind gilded bone fans. Feet shuffled restlessly. A slow smile crept like a glacier across the queen’s face, and one shimmering eyelid slid half closed in a nearly invisible wink as she figured out Baba’s ploy.
“Ah, yes,” the queen drawled. “Very clever, Baba Yaga.” She stood up at the top of the steps and scanned the crowd, one delicate hand moving from one edge of the circle that surrounded them to the other.
Baba gave an imperceptible nod, and the queen’s finger reached out to point. By the time the second person had been speared by that finger, the rest stepped forward on their own, a couple of the women weeping openly, their mates white-lipped and shaken.
Baba breathed a sigh of relief, not caring if anyone saw, and sent out a silent but heartfelt thank you to Alexei, who had taught her the fine art of bluffing at the same time he’d taught her to fight.
“That was amazing,” Liam said, grabbing her hand without seeming to realize it. “I had no idea the queen could do that.”
“Neither did she,” Baba said, “I just made it up.”
Liam blinked. “You what?”
Baba shrugged, too tense to gloat. She’d gambled and won. It could just as easily have gone the other way, and the children been lost forever.
“I suggested that the queen had the ability to sense where the energy returned to, even though I was fairly certain that she would only have felt the energy go—not where it went. Her Majesty is incredibly smart; I hoped that she’d catch on, and we’d be able to trick those who worked with Maya into giving themselves away.”
“But—but, she pointed right at them,” Liam stuttered.