A Red-Rose Chain

“Here’s hoping,” said Walther. He leaned back and offered me a wry smile. “You look lovely. Finally, we know what it takes to get you into a dress several times in a row.”


“This is just reinforcing my belief that dresses are a form of torture,” I said flatly. I was wearing the silver spider-silk gown that I had previously worn to Arden’s Yule Ball, back before there had been any whisper of the possibility of war. That hadn’t been a perfect night—they so rarely were—but it had been a better one than this.

“It is difficult to believe we’ve been here for such a short period of time,” said Tybalt. He slid off the bed, offering me his arm. I took it automatically, moving more on autopilot than anything else. He smiled, just a little. “Indeed, if we can bring about a kingdom’s downfall in less than a week, I feel sure Arden will give you some sort of reward.”

“Yeah, like a plane ticket to someplace really far away from the Mists,” said Quentin, emerging from his room. “Maybe a nice tropical island.”

“With our luck, the nice tropical island would be filled with dinosaurs,” I said dryly.

“Still less annoying than what we’re dealing with here,” said Quentin.

“Sad but true.” I paused, pulling my hand away from Tybalt’s arm. “We need to walk to the dining room. Arriving through the shadows makes us look too dependent on Tybalt to do everything for us.”

“Twice you reject me, in quick succession,” said Tybalt. “Truly, my heart is broken.”

“Don’t break so fast. I need you to do me a favor.”

Tybalt raised an eyebrow. “Do tell.”

“The route from here to the dining room is pretty straightforward. Quentin and I aren’t going to get lost if we start walking on our own. Can you take Walther to Ceres? It’s not that I don’t trust you to sneak out, Walther,” I hastened to add. “It’s that Rhys has eyes everywhere, and I’d rather be safe than sorry right now.”

Walther nodded. “That’s actually a good idea. We’ll have to leave May here, but if Tybalt wards the door from the outside, opening it becomes an act of aggression against the Court of Cats. I think we can trust Rhys not to be that stupid—yet. He may get worse once he’s backed into a corner.”

“So we make sure we don’t do that until we’re ready to go in for the kill,” I said, as reasonably as I could manage.

Tybalt sighed. “You are bound and determined to get yourselves killed. Yes, I will take Walther to his aunt, but only if you promise to be careful in walking out without my company to protect you. If you reach the dining hall before I return, you must not go in. That is what I will ask of you, in exchange for my forbearance in this matter. Are we in agreement?”

“Yes, we are,” I said. “I doubt we’ll beat you there, but if we do, we’ll wait.”

“I am a man beset by devils of my own making,” grumbled Tybalt. “Well, Sir Alchemist? Are you ready to call upon your aunt and change the world? Because I am ready to have this errand set and done.”

“Coming,” said Walther. He grabbed his valise as he moved to stand next to Tybalt. “All you have to do is get me to the clearing.”

“Let’s get out of here so Tybalt can ward the door.” I leaned up, kissed Tybalt on the cheek, and started for the exit. Quentin followed. I only looked back once, my eyes meeting Tybalt’s for a brief, painful moment. He didn’t like letting me go alone: that much was obvious to anyone who knew either of us. The fact that he was allowing me to walk away without him for backup twice in one day said more about the direness of our situation than anything else.