I became aware of every guard in the lobby, their perplexed eyes locked upon me, the all-too-inquisitive Auraseer.
“Thank you,” I muttered to the Esten guard and walked briskly to the far left corridor. Once I was out of sight, I broke into a run. My weakened legs threatened to snap like bird bones, and my breath came thinly, but on and on I fled.
Everything I’d just learned spun around in my mind, along with the mystery of where Anton had gone. He was the most notable of his party. Surely, he took a detouring, less obvious route to where his men were meeting—if they were meeting at all. I slid to a halt upon approaching an intersecting corridor to the right. Down that direction and up a flight of stairs was the council chamber. I couldn’t imagine Anton going there. But past the stairs were more branching hallways, and beyond them a library—a place no one would be lingering on the night of a ball.
With no better plan, I took the corridor to the right. As I sprang forward, my headdress fell to the floor. I snatched it up, not bothering to fasten it on again, and kept running. The pearl ropes stung my palms. I felt the faint song of their mother oysters’ deaths, their agony at being ripped open for the jewel in the cradle of their shells.
What torture had the dowager empress also suffered when she was torn from her young children? What had those little boys endured when they were severed from their parents to be raised in hiding?
How had that estrangement altered them?
And what of the Esten king? When Floquart journeyed home, what report would he give of the Riaznian emperor, who in the king’s eyes should have been Anton?
The blow struck my gut again, this time with piercing directness. I stopped short as dizziness assaulted me.
Floquart.
The king’s mouthpiece. The man who came here so readily at Valko’s request, despite all our conflict with Estengarde.
I’d felt the emissary’s greed. He wanted to share in our wealth. He knew his king would. But which brother would that king wish to forge an alliance with? And which brother could be done away with by some cunning means?
The lurking serpent inside me took form, its fangs seeking blood. I put my hand on the wall for support.
Floquart was behind the darkness I was feeling—maybe even some of his men.
Before the night was through, the Esten emissary meant to have Valko murdered.
CHAPTER TWENTY
ON INSTINCT, I SPUN AROUND AND RAN IN THE OPPOSITE direction—back to Valko. I gave myself horrible names. Slow-witted. Blind. Incompetent. I’d left the emperor with Floquart—twice. I prayed the emissary hadn’t already taken his opportunity and poisoned Valko while they were together in the treasury. He could be dying this very moment, and there would be nothing I could do to save him.
I’ve failed in my duty. I’m going to be executed. They’ll bury me beside Izolda. Dasha and Tola will be next. They’ll fail and die, as well. I’ll have more blood on my hands.
I stopped again, realizing where I was. Backtracking the way I’d come would be a slower route to the ballroom. I’d be closer to the main corridor leading there if I kept on in the direction I’d been going. I kneaded a stitch of pain in my side, turned around once more, and forced my legs onward.
My vision flecked with stars. I tried to breathe deeper past the pounding of my heart. Looming ahead were two marble pillars, which marked the crossroad with the spacious main corridor. I slowed when the pillars’ shadows touched me, partly because I was on the verge of fainting, but mostly because my mind seized on Anton as I considered “the neglected crown prince” in a whole new light.
What if, together with his other followers, Anton was also in league with Floquart? What if collectively they’d planned Valko’s assassination and the alliance to Estengarde? Anton wouldn’t have told me, of course. Beyond any distrust, he knew I couldn’t betray Valko. If the assassination failed and I’d known about it and hadn’t warned the emperor, I would be executed, though now I’d surely be killed anyway for sensing the danger too late.
I reached one of the pillars and leaned against it with my shoulder. My chest rose and fell. I stared ahead, past the main corridor, to the path leading to the library.
Would Anton really kill his brother—or allow him to be killed?
When I’d told Anton he should be emperor, did I think he could achieve it without Valko’s death? Had I only encouraged him in a plot he’d devised months ago?
I’d accused the prince of not having the stamina to attain his potential for greatness. Without so many words, I’d called him a coward.
In truth, I was the coward. And that was a name I was willing to own if it meant Valko lived.