Naomi turned to Fitzroy. “Did you hear your father mention anything like that?”
He shook his head. “If he planned that, he didn’t mention it to me. It might be in his letters, but—my father liked to brag. If it was special, he would have told somebody. And he would have used it in other dishes, wouldn’t he?”
But all this speculation was pointless, when we could simply perform a test. “We have to get to the palace kitchens. It’s the only way we can know. We’ll test the ingredients there.”
Fitzroy nodded. “I’ll go tonight.”
“We’ll go tonight,” I said. “You can’t carry everything back here, and you might miss something important.”
“Is that safe?” Naomi asked.
“It’ll have to be.”
The first challenge was getting out of the Fort. My guard was somewhat depleted now, but it wasn’t gone, and people continued to watch both the front gate and the bridge. As queen, I could probably have ordered my way through, but I couldn’t let my guards tail me through the streets. I couldn’t draw attention to the investigation.
In the end, dropping my guards was fairly straightforward, if unpleasant. We all retired for the night, and then left the rooms through the hidden passage we’d found before. Fitzroy distracted the guard placed on the other end, and we emerged slightly damp, but otherwise unscathed.
Leaving the Fort itself was harder, but Fitzroy’s solution was sheer brazenness. With no makeup, wearing plain dresses and coats, our hair in simple braids, Madeleine, Naomi, and I blended into the background. No one would expect the queen to sneak out of her own castle, and so nobody looked too closely when I did. Fitzroy was more noticeable, so he didn’t even try to hide his identity. He strode confidently to the front gate and asked the guard to open it for him and his friends.
“Getting out of harm’s way, are you, Fitzroy?” the guard said. “Can’t say I blame you.”
“Not tonight, Mills. Just wanting to get out of these dreary walls for a while.”
“Can’t blame you for that either,” the guard said. “Wish I could join you. Hang on, then.” And, as simple as that, the front gate opened, the drawbridge lowered, and we escaped into the city.
For the first time I’d ever seen, the palace windows were dark, the sweeping lawns untended and slightly unruly. It looked almost peaceful through the wrought iron fence, undisturbed, the river reflecting the stars.
The gates had been left unguarded, fastened with a heavy padlock. Fitzroy pulled a key out of his pocket and opened it. I didn’t ask where he’d gotten it. “I think we’ll be lucky,” he said. “All the death should have kept away the looters.”
“The looters?”
He raised his eyebrows at me. “The castle is practically lined with gold,” he said. “Of course people are going to take what they can. But the murders probably put them off the idea for a while.”
It wasn’t very reassuring. Surely gold was gold, no matter what superstitions people wove around it. A little unpleasantness wouldn’t stop any otherwise willing thieves.
But as we followed the narrow path down the lawn, we saw no one. The scraps of floating lanterns lay in the grass, and banners flapped sadly between the trees, half ruined by the wind and rain.
“No one’s been here,” I said. “No one’s cleaned up at all.” My voice sounded too loud, shattering the silence.
“Your advisers wanted it left untouched.”
“For the investigation?”
Fitzroy nodded.
We approached the rear of the palace and the double doors that led into the ballroom. Even now, weeks after the event, one of the doors stood slightly open, inviting us in. It was as though the entire palace had been frozen in time, stuck in the moment its court fell.
The door creaked as we pushed it open and stepped inside.
The feasting tables were still in place, but many of the chairs had been knocked backward, the golden plates abandoned on the floor. Doves still cooed in the rafters. Instruments lay abandoned in the corner. And there, there at that table, that was where I had sat, where I would have died if I hadn’t walked away.
Madeleine’s eyes glistened with tears. “So this is it. This is where they all died.”
“This is it,” Fitzroy said. He walked the length of the hall, past the scattered chairs and jewels spilled across the floor.
I turned on the spot, still staring. It was unsettling, to see the hall so empty, so quiet. Disturbed in the middle of a feast and left to gather dust. Someone had clearly made a quick attempt to clean up—removed the bodies, removed the mess—but otherwise, the feast might have simply paused. As though everyone had wandered away and forgotten to return.
“We need to head to the kitchens,” I said. “Do you know the way?”
Madeleine nodded. She led us out through another door, into a corridor lit solely by moonlight. The gilt walls glimmered.
Footsteps echoed from farther down the corridor. I clutched Fitzroy’s sleeve and jerked my head in the direction of the sound. Looters. What would they do if they saw us? Would they recognize me as queen? Or would they see us as rival treasure hunters, standing in their way?
The passage was cluttered with statues and human-size vases. I ducked behind one of the vases and Fitzroy pressed behind me, pushing me even closer against its cold surface, his heart thudding against my back.
Madeleine and Naomi darted behind a statue of two lovers entwined.
The footsteps moved closer. Fitzroy’s breath brushed my ear.
The person came around the corner.
It was Holt.
I gasped, and Fitzroy pressed a hand over my mouth to stop the sound. Holt was striding down the corridor, looking for all the world like he belonged. His cloak flapped behind him.
What was he doing?
I waited until he turned the corner again, and then I slipped out from behind the vase and crept after him. Fitzroy snatched for my hand, but I pulled away. I had to see what Holt was up to. What was he doing here?
Around another corner, and another. Fitzroy grabbed my arm, pulling me to his side. “Stop,” he hissed in my ear. “I know where he’s going.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. Where?
“The shrine to the Forgotten is this way. It’s the only thing down here.”
“There’s a shrine in the palace?”
“Of course. Even if my father didn’t care in the slightest about the Forgotten, he wouldn’t miss a chance to show off his gold.”
I nodded and stepped forward again, but he pulled me back. “Wait. We can look once he’s gone.”
“What good will that be?”
“We can see what he’s done, without him seeing us.”
I wanted to argue further, but he did have a point. If Holt saw us, we’d have no chance of uncovering whatever secrets he was hiding. And he’d know we’d been here, investigating. I couldn’t let him know that, not until we could rule him out as a suspect.