“You’re here.” Maud pulled two keys from her pocket and handed one to me. I turned it over in my hand. The lock was a tumbler and easy enough to pick. “I drew a bath before I came to get you—extra hot, should be all right now—and laid your clothes out. I’ll come get you in the morning.”
She unlocked the door. I peered inside and whistled. The room was simple but nice. A real bed with pillows and quilts stitched like the night sky sat in one corner, and a thin screen painted like a spring woodland split the small room in half. The bath steamed behind it.
“Much nicer than the last one.” I traced a finger along the wooden wall, carvings of bears and deer smooth under my nails.
“With the understood obligation you’ll leave it as you found it.” Maud smiled softly. “I’m betting even nicer than wherever you were before this. My room’s much better than the orphanage.”
“What would you know?” I said, dismissal coming in an instant, but I snapped my teeth together to stop the rest from coming out. Orphanage—that explained a lot. Rath carried everything in his pockets too. “I was never quite sure if I was better or worse off than the orphanage kids.”
“Up to chance—mine wasn’t the worst. Taught me to clean and sew.” She nodded toward the bath. “I’ll wake you up in the morning. Two knocks. You’ve no windows—just the slats in the ceiling—so you only need to worry about the door.”
I hadn’t even noticed, but the roof was open to the night sky, thin pieces of wood missing every few spaces so that slivers of moonlight shone through. A finely woven mesh covered the gaps.
“Thank you.” I held open the door for her, intent on locking it soon as she left, and offered her my own small smile.
Maud stepped outside. Without looking back, she said, “And thank you for not dying.”
“Your continued approval keeps me going.” I closed the door behind her. Definitely a quality tumbler lock but still a tumbler. I paced the room from corner to corner and checked for any hidden passages she might’ve missed. Nothing.
Staring at the dark ceiling later, wrapped in the finest blankets I’d ever touched and cleaner than I’d ever been, I traced the map of scars my lifetime of running and fighting, thieving and fear, had carved into me and smiled.
They’d welcomed me into their house, and I was going to tear it down.
Twenty-One
I dreamed of bells and blood. It was harder to wake up than it was to fall asleep, and I battled with my body for control while staring at the ceiling. The tense, muscle-taut pain of waking before I was ready eased away slowly. The unsettling darkness of the room, broken only by the finger-thin slats in the ceiling, pressed down on me. I rolled out of bed.
Maud’s double knock broke through my hazy dreams.
“Twenty-Three?” She knocked twice again, and the tumbler lock clicked open. “I’m coming in.”
“Sounds good.” I crawled back onto the bed, pulling on my mask, and shuffled around till the shirt I’d slept in was turned right side out. “Light’s weird with no windows.”
Maud held up her tapered candle. “The Left Hand prefer it.”
She lit the lamps while I straightened myself up for breakfast. She waited at the door, lighter smoking in her hands, and shook her head when I stepped forward. I stopped.
“You’re learning etiquette and palace life.” Maud pulled a longer tunic from the pile. “You won’t be in the dirt all day now. You have to impress.”
“All my clothes look the same.” I grabbed the tunic, gesturing for her to turn around. “Black and cheap.”
“I bought the nicest ones,” she said loudly. “They know you don’t have much to work with, but you should at least try.”
Not much to work with, my ass. I yanked the old shirt off and pulled on the tunic. It was nicer with a back hem sweeping to my knees and the hemline edged in dark-gray swirls. The black buttons at my throat were as shiny as my leggings. I definitely looked better.
“I don’t see how this is an improvement,” I said to Maud, gliding past her and out the door. No need for her to get cocky and think I needed her.
She locked the door behind me. “Of course you don’t. You don’t know any better yet.”
I stopped.
“Breakfast is this way.” Smug smile in place, Maud led me down a winding dirt road shaded by a canopy of wire, ivy, and climbing bittersweet. Five entered from a path to the west a ways ahead of us.
“Whose residence is down there?” I rolled my eyes west so Five wouldn’t catch me snooping.
“Ruby’s.” Maud made a sharp, dismissive sound with her tongue.
“Don’t like Five?” If I was going to get back at him for the forest run, I needed to know every little secret and rumor about him. And where he was sleeping.
Maud glanced at me, lips pursed, and whispered, “He’s very demanding, and that is certainly nothing new. It’s our job to do what is asked and take care of what isn’t, but he’s—”
“The very definition of arrogant Erlend?”
“You’re insulting me too, you know?” Maud walked with me the last few steps to the door. “He’s cruel when he doesn’t need to be.”
“Entitled to things always going his way?”
She nodded. I’d be taking care of him soon enough and his servant would be free.
“I’ll have a server bring you a canteen during breakfast, and you can fill it yourself,” she said. “I’ll be busy with other things.”
Two and Four sat together at the table. The others who’d died hadn’t filled as much space in my mind as Three. She’d told me how to stretch, liked strong tea, and now she was dead, gone in a spray of blood and pain no one had the right to suffer. I took my seat across from them and next to Fifteen. Four nodded to me.
“And again.” Four raised his tea to me, the sharp sting of liquor in the air, and downed it in one go. “No more running at least.”
“Here we are, eight of twenty-three.” Ruby swept into the room, holding the door open for Amethyst and Emerald, and took his seat at the head of the table. “I’m sure each of you is dying to know the new rules.”
“They’re the exact same.” Emerald poured herself a cup of dark chicory. “But be polite about it—no mess, no fuss.”
Easy enough. I finished off my plate and accepted the canteen from the server.
“And if you do make a mess, clean it up,” Amethyst said. “Breakfast is still safe. Eat up.”
I poured water into the canteen. Fifteen reached for another plate of food while Five leaned back in his chair, gaze on Ruby.
“You’ll head to poisons first.” Ruby twirled a spoon between his fingers. “You may, of course, skip anything you feel adequately prepared for, but we will be watching.”
“We are always watching.” Amethyst laid a hand on Ruby’s shoulder. “Ruby will teach you etiquette after poisons, and your final training session will be healing. Lady Isidora dal Abreu and I will lead you through basic exercises. Other necessary tutoring will still take place after that. The moment you step outside this room, the competition begins again.”
Good. I still had Elise to tell me where Seve was and what he was up to. Maybe I could even find Shan de Pau.