“Do you know of King Randrall the Quiet?” she asked without turning around.
“I think so.” My head felt better, the unwanted pressure gone. I had read about him in one of Lady Mykaela’s books. “He ruled Odalia during the Plantenorth Dynasty but disappeared during his eighty-third naming day celebrations. What happened to him has always been a mystery.”
“He disappeared during his trip to Kion; this is a very important detail because the history books will need rewriting. King Randrall the Quiet briefly rose from the dead. Whoever his assassins were is not certain, but we now know they buried him underneath Falling Leaf, whose gardens and flowers have greatly benefited from his royal compost ever since. Randrall had a very prominent nose, mind, and they were still able to identify the king from the impressive amount of flesh and muscle you brought back along with him.”
I shot out of bed, fear gripping my insides. The colony of rats. The grinning skeleton that had broken through the floor. The inexplicable pain I felt that cut at me like knives. The unexpected release and relief, the sudden weakness that followed—and then remembering nothing after that.
“King Randrall the Quiet proved the lie to his name,” Lady Mykaela continued serenely. “For a corpse, he was quite emphatic. He declared that the then-crown prince was not his son at all but came about as a result of his wife’s liaison with General Bosven, the commander of his army, and if there is one thing constant about the dead, it is that they cannot lie. It would seem that King Telemaine cannot claim to be a descendant after all, though his son still shares the man’s lineage from his mother’s side of the family, centuries of royal intermarriages being what they are.”
“Did I…?”
Lady Mykaela turned to look at me, and I read the answer in her gaze.
“How…how many did I—”
“King Randrall and a little over half of the Ankyon cemetery. You also resurrected some dead rats, a dozen cats and dogs, and disrupted a funeral in progress. There was a small stampede when they realized the guest of honor was clawing his way out of his coffin, but fortunately no one was hurt—much. You have a habit for interrupting burials, don’t you?”
I gulped. “When am I to be executed?”
Surprise bloomed on Mykaela’s face, and she actually laughed. “Executed! Don’t you worry your young head about it, child. No one shall be executing anybody. A term of imprisonment was more likely, but the good thing about being bone witches is that people fear to keep us even in castle dungeons. Prince Kance and I convinced the empress that it was an accident—yes, Prince Kance spoke on your behalf, so you have at least one ally in Odalia. You may be punished by the asha council, however, but they have no desire to expel you from the Willows. I trust this to mean they are still interested in continuing your training. For the present at least. The long-term effects can be far-flung, but it is something we shall have to accept as unavoidable. Even as I speak, Fox is guarding the door outside, ready to defend your honor if necessary.”
“Fox?”
“He brought you here. We discourage people from loitering around the teahouses when they have no business there, but in this instance, I am glad he is quite a stubborn man. He sensed you leaving the Valerian and thought to follow, just in case.”
“I’m sorry.” I couldn’t stop crying. Tears spilled from my eyes, dousing the sheets and blankets in salty rain. I hunched over, hiccupping, and Lady Mykaela left her perch by the window to wrap her arms around me.
“It’s called a seeking stone,” she said softly once the violence of my sobbing had abated. “It finds those with the strongest capacity for magic and amplifies their abilities at the cost of their strength. Draw far more than what you can handle, and there is a danger of burning yourself out, even fatally. It is particularly potent for Dark asha, who by nature draw the strongest spells innately, which explains how it ignored the other asha and drew on you. I found it hidden behind one of the stone pillars outside the room you sat in with Zoya and her friends. All unbound corpses should have fallen the instant you lost consciousness, but the seeking stone kept them sentient and moving, which was how I was able to guess its presence. It is not your fault, Tea. It seems that some people are not satisfied with despising us from afar.”
“But why?” The idea that I could have been killed made me want to throw up again. “What do they want?”
“There are many reasons to despise us bone witches. It may be that they seek revenge against some other bone witch or perhaps one who conspired with a kingdom that cost them their own in ages past. Sometimes it can be no more than listening to the tale of Blade that Soars and Dancing Wind to be inflamed by self-righteousness. More likely, it is a Faceless who entered the Willows undetected and sought to ferment discord. Ankyo would be a good place to start for that, and few people can get their hands on one so rare as a seeking stone. We shall lay low for a while, until people remember to forget again, so if this was their purpose, they have succeeded—for now. You need some time to recuperate from what the stone drained from you, and that means bed rest and no unnecessary work. Mother agrees with me.”
“But whoever attacked me—”
“Shall be dealt with at the first opportunity. Your health is more important than even that.”
“But I feel so helpless.”
“That is usually the rule when you are taken advantage of. You can be the most powerful witch in the land, but you will always have a weakness, and that will always make you believe you have no power when someone exploits it. There is no greater strength than the ability to understand and accept your own flaws.”
“Are we still welcomed in the palace?”
“The empress has always been a staunch ally of ours, and King Telemaine and I are old friends. We’ve known each other for a long time. We met back when he was still a skinny child with a loud, squeaky voice.”
“One of the princesses—Maeve, I think—said something about you.” I didn’t want to upset Mykaela but felt I had an obligation to inform her of anyone who bore a grudge, in light of everything. “She said that you don’t have a heart because—because you’ve given it away, and that King Telemaine only allows you here to honor his brother’s memory.”
For several seconds, Lady Mykaela remained immobile, smooth and alabaster as a statue against the morning light. And then she breathed again and resumed flesh and blood.
“I think you should know,” she said, “the more people you meet in the city, the greater the possibility of you learning of my past, and I would rather you hear it from my own lips, as much as it pains me, than from someone else. I would make myself to be a liar and a hypocrite otherwise, after all my talk about knowing your flaws to learn your strength.”