“I’ll be back before first light. Hopefully.” She kissed his ruddy cheek.
“Where are you going?” Harris asked again, looking worried, tapping his feet under the table.
“To find two lords.”
With that, Dinah rushed out the door, a black cloak swirling after her, her Yurkei guard by her side.
Sixteen
Scurrying through the alleys like rats, Dinah and Ki-ershan made their way from the palace to the lower residences of the court. These small but distinguished houses bordered the sides of the palace, occasionally jutting out like crooked teeth.
The houses of the court were built so that the buildings connected with one another by use of tunnels, hallways, and hidden doors. One man’s kitchen might back up to another man’s bedroom, and walls were thin. They were a perfect little puzzle of gossip, drinking, and other scandalous activity, all of which kept the court very entertained.
Dinah and Ki-ershan ran through the darkness, hiding periodically in crevices and under stoops to avoid Cards or townspeople. After checking their surroundings, Dinah stepped up to a stone house, clustered against several others in the damp evening. She peered at the names posted above the door, written in a muddled scrawl. “Lord and Lady Geheim. That’s so strange. . . .”
One door after another, they continued checking for the two names Dinah was looking for. She was vaguely familiar with which family resided in which homes—this from making endless rounds of teas and tarts with the ladies of the court—but the names she was looking for weren’t here. They reached the end of the row, and Dinah stomped her feet with frustration on the immaculately manicured lawns.
“I was sure that they lived on this row. Sure of it . . .”
Ki-ershan stood silently beside her. She stopped for a moment and ran a hand over her chin, following a thread of memory that linked back to her carefree days of chasing Wardley through these alleys and streets. With a smile, she turned to Ki-ershan.
“Follow me.”
Dinah circled back to the first house she had checked, the residence of Lord Geheim. His door was painted a lovely shade of lavender.
“Lift me?” she asked Ki-ershan. He gave her a doubtful look but did as she commanded. Teetering on his shoulders, Dinah peered closely at the sign overhead and brushed at it with her hand. Black charcoal covered her fingers. Frantically, she rubbed the sign with the cuff of her sleeve. Lord Geheim washed off cleanly, and beneath it, carved directly into the wood, was one of the names she was looking for—Lord Delmont.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Put me down.”
Dinah pulled up the hood of her cloak and pounded on the door. No one answered. She pounded again, this time with repeated thrusts, meant to scare whoever was inside. The door cracked open, and a tiny blond girl with her hair in ringlets opened the door. For a minute, Dinah’s breath was sucked away. She didn’t look anything like Alice, and yet, the blond curls still froze her in place.
“May I help you, ma’am?” the child asked shyly. “What business do you have here?”
“I need to speak to Lord and Lady Geheim, if you please.” Dinah smiled at the girl, who did not smile back.
The door shut in her face with a slam, and Dinah could hear raised voices inside. Lord Geheim eventually yanked open the door and glowered down at her, his wild white hair transparent in the moonlight. He squinted his eyes in the darkness.
“Vagrants! How dare you interrupt my night with my family. What business have you here, in the houses of the court?”
Dinah dropped her own voice to a whisper, hoping he would do the same.
“I need to speak with you, sir. May I come inside?”
“You may not! Get out of here, take your filth and go! Perhaps find a place to sleep, or maybe go whore yourself out to the Spades. I’m sure they could use some warm thighs to comfort them in their barracks.”
He waved his hands as if she was a cat he was shooing away. Dinah stepped forward into the light and let her hood fall from her face.
“Do not come any closer, wretch, or—”
Dinah saw his eyes narrow in confusion and then widen. Geheim dropped to his knees.
“Oh gods, Your Majesty! I apologize. I did not realize it was you!”
Lady Geheim, standing behind her husband, dropped to the ground, followed by the towheaded child. The older man was stammering now.
“I have spoken ill to the queen. Gods have mercy. Your Majesty, please forgive me. Please do not take your anger out upon my family, I beg of you, not for my insolent tongue!”
Dinah walked into the house, Ki-ershan at her heels. It was elaborately decorated, filled with golden trinkets and chandeliers. Like most houses of the court, the family’s wardrobe was in the center of the room, with candy-colored dresses and suits hung on a rotating pulley system. It was surrounded by high-backed chairs, so that the family could admire their belongings as they took their tea. Dinah spied one of her brother’s hats hanging on a lower rung. She cleared her throat as she surveyed the trembling family.
“There is no need for such pleading apologies, though I would ask you to have more sympathy for those less fortunate than yourself. You never know who is knocking on your door.”
“You are correct, Your Majesty.”
“You may rise. I am here to ask about Lord Delmont. Where might he be found?”
Lord Geheim rose to his feet, though his eyes remained glued to the ground.
“I’m sorry to be the one to have to share this with you, my queen, but Lord Delmont is dead.”
“And how did he come to be that way?”
Lady Geheim rose and stepped closer to Dinah. Dinah had spoken with her many times in passing. The heavy makeup she normally wore was washed cleanly from her face, revealing a spry and lovely older woman, with friendly crow’s-feet creeping away from sad brown eyes. Her graying hair fell gently away from her face.
“I am surprised that you have not heard, Your Majesty. Lord Delmont and his family fell violently ill, victims of some disease that lurked in their dinner. Doves, they had that night. Within hours, the entire family was dead. All here, in this house. The cook was executed by the king, and the dove coop burned to the ground.” Her eyes welled with tears. “It was such a sadness. Lord Delmont was a kind man, who loved his family. I heard he had fallen into some debt, but that he was slowly repaying his debts and caring for his family.”
She gave a sob. Dinah handed her a handkerchief from inside her cloak. Lord Geheim looked appalled that his wife would soil an item belonging to the queen, but the crying woman gladly wiped her eyes and nose with it.