to it. In the silent space, she could hear nearly every word they spoke.
Jorani sat on the edge of her brother's bed. He kept his expression guarded as he watched Mihael pace. 'You know it was her as well as I do,' Mihael was saying. 'I could overlook the rebels she killed, she had plenty of reasons for hating them. Even Dark's death would have been logical, though I can't be certain she had a hand in it. When Marishka died, I was suspicious of her, but Peto seemed so sure of what killed her. I was foolish to believe him.
'Now Greta is dead. That woman raised me and my sisters. She loved Usabet as much as she would have loved her own daughter. There's no plan of revenge in Greta's death, no reason for it at all except for the pleasure of killing.'
'It may have been an accident,' Jorani suggested.
Ilsabet winced. Was Jorani really betraying her so easily?
'You tell me Greta's death was an accident! If so, who was the intended victim?'
Jorani ignored the question. 'Then again, Peto may be right. The poison may have been for your sister.'
'Who here has the skill to kill so quickly besides you, Jorani?' Ilsabet had no trouble hearing those words, Mihael all but screamed them.
'Quiet,' Jorani cautioned. 'We don't need this conversation to go beyond these walls.'
'Yes, we do. Peto needs to listen. He's so under her spell that he can't understand what she's capable of.'
'Someone may have been trying to kill Ilsabet to prevent a marriage between the ruling houses of Kislova and Sundell.'
'That's preposterous and you know it.'
'Do you really want her dead?' Jorani asked bluntly.
'I want her brought to justice before she turns her attention to me.'
'She wants you restored to your rightful place as ruler of Kislova. So do I,' Jorani said in a concilia-tory tone.
Though he'd kept the means by which this would happen deliberately vague, Mihael suspected the worst. He bristled and headed for the door. 'So you're plotting against Peto as well.'
'Plotting? It's you who sees plots everywhere.'
'I was a fool to come here and speak so frankly. I've undoubtedly sealed my own death warrant, haven't I? Well, Peto will hear of this now whether he believes me or not.'
His voice was so full of hate that Ilsabet risked a look into the room. She saw Jorani rush after her brother, grip his arm and swing him around. Placing both hands on Mihael's shoulders, he said, 'You must let me handle this.'
'You?'
Ilsabet stifled a cry as Mihael's hand fell to the hilt of the long dagger he carried. Jorani was unarmed. She had to do something.
Rushing back to her own room, she set the light beside her bed and ran into the outside hall.
On Peto's orders, guards patrolled the hallways. She ran and found the nearest one, pointing to Mihael's door. 'I heard men arguing in my brother's room. It's late and after what's happened…'
'I saw him go in there with Lord Jorani.'
'Someone else may have joined them,' she said.
The guard nodded, cried for assistance and rushed down the hall with her behind him. At Mihael's door, he paused, not certain how to proceed. Ilsabet pushed past him and flung open the door.
In the few moments since she'd seen the beginning of the fight, Mihael had drawn the dagger. Jorani had managed to get a grip on the young man's wrist, but though he was more powerful than Mihael, anger and fear gave the youth enough strength to resist. The dagger was still in Mihael's hand, Jorani's hand around Mihael's wrist. Jorani had just managed to turn the tip of the blade toward Mihael when Ilsabet barged in.
Jorani let Mihael go. Mihael stumbled backward. Ilsabet stepped aside, and he fell against the guard's blade.
It wasn't a deep cut, one more painful than serious, but Mihael whirled and saw Ilsabet. Certain he was being attacked by a paid assassin, he held up the knife and charged the guard.
'What's going on here!' someone bellowed.
Mihael recognized Shaul and backed off. 'I'm being attacked in my own chambers,' he said and pointed to the guard.
'The baroness came to me and said she'd heard arguing in here and thought someone might be attacking her brother,' the guard said and went on to describe what he'd seen.
'Isn't that your own knife you're holding?' Shaul asked Mihael.
'It is,' Mihael admitted.
Shaul sighed. 'I'll send someone to dress your wound. I'm sure the baron will want to see all of you in the morning,' he said.
'I'll stay with you until someone comes,' Ilsabet said to Mihael.
'Mo! I'd rather be alone.'
Ilsabet looked at Mihael as if he'd lost his mind. 'Please stay with him,' she said to Shaul with an apologetic smile and followed Jorani into the hall. 'We'll sort this insanity out tomorrow.' She spoke loudly enough for Shaul to hear, then went into her own room and bolted the door.
Jorani exchanged a few words with Shaul, keeping his side of the incident as close to the truth as he dared, and went upstairs. There he heard a tapping from the hidden room beneath his floor. As he expected, Ilsabet was waiting for him.
She had lit all the candles and her hair glowed in the light. She wore the same robe as earlier, the lace hem of the nightshirt just visible above her slippered feet. She stood in the corner of the room, flanked by the hanging web-filled globe and the glass bowl of ants, as if she were a part of some deadly tableau.
'Tomorrow morning, Mihael is probably going to accuse you of murder,' Jorani told her.
'I know. I doubt Peto will listen, especially when Shaul tells Peto how Mihael was raving tonight.'
'He was hardly raving,' Jorani countered.
'I know what Shaul thinks he saw.' She picked up one of the candles and held the flame against the side of the glass ant bowl.
'What are you doing?' Jorani asked.
'Watch.' The creatures nearest the heat fled to the surface and milled around, climbing over one another, their legs and antennae flailing. She kept the heat on the side of the bowl for a few more moments, then pulled it back. The ants gradually calmed and made their way back into their nest.
'Fire seems to truly terrify them. The powder is much more potent now.' She picked up the mortar and spooned a pinch of the sand into it. Wrapping a scarf around her face to keep from breathing in the drug, she stood at the table, slipped on some leather gloves and began grinding the sand into a fine powder.
'When they are truly terrified, you need so much less to create complete hysteria in your victim.'
'How did you discover it?' he asked.
'By accident when I held up a candle to get a closer look at them. I tested the powder on the blind rebel leader. He knew what I had done but had no choice. He rushed after me. I stepped aside and he went over the edge.'
Jorani thought of Mihael's accusation. He doubted Ilsabet would tell the truth, but he had to ask, 'Did you kill your sister?'
She looked at him, as if weighing her answer. 'Do you really think I would kill my own kin?'
'Mihael does,' he said. He expected her to be angry. Instead, she continued grinding the sand. 'What are you going to do with it?' he asked.
She held up the pestle, showing him the grinding end coated with the powder. 'Does it look like dust?'
'Quite. But it's such a little bit.'
'It's more than enough.' She smiled as she took a length of hollow reed from the vase in the corner. Using a folded piece of parchment, she tapped the powder into the reed. Laying it carefully on the table, she cleaned her tools, then carried the powder-filled reed to the secret door.
