Bitterblue

'It breaks my heart sometimes,' Bitterblue said, 'the things I can't remember. I don't remember that the two of you were such friends. I don't remember how important you were to us. I only remember flashes of moments when he took you both downstairs to punish you together. It's not fair, that I don't remember your kindness.'

Thiel let out a long breath. 'Lady Queen,' he said, 'one of Leck's cruelest legacies is that he left us unable to remember some things and unable to forget others. We are not masters of our minds.'

After a moment, she said, 'I would like you to come back tomorrow.'

He looked at her with hope growing in his face.

'Runnemood's dead,' she said. 'That chapter is over, but the mystery is not solved, for my truthseeking friends in the city are still being targeted. I don't know how it'll be between us, Thiel. I don't know how we'll learn to trust each other again, and I know you're not well enough to help me with every matter I face. But I miss you, and I'd like to try again.'

A thin line of blood was seeping through another part of Thiel's shirt, high on his sleeve. As Bitterblue stood up to go, her eyes touched on all the parts of the room once more. She couldn't shake the feeling that it was like a prison cell.

BITTERBLUE WENT NEXT to the infirmary. She found Madlen's room warm from the heat of braziers, well lit against the autumn early darkness, and, as always, full of books and paper. A haven.

Madlen was packing.

'The bones?' asked Bitterblue.

'Yes, Lady Queen,' said Madlen. 'The mysterious bones. Sapphire has gone home and is also readying himself.'

'I'm going to send a couple soldiers from my Lienid Guard with you, Madlen, because I'm concerned about Saf—but will you keep a close watch on him too, in your capacity as healer? I don't know how much he actually knows about recovering things from water, especially in the cold, and he thinks he's invincible.'

'I will, of course, Lady Queen. And perhaps when I come back, we can take a look under that cast. I'm eager to test your strength and see how my medicines have worked.'

'May I knead bread once the cast is off?'

'If I'm satisfied with your progress, then yes, you may knead bread. Is this why you came here, Lady Queen? For permission to knead bread?'

Bitterblue sat on the end of Madlen's bed, beside a mountain of blankets, papers, and clothing. 'No,' she said.

'I thought not.'

She practiced the words in her mind before speaking them aloud, worried that they might prove she was mad. 'Madlen. Would a person ever cut himself,' she said, 'on purpose?'

Madlen stilled her rummaging hands and peered at Bitterblue. Then she shoved the mountain of things on the bed aside with one powerful arm and sat beside her. 'Are you asking for yourself, Lady Queen, or someone else?'

'You know I wouldn't do such a thing to myself.'

'I would certainly like to think that I know it, Lady Queen,' Madlen said. Then she paused, looking quite grim. 'There are no limits to the ways people you think you know can astonish you. I can't explain the practice to you, Lady Queen. I wonder if it's meant to be punishment for something one can't forgive oneself for. Or an external expression, Lady Queen, of an internal pain? Or perhaps it's a way to realize that you actually do want to stay alive.'

'Don't talk about it as if it's a life-affirming thing,' Bitterblue whispered, furious.

Madlen studied her own hands, which were large, strong, and, Bitterblue knew, infinitely gentle. 'It's a relief to me, Lady Queen, that in your own pain, you take no interest in hurting yourself.'

'Why would I?' Bitterblue flared. 'Why should I? It's foolish. I would like to kick the people who do it.'

'That would, perhaps, be redundant, Lady Queen.'

IN HER ROOMS, Bitterblue stormed to her bedroom, slamming, even locking the door, then yanking at her braids, yanking at her sling and her gown, tears making silent tracks down her face. Someone knocked at the door. 'Go away,' she yelled, stomping back and forth. How am I to help him? If I confront him, he'll deny it, then go empty, and fall apart.

'Lady Queen,' Helda's voice said on the other side of the door. 'Tell me you're all right in there or I'll have Bann knock the door in.'

Half crying, half laughing, Bitterblue found a robe. Then she went to the door and pulled it open.

'Helda,' she said to the woman who stood there imperiously, holding a key in her hands that rendered her threat a bit overdramatic. 'I'm sorry for my rudeness. I was—upset.'

'Mmph. Well, there's more than enough to be upset about, Lady Queen. Pull yourself together and come into the sitting room, if you would. Bann has come up with a place for us to hide your Sapphire, should things reach a crisis point with the crown.'

'IT WAS KATSA'S suggestion, Lady Queen,' said Bann. 'Do you think he'd go willingly to a hiding place of ours?'

'Possibly,' Bitterblue said. 'I could try to talk to him. Where is it?'

'On Winged Bridge.'

'Winged Bridge? Isn't that part of the city rather populated?'

'He's to go up onto the bridge, Lady Queen. Hardly anyone goes onto it. And it happens to be a drawbridge, did you know? On its near side it has a sort of a room—a tower—for the drawbridge operator. Katsa discovered it the first time she left for her tunnel, for her route took her across the bridge, and she had no supplies that night, remember?'

'Isn't Winged Bridge high enough that practically three fullrigged ships stacked on top of each other could pass under it with room to spare?'

'In a manner of speaking, yes,' said Bann mildly. 'I don't expect there's ever been a need to raise the drawbridge. Which means it's a drawbridge tower no one looks at twice. It's furnished and functional, supplied with pots and pans and a stove and so on. It would be just like Leck to station a man there with no work to do, wouldn't it? His kind of illogic? But it's empty now. According to Katsa, everything is under years of dust. Katsa broke in and took a knife and a few other things, but left the rest.'

'I'm beginning to warm to this idea,' Bitterblue said. 'It'd do Saf some good to sit in a cold room, sneezing and thinking about his mistakes.'

'It's better than trying to hide him in one of our wardrobes, at any rate, Lady Queen. And it would be the first step in moving him to Estill.'

Bitterblue raised her eyebrows. 'You seem to have plans for him.'

Bann shrugged. 'Of course, we would try to help him regardless, Lady Queen, because he's your friend. But he's also a person we could use.'

'I believe his own preference, if he decided to run, would be Lienid.'

'We're not going to force him to go anywhere, Lady Queen,' Bann said. 'A person who doesn't want to work with us is no use to us. He follows his gut. It's one of the reasons he appeals to us, but we know it means he'll do whatever he likes. Tell him about the bridge, won't you? I'll go there myself one of these nights to make sure it suits our purposes. Sometimes, the best hiding places are in plain sight.'

THAT NIGHT, INSTEAD of pushing herself through more embroidery, Bitterblue found herself padding to the art gallery. She wasn't sure why she did, and in her robe and slippers, no less. Helda and Bann had gone to sleep, and Giddon had his own problems. She had a vague sense of wanting company.

But Hava was nowhere to be found. 'Hava?' she called once or twice, in case the girl was hiding. No response.

She ended up standing before the hanging of the man being attacked by the colorful beasts. Wondering, for the first time, if she might be looking at a true story.

A click sounded and the hanging she was staring at moved, billowed. There was a person behind it. 'Hava?' she said.

It was Fox who emerged, blinking at Bitterblue's lantern. 'Lady Queen!'

'Fox,' Bitterblue responded. 'Where on earth did you come from?'