She clutched it tight, realizing dizzily that this was one of the best moments of her young life. To have Glim back. And her mother’s amulet. And hope—she hadn’t realized just how resigned she had become to Umbriel. With no way to contact Treb, she’d tried not to think about him, which was to say not to think of escape. Yes, she’d found what she needed in order to leave, but hadn’t even put them together yet.
She realized she must be grinning as if mad, so she took a moment to compose herself, slipped the amulet in her pocket, and went back to work. She went by the tree-wine vats first, however, and, making certain no one was in the area, flipped open the amulet.
Inside was a little piece of some sort of hide or vellum, and although it was damp, the letters hadn’t run. It was in the private hand that she and Glim had invented as children.
She placed the locket in one of her drawers. The note she dipped in vitriol and watched it dissolve. Then she returned to her cooking station.
She was putting a film on the soup when Slyr came over from her station.
“Could you try this?” she asked. “I’ve been experimenting with condensations of those black, bumpy fruit. I forget what you call them.”
“Blackberries?”
“That’s right. Only they’re not black, are they? Their juice is almost the color of blood.”
“Sure,” Annaig said. She took the spoon, which had little droplets like perspiration on it, and carefully licked them off. They tasted a little like blackberries, but more like lemon and turpentine.
“That’s pretty good,” she said, “at least by the lord’s standards. I should think it would go nicely on white silk noodles.”
“That was my thought,” Slyr said. “Thanks for your advice.” She tilted her head. “I was looking for you earlier. I couldn’t find you anywhere.”
“I went down to the pantry to check on a few things,” she said.
“Ah,” Slyr said. “That explains it.”
But her tone hinted that it didn’t.
Annaig sighed as the woman walked off. Slyr grew more jealous by the day, even though she had learned to hide it pretty well. Slyr seemed convinced that she was trysting with Toel at every possible moment. Sometimes she felt like telling her about Toel’s offer and conditions, but worried that might actually make things worse.
She finished filming the soup, then went back to her work with the tree-wine, thinking she might find the privacy there to open her locket.
She had just reached the vats when she felt a funny scratch in the back of her throat. Her nose was numb, her head was ringing, and suddenly her heart was beating strangely.
“Slyr!” she gasped, stumbling forward. Her lungs felt like they were closing. She shut her eyes, focusing on the taste, the scent, the feel of the stuff Slyr had given her, then leaned against her cabinet, rifling for ingredients. The ringing was growing louder, and all her extremities were cold.
She built a picture of the poison in her mind, tried to think what would settle it, pacify it, break it apart, but everything was happening too fast. She fell onto the table, spilling jars and shattering vials. She let her instincts take over, just operating by smell, drinking some of this, a finger dab of that …
The ringing crescendoed, and she went away.
She came back on Toel’s balcony on a white couch draped with sheets. Toel himself sat a few feet away, looking over a scroll. She must have made a noise, because he turned, smiling.
“Well, there you are,” he said. “That was very near.”
“What happened?”
“You were poisoned, of course. She used ampher venin. Its effects are delayed, but once symptoms develop, it works very quickly. Sound familiar?”
She nodded, realizing to her dismay that under the sheets she didn’t have any clothes on.
“You should have died, but you didn’t,” he continued. “You somehow concocted a stabilizer. That kept you alive the half an hour before someone noticed you lying there. Without me, of course, you would have died anyway, but it is … remarkable.”
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” she replied.
“On some level you did,” he replied. He put his hands on his knees. “Well,” he said. “How shall I have her executed?”
“Slyr?” She felt a stab of anger, bordering on hatred. What had she ever done to Slyr to deserve murder? It was quite the opposite, wasn’t it? She had protected her.
And yet, execution …
He must have seen it in her face, because he sighed, crossed his legs, and sat back in his chair.
“Don’t tell me,” he said.
“She’s just afraid,” Annaig said.
“You mean jealous,” Toel replied. “Envious.”
“It’s all the same thing, really,” Annaig said. “She—I think she is not only afraid for her position here, she also desires your, ah … affections.”
He smiled. “Well, once my ‘affections’ are bestowed, they are not easily forgotten.”
“What do you mean?”
He rolled his eyes. “Are you really so naive? You don’t know?”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“How do you suppose you came to my attention? How do you think I so easily bypassed Qijne’s outer security? Why do you think Slyr fought so hard to save your life?”
“She betrayed Qijne?”
“She saw a chance to rise. I admire that in her—I came from a lowlier position than hers, and my desire to better myself brought me here. She has the ambition but not the talent—you have the talent but not the ambition.”
Oh, I have ambition all right, Annaig thought. The ambition to bring all of you down.
But did she? If she could find some way to destroy Umbriel, could she do it, and doom all of these people?
But she thought of Lilmoth and knew that she could.
Why, then, couldn’t she bring herself to let Toel kill Slyr, who, after all, had just tried to murder her? Who had betrayed her comrades in Qijne’s kitchen to violent death? Surely this was someone who deserved to die.
But she couldn’t say it, and she knew it. It was too personal, too close.
“Let her live,” Annaig said. “Please.”
“The terms remain the same,” he said. “She remains your assistant. What makes you think she won’t try again?”
Because I won’t be here, she thought.
“She won’t,” she told him.
He made a tushing noise. “You really don’t have it, do you? I thought you might be great, perhaps even greater than me one day, but you can’t do what must be done.”
He signed, and one of Toel’s guards pushed Slyr from just beyond the door. The woman’s red eyes brimmed with misery.
“What’s wrong with you?” Slyr asked. “I don’t understand you at all.”
“I thought we were friends,” Annaig replied.
“We were,” Slyr said. “I think we were.”
“That’s beautiful,” Toel said. “Touching. Now listen to me, both of you. Annaig may have no drive, but she is more than a curiosity. She gives this kitchen the edge over the others, and I will brook no threat to her. Slyr, if she slips in the kitchen and cracks her head, you will die in the most horrible manner I can conceive, and I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors. I don’t care if Umbriel himself walks down here and strikes her down by his own hand, you will still suffer and perish. Only her breathing body keeps you alive. Do you understand?”
Slyr bowed her head. “I do, Chef,” she murmured.
“Very well.” He lifted his chin toward a servant in the corner. “When Annaig is steady enough, bring her her
