Treacherous Witch

30. The Poisoned Goblet

She bit back a familiar irritation. "Why not? What's in there?"

"He didn't say. Just don't open it, that's all he said."

"Why? Why should I stay here and risk my life if he won't even tell me what's at stake?"

"Val..." Iora shook her head. "I'm sorry. I did ask, I promise, but..."

"I'm not mad at you. I'm frustrated at him. There's something going on here, some kind of secret the royal family doesn't want us to know. How did you get into the palace?"

Iora frowned. "What?"

Ophelia had introduced Iora as her lady-in-waiting, specially selected from the maidservants in the palace. She hadn't wanted to raise suspicion by asking about it, but Iora hadn't been on the roster of palace servants before Ophelia arrived. Valerie had worried before that the Salver family was compromised anyway. Lord Avon had told her himself that Koel had given away information on places she frequented, like the apothecary, and that had given him a lead on the resistance...

It had probably led him to Quintus. But wouldn't Iora's family also have fallen under suspicion?

"The palace," she said. "We both know you never worked here. How did you get into Ophelia's entourage?"

"I was recommended."

"By who?"

"I can't—"

"You can't say." She sucked in a breath. "There's a traitor. Someone else in the palace is helping you. Has it occurred to you that I could do my job better if we worked together?"

Iora was trying to help, she knew that. But she hated the way they were going about this.

"It doesn't matter." Iora leaned forward, taking her hands. "We have a plan. At the dinner, tonight."

"Tonight?"

"The pouch."

Valerie looked down at the pouch on her lap. A sudden feeling of unease stirred her. She opened it and drew out a vial made of frosted glass. It looked like a perfume bottle, but when she twisted the golden stopper, she found a thin glass tube designed to administer liquid in doses, like ear drops. Or...

She looked up at Iora and whispered the word, her mouth dry. "Poison."

*

The palace was livelier than she'd ever seen it. More visitors arrived throughout the day: Lord Dryden and a small contingent from Enyr, Maskamery men and women dressed like Drakonian lords and ladies, and others she didn't recognise. Lady Melody was only too happy to name check each and every visitor as they passed through the entrance hall. So even before they were seated for dinner, Valerie had already identified Lord Kreios Silver of Bolebund, a tall angular man with the strong eyebrows of the northern Maskamery—like herself—and one of several suitors introduced to Lady Ophelia.

Ophelia received her suitors' tokens with the air of an excitable girl on her birthday. Valerie watched as Kreios kissed Ophelia's hand and presented her with a beautiful necklace decorated with a tiny silvertree.

"An emblem from my people to yours," he said.

Valerie hated him immediately.

Lord Avon took her arm, nodded graciously at the guests, and led the way into the dining hall. The plates had already been set at the long table, a dazzling array of silverware, along with thirty or forty bottles of red and white wine. It was all rather splendid, but Valerie's eyes darted over the servants lining up by the wall—she caught Iora's eye...