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Much later, after my heart had been bled dry, I left the hall with my guards. They led me by a different route – one I supposed was meant to avoid trouble, until I found myself outside the greenhouse door. I stopped, awakened by the thought of the Silver-eyed and their taint within.
"Eh, go on," Ison said, giving my shoulder a shove. "Charles and I’ll watch the door, and ye can take as long as ye like. I need to teach him a thing or two, anyway."
I raised my palms, questioning. Why am I here?
Ison shook his dice bag. "Don’t ye worry. I’ll leave him with his weapons."
Charles leaned forward with a smile. "If you do find trouble, just scream. Like the time you found the drowned rat in the armory."
That had been a forgettable memory – in the dark, with my bare feet.
"But do it louder," Ison added. "I barely heard ye, all the way on the other side of the keep."
But why am I here? I shrugged my shoulder and looked around.
"She’s coming, never you fear." Ison opened the door and gently pushed me through.
Inside the greenhouse I moved cautiously, trying to remember the path from earlier. A few small braziers flickered, giving off just enough heat to drive the frost demons away, and just enough light to let the shadows dance on the glass ceiling. I walked past the silent bower, but at the crystalline flowers, glowing with their own cold light, I turned and made my way into a stand of ferns. I found a spot where I could huddle among the fronds, knees to my chin – and for the first time in many days, indulge in solitude.
It had been a common pleasure back at Songless Castle. There was the hayloft, where I slept before the Old Lord died, and there were fields and woods. The castle itself had more rooms than people. Here, though, I was a gilded prisoner, watched constantly by guards. Well-meaning guards, to be sure, but guards non-the-less.
Why had the gods sent me here? Why had they not left my in my comfortable nest of sorrow, at least with people who understood me? At Songless I was a commoner, a servant – but here I was something worse. I was a monkey, a fool, an idiot. I could speak to no one, therefore, it was assumed I heard nothing. Even my childhood friend treated me with contempt.
On the far wall something scraped, and then a light appeared in the wall. I frowned. – a secret entrance? A possible way to escape?
The light moved forward, and then shone upon the Lady Victoria. She wore a gown and gold-trimmed girdle, nothing more. Her curling hair lay on her shoulders; her bare feet pressed the grass. This was who I was to meet, the lady who had rudely scorned my flowers? Her beauty was dazzling, but...
I decided to stay quiet and let her walk past.
But she did not. She paused at a spot not ten feet away and lifted her lantern, thus revealing another secret of the greenhouse. Beyond the crystalline plants there had been dug a shallow in the ground, and at its center was a fish pond. Beside it stood a bench, and on the ground before the bench, Sharp had spread his cloak.
