Master Dess sat in the window recess, stroking a small dog in his lap. A third man, likely Sir Maydsin the physician, held the king’s wrist, taking his pulse.
The guards loosened their grips but didn’t let me go.
His Highness leaned forward. “Name the lady you wish to put in your place.”
Say it! I told myself. He may kill me, but say it! “Has . . .” I had to catch my breath. “Has your daughter given you food today?”
“My daughter?” He laughed. Coughed. Laughed again. “You may release her.”
The guards obeyed but remained close.
“Master Dess!” I cried. “Beyond the eastern outer curtain, Masteress Meenore lies wounded. IT may have an arrow in ITs belly.”
“Your Majesty . . .” Master Dess bowed and hurried from the chamber.
“Misyur, will you be so kind as to find my daughter, and don’t tell her what this is about. This girl is always droll. Renn will be amused. We’ll hold the trial here.”
Sir Misyur bowed and left.
“My daughter did share with me a delicious rabbit pie.” He addressed himself to Goodwife Celeste. “She came after you left me for my nap. She is always welcome, but especially when she brings food.”
Goodwife Celeste looked startled.
How much poison in the pie? How soon would it strike?
“Now, while we wait, the girl will mansion the tale with the snake.” He waved the guards away. “Give her space.”
How could I mansion now? I didn’t want to!
Goodwife Celeste nodded at me. I began by turning my cap backward for the bad sister. The imaginary moonsnake oozed slowly from my mouth. How hard it was to concentrate.
When the snake had emerged, I leaped from side to side to get away from it.
The king laughed. The guards laughed. The king coughed. Goodwife Celeste frowned.
After an especially wide leap, I turned my cap to the front to be the kind sister.
“La, Father!” The princess entered with Sir Misyur and two guards, neither of them Master Dure or Master Onnore. “Ehlodie?”
The king patted the bed next to him. “Sit by me. The girl is even more diverting than I thought. She claims you poisoned me.”
“La!”
“It is in her left sleeve! You’ll see. She tried to poison me, too.” Oh no! “She was bringing me—”
“My dear, oblige me by holding out your left arm.”
I was frantic. “If the guards eat my meal, they’ll die!”
“Make her quiet,” King Grenville said.
A guard put his hand across my mouth.
“Father! You mistrust me?”
“I trust you. You are my beloved daughter, but hold out your arm.”
She held it out. He rolled up the long sleeve inch by inch. No poison.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
It had to be there. What had she done with it?
“The other arm,” the king said. “I will be thorough.” He revealed her right arm to us all. No poison.
I bit the guard’s hand. He squawked and let go. “Her purse!”
The guard covered my mouth again.
The king laughed. “She is so funny. Your purse, my love.”
The purse contained only keys.
“That is enough. I am tired of this sport. We cannot keep girls who won’t stay in their guarded towers. Tomorrow—”
Keys! I’d put the tower key in my shoe. I bit the guard again, and he let go again. “Look in her shoes! I’m—”
The guard muffled me again.
“Father!”
“Dear, you needn’t remove your shoes. Tomorrow the girl will die. Poison will be her—” He coughed and put his bedsheet to his mouth. It came away stained with blood, and blood etched a line down his chin.
The guard dropped his hand from my mouth.
What would she do now?
“Father, are you ill again?” She began to untie his cap, a daughterly gesture.
He turned frightened eyes to Sir Misyur. “Look in her shoes.” The inside of his mouth was bright red.
She jumped off the bed and stood.
“Your Highness,” Sir Misyur said, “take off your shoes.”
She stamped. “I will not.”
Sir Misyur nodded to a guard, who approached her.
“You see . . .” She laughed awkwardly. “There is a darn in the heel of my hose. I would not have you see it.”
“Beg pardon, Your Highness.” The guard knelt at her feet. He lifted her right foot by the ankle.
A pouch was in the toe of the right shoe.
“Let me have it.” Goodwife Celeste took the pouch and sniffed inside. “Eastern wasp powder.” She looked at Sir Maydsin. “Deadly.” She rushed out of the chamber, crying, “I have a remedy. I’ll fetch it.”
“La!” Her Highness pulled herself to her full height. Her voice achieved extraordinary heights as well. “I was kind enough. . . . I was kind. . . . I am kind. . . .” Her eyes swam, and her nose reddened. She buried her face in her long sleeve. “Alack!”
Sir Misyur told the guards to take the princess to the tower where I had been kept.
“If the guards there ate my food, they’ve been poisoned, too.”
“Send them here,” Sir Misyur said.
The princess was escorted out, bent over, sobbing.
“Pardon . . . may I leave to find my masteress?”